Ever tried cooking steamed rice with an Instant Pot? This post will teach you an easy, fail-proof method to make perfectly plump and shiny Japanese steamed rice in an Instant Pot, every single time!
Steamed rice is an essential part of the Japanese meal. If you don’t own a rice cooker but have an Instant Pot in your kitchen, you can definitely consider using this smart device to make rice for your Japanese dinner. Today we’ll go over how to make rice in an Instant Pot, along with some important tips that I’ve learned from my experiments.
Watch How to Make Rice in an Instant Pot (Instant Pot Rice)
Ever tried cooking steamed rice with an Instant Pot? This post will teach you an easy, fail-proof method to make perfectly plump and shiny Japanese steamed rice in an Instant Pot, every single time!
The 3 Dilemmas Before Making Rice with the Instant Pot
Before I go straight to the Instant Pot Rice recipe, I want to tell you why it took me a long time to share this post. If you follow my blog for some time, you probably know that I have my Instant Pot for a while and I love using it to make various dishes.
But why haven’t I used my favorite Instant Pot to cook steamed rice? Here’s why I had avoided using the Instant Pot to cook rice:
1. The rice sticks to the bottom of the inner pot.
Having shiny, slightly sweet, plump, and delicious Japanese rice is the true comfort and luxury for me, so I am willing to spend a little more to purchase short grain Japanese rice from Japan (currently enjoying rice from Kyushu region). When I heard from others about rice sticking to the pot, I determined that I would not cook my precious rice in the Instant Pot. Not one piece of rice would go to waste in my house.
2. The Instant Pot is for the main dish.
Since I use the Instant Pot mainly to cook the main dishes, it’s impossible for me to use it to cook rice at the same time. Unless I am using two Instant Pots for this matter.
3. My Zojirushi rice cooker does an amazing job.
A rice cooker is an essential appliance at Japanese household. My Zojirushi Induction Heating Rice Cooker makes perfect rice every time, and I can even schedule the finished cooking time so the rice is always ready for dinner. That’s another reason why I didn’t need my Instant Pot to cook rice for me.
Finally, the Testing
For the past 3 years or so, I’ve received numerous requests from readers who wish to learn how to make perfect rice in the Instant Pot. Some of you even wrote me a very personal email that I just felt that I had to give it a try. After all, if I could save hundreds of people from wasting their rice, it’s worth my effort.
I’ve tried two methods:
- Manual pressure cooking with different time periods and natural release timing.
- The preset “Rice” mode on the Instant Pot.
What I Learned – 5 Most Important Tips to Make Japanese Rice in the Instant Pot
1. Soak rice for 20 minutes.
I tried both soaking rice and skip soaking rice prior to cook rice in the Instant Pot. Whether it’s cooked in manual mode or “Rice” mode, when I didn’t soak rice, it did not become tender all the way through.
This is probably the only difference between cooking other types of rice. I often get asked why we need to soak Japanese short grain rice. Unlike the other types of rice, Japanese short grain rice is plump, and it takes time for the moisture to go through. Therefore, we always soak the rice first, giving the dry rice a head start in absorbing moisture.
2. Drain rice really well.
After soaking the rice in water, you will need to make sure that rice is completely drained and no excess water is left in the rice. If you don’t drain it well, you actually end up with more water while cooking the rice.
3. The ratio for water to rice is 1 to 1.
The golden rule for the ratio for Japanese short grain rice to water is 1 to 1.1 or 1.2. So if the rice is 180 ml (1 rice cooker cup), you will need 200 ml water.
When the rice is cooked in the Instant Pot, the steam does not escape from the pressure cooking. Therefore, the best ratio for the rice to water is one to one.
4. Cook in high pressure for 2 minutes.
After testing a few different variations, the best cooking time for short grain rice is 2 minutes on high pressure. I’ve also tried using the “Rice” mode on the Instant Pot, which is set to 12 minutes on low pressure. As both manual and “Rice” mode takes 5 minutes to pressurize, “Rice” mode takes extra 10 minutes to cook.
5. Natural release for 10 minutes and then release the pressure.
Because we do not want “mushy” texture for rice, we must release the pressure from the Instant Pot after 10 minutes. The rice is still being cooked during this natural release stage, but 10 minutes is plenty of time for the rice to finish cooking. After 10 minutes, there is not much pressure left, so you don’t need to worry about releasing the pressure.
Final Thoughts
With the above methods and tips, you can make perfectly plump and shiny Japanese steamed rice in an Instant Pot. My personal preference is using the manual mode as it’s 10 minutes faster than “Rice” mode and the texture of the rice was perfect.
Does the rice stick to the bottom of the pot? Well, surprisingly not when you open the lid right after 10 minutes of natural release. I can fluff up the rice nicely without any question.
