Makes 12 servings, about ¾ cup each
This recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks, Cook’s Illustrated The Best Light Recipe. I’ve made probably 500 batches of rice this way by now and it’s literally perfect every single time. I love that it cooks in the oven, too, because I can just shove the pan in the oven, set the timer, and forget about it. What can I say; I really like it when things cook themselves with no effort on my part :)
To really save yourself some time, make a batch and freeze it in 1 cup portions. Once they’re frozen, put them all together in a big gallon-size freezer bag, break the chunks up (sometimes it helps to let them defrost a little bit first), and throw the bag back into the freezer. This will leave you with a big bag of individual cooked rice grains. That way, if you need a cup of rice as a side dish or to throw into a soup or something, you can just scoop it right out of the bag with a measuring cup. Throw it in the microwave for 45 seconds or a minute and it's ready to eat.
Ingredients:
This recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks, Cook’s Illustrated The Best Light Recipe. I’ve made probably 500 batches of rice this way by now and it’s literally perfect every single time. I love that it cooks in the oven, too, because I can just shove the pan in the oven, set the timer, and forget about it. What can I say; I really like it when things cook themselves with no effort on my part :)
To really save yourself some time, make a batch and freeze it in 1 cup portions. Once they’re frozen, put them all together in a big gallon-size freezer bag, break the chunks up (sometimes it helps to let them defrost a little bit first), and throw the bag back into the freezer. This will leave you with a big bag of individual cooked rice grains. That way, if you need a cup of rice as a side dish or to throw into a soup or something, you can just scoop it right out of the bag with a measuring cup. Throw it in the microwave for 45 seconds or a minute and it's ready to eat.
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| It seems so small but this rice has made a HUGE difference for our family! |
- 3 cups brown rice
- 4 2/3 cups water
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
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| Could this be any easier? |
TWO: Remove dish from oven and fluff rice with a fork. Cover with a dish towel and let stand 5 minutes. Uncover and let stand another 5 minutes before serving.
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| Do you like my fancy containers?... Old butter tubs, hehehe :) |
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| Toss the frozen chunks into a gallon-sized freezer bag and break them up |
Per Serving: 190 Calories, 3.5g Fat, 0.5g Saturated Fat, 0mg Cholesterol, 36g Total Carbohydrates, 200mg Sodium, 2g Dietary Fiber, 4g Protein
This is a game changer! I never prepared brown rice unless a recipe specifically called for it because it was too much trouble and always turned out wrong. Now I will always have brown rice ready in the freezer and I am using it so much more.
ReplyDeleteI am so excited to try this! I hate using "quick" rice because it's nutritionally inferior, but on more than one occasion I've found myself near the end of cooking meal only to realize I forgot to cook the rice - and I don't have another 45 minutes to wait for it. This will be fantastic!
ReplyDeleteThis rice is amazing! I will never have to wait so long for brown rice again! Love your recipes!
ReplyDeleteI just had a quick question...how do you then recommend reheating the frozen rice?
ReplyDeleteAJsMama,
ReplyDeleteI just throw it in the microwave for about 30 seconds to a minute per serving. You could also reheat it in the oven if you don't like to use your microwave. I would say at 300 or 350 for about 10 minutes, stir and check it, and maybe a few more minutes after that. I've never reheated it in the oven so this is just a guess.
Good luck!
~Bri
Put your rice is a stove-top steamer and re-heat it that way. It works perfectly, and tastes as fresh as if you had just made it from scratch, and much more healthy than nuking it in the microwave!
ReplyDeleteBaked brown rice worked fantastic when I lived in TX, but I have not been able to get it to work at all since I moved to UT. I wonder if it has to do with the drier climate here?
What size Corningware do you have? I want to get one but I want to be certain it is the right size for the rice. I didn't see one at Walmart that looked like it would be big enough. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteAmber, it's a 2 1/2 quart.
ReplyDeleteWondering How long you think this is good for in the freezer
ReplyDeleteThanks Jill
I'm not sure, maybe 6 months???? We go through an obscene amount of brown rice in our house so I doubt ours even lasts us 2 weeks. However, when we were getting ready to move we did find a bag at the back of the freezer that could have been in there for a year. We ate it anyway and it tasted fine LOL.
DeleteThiS is the only way I ENJOY making brown rice...I'll leave my rice cooker to the white stuff we serve at parties! Thank you so very much for this tip...it is great!
ReplyDeleteWHAT DO YOU CONSIDER A SERVING?
ReplyDeletenvm lol just saw answer to my question
ReplyDeletehow much more water if I add an extra cup of rice to equal 4C total?
ReplyDeleteHmmmm, a little less than 6 1/4 cups I think. But it might be easier to just do 4 1/2 cups of rice. It is 2 1/3 cups of water for every 1 1/2 cups of rice. So 4 1/2 cups of rice would use 7 cups of water. You would need a really big baking dish for that, though, to make sure there is enough room for the rice. If it is too deep a dish I think maybe the rice at the bottom would be mushy.
DeleteI don't understand the part of the breaking up the chunks. If you were to freeze them in one cup portions separately, why would you then break that up? Or am I reading that wrong?
ReplyDeleteI break it up afterwards because it is more versatile for me to have a bag full of loose grains/smaller chunks so that I can just scoop out whatever measurement I need with a measuring cup. But you could certainly just keep it frozen in 1 cup chunks if you use that size serving frequently.
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