The only caveat is you do have to serve or scoop out the whole pot of rice immediately after it is done cooking. There is enough moisture inside the pot that you can fluff and spoon out the rice smoothly without it sticking to the bottom.
However, if you leave the rice inside the inner pot for some time, the rice sadly sticks. And it’s become a hassle to remove the remnants of cooked rice. You would end up having to soak the inner pot in water. It does come off clean eventually, but there is no way I could save the last piece of rice in the Instant Pot (Update: if you buy this non-stick inner pot, no more waste!).
Would I continue to make rice in the Instant Pot? I would not, because I really don’t like wasting my rice. I much prefer to cook the main dish in the Instant Pot that goes well with steamed rice that’s cooked in the rice cooker. Two important appliances that could go hand in hand.
For those of you who are preparing main dishes with other cooking methods like roasting, pan-frying etc, you can definitely cook your rice in the Instant Pot. Maybe you don’t cook rice very often and prefer not to invest in a rice cooker. Or maybe you’re cooking a large batch of rice in advance for freezing purpose. Then go ahead to use the Instant Pot. That’s what this post is for, and I hope you find it useful.
Will you cook rice in the Instant Pot? Let me know in the comments below.
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Ever tried cooking steamed rice with an Instant Pot? This post will teach you an easy, fail-proof method to make perfectly plump and shiny Japanese steamed rice in an Instant Pot, every single time!
- 1 ½ cups uncooked Japanese short grain rice (360 ml, 2 rice cooker cups (2合), 300 g)
- 1 ½ cups water (360 ml)
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Measure the rice, submerge the rice in water, stir the rice around with your hands, and drain quickly. The first water should be drained as fast as possible since the dry rice would quickly absorb moisture. The first water is not clean and should not be absorbed.
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Rinse the rice under cold water, by gently rubbing the rice with your fingertips in a circling motion. Submerge the rice in water and pour out the starchy water.
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Rinse and repeat until the water becomes clear. Soak rice in water for 20-30 minutes.
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Here's how the rice looks before and after soaking for 20 minutes.
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Drain water completely. Set aside for 10 minutes. If you don’t have time to wait, then shake off the excess water the best you can.
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Transfer drained rice and measured the amount of water in the inner pot of the Instant Pot.
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Make sure the rice is evenly distributed and flat. Close the lid.
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Set HIGH pressure for 2 minutes. Make sure the steam release handle points at “sealing” and not “venting.” The float valve goes up when pressurized. When it’s finished cooking, the Instant Pot will switch automatically to the “Keep Warm” mode. Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes and then proceed with quick release (DO NOT EXCEED. I recommend to set a timer.) by turning the steam release handle to the “venting” position to let steam out until the float valve drops down. Hold a kitchen towel and do not place your hand or face over steam release valve. The steam should be left only a little bit after 10 minutes of natural release.
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Fluff the rice with a rice scooper and serve warm.
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The best way to store Japanese rice is to freeze, even if you use it the following day. Read this post.
Rice Mode: 5 min (pressurize) + 12 min (low pressure) + 10 min (steam)
Manual: 5 min (pressurize) + 2 min (high pressure) + 10 min (steam)
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
I use the non-stick ceramic insert for my instant pot when cooking rice. I’d highly recommend it if you don’t like your rice getting stuck and wasted!
Thank you Greg for your suggestion! I wasn’t aware of that or maybe heard of it and completely forgot about it. I just took a look and it is only $20!
https://amzn.to/2BooQ6P
Thank you so much! My rice cooker is up to 5 cups. If I need to make more than that, Instant Pot will be my second source to make rice for sure and this inner pot will be very helpful!
Very interesting and useful. Thank you for the effort and sharing your experience.
Maybe you can help me with a question I’ve been asking myself for quite a while. Why is the soaking water discarded in every recipe I know? Couldn’t the rice simply be cooked in the soaking water directly if it was measured correct? I know it’s a small quantity, but I simply don’t want to waste water. Besides that I won’t have to use an additional bowl just for soaking.
Because you want a clean and clear looking and tasting rice. I reuse the water in my garden and the plants love it!
Love the environmentally friendly advice!
Hi Nat! Thanks for asking your question!
1) If you had been cooking with non-clear water, and try cooking with clear water for the first time, you will notice that it’s less starchy, less sticky coating (…hard to describe) around the rice. I sometimes feel it when I rush to rinse the rice and cook with slightly white water.
2) In general, it’s not recommended to wash the rice in an inner rice bowl as it’s non-stick and you don’t want to damage – it will start scraping from the side after many uses (but we can purchase just the inner bowl to replace). Also, make sure to wipe off the inner pot around with towel before insert in the device.
Hope that helps!
Thanks for the reply.
I wash the rice before soaking in a separate bowl until the water runs clear. After a 30 min soak the water doesn’t seem starchy. But it doesn’t matter – I was just wondering
Thank you for your feedback, Nat! 🙂
Okay. Question time.
IN the main article, you state “One (1) cup rice to one (1) cup water.” In other words, equal ratios of rice to water. This seems simple enough.
But in the recipe given, as well as the notes in the video description, you state two cups rice to one and a half cups of water– which is a 3 to 4 ratio.
It’s a bit confusing. Do I use equal parts of rice to water (assuming I follow all other steps), or do I use the 4 rice to 3 water ratio that the recipe is calling for? (It doesn’t help that apparently 2 cups of rice = 360 ml, and 1.5 cups of water is also 360 ml. Very confusing, that one!)
I ask mostly because I just got one of the non-stick pots for my IP, and am very interested in trying it out…
Hi Robert! Sorry about the confusion but I know where you got confused from.
My recipe says 2 “rice cooker cups”. Now 1 rice cooker cup is 180 ml, so 2 cups is 360 ml.
In Japanese cooking (as well as all my rice recipes), we count rice by “rice cooker cup” or “go 合” in Japanese which is different from American cup (240 ml) or Japanese cup (200 ml). It’s the transitional way of counting volume of rice, and the rice cooker cup that comes with Instant Pot (I think it was included?) is always a 180 ml cup.
Hope this make sense.
And it does now. Missed just two little words… the water measurement seemed a bit small, I hadn’t caught that you were using two different kinds of cups. Ah, well…
It’s basically 2 rice cooker cups of rice and 2 rice cooker cups of water. Both 360 ml for instant pot. 😊
When you make in rice cooker, instead of 1:1, it should be 1:1.1 OR 1:1.2…
Oh, well, as far as my rice cooker is concerned, I have a much better way to calculate the water to rice ratio even than that!
I fill to the line on the side of the inner pot. Because that’s why I usually use a rice cooker! ^-^
Me too!!!! 😆
I’ll have to try your method. I also tested various ways to cook Japanese rice in the IP. My method is 6 minutes on low pressure, then release when done after 10 minutes. I’d like it to be done in 2 minutes. I also have a dedicated rice cooker but am trying to downsize my appliances.
Hi Loree! Let me know how it goes! Make sure to soak the rice, then 2 minutes will work. One thing I did not try is to cook less rice or more than 2 cups rice… If you make more/less, you may find the result different. I’d love to know if your feedback. 🙂
Nami, thank you for taking the time to figure this out. I cooked Japanese rice in my IP only once with a pot-in-pot recipe. The rice came out mushy. As a Japanese-American, I thought this was completely unacceptable! 🙂 I fell the same way you do about cooking the main meal in the IP and the rice in my trusty 20+ year old rice cooker. Appreciate the tip about the nonstick inner pot. I will check it out. Thanks for the yummy recipes!
Hi Diane! Rice is very important to us, and I’m very passionate about making (and eating!) really good rice. 🙂 My rice cooker is 5-cup max, so I think my IP will be helpful when I have to make more than 5 cup rice at once. I received many requests from my readers who don’t own a rice cooker but wish to make rice. I’m glad the IP can make a perfect rice this way. Thank you for following my blog!
I always steam jasmine rice, brown rice and sticky rice (aka sweet rice) in my Instant Pot. I do it using a Pyrex bowl so no rice is ever stuck to the pot. I believe this is called the pot-in-pot pressure cooking method. I have not tried it with Japanese rice yet. Cleanup is easy. If there is uneaten rice, I just put a lid on the bowl and stick it in the fridge. Now I feel like running out to get some Japanese rice!
Hi Melodie! Oh yeah, I heard of the pot-in-pot method. Thanks so much for sharing it with us!
Hi Nami san, I found your website when I was looking for azuki recipe for instant pot. Since then I love your recipes and following you.
My Tiger rice cooker bought in Canada about 10 years ago is doing just ok job, so I’ve been thinking whether I should get Staub rice cocotte or use pressure cooker to make rice then just in time, you put this cooking rice in instant pot recipe, so I tried and rice tasted much better than my old Tiger rice cooker.
When I was thinking to use instant pot to make brown rice mix with white rice 1:2 the other day, my friend found this post saying don’t use pressure cooker to make brown rice…
https://komenana.com/genmai-hatugagenmai/
Maybe if I use rice mode to make brown rice, it might be ok since it doesnt use high pressure…..
Nami san, what do you think about making brown rice with pressure cooker?
Hi Eri-san! Hmm! Interesting! Thanks for sharing the article. I haven’t had a chance to read the further articles provided in the article yet, but it’s interesting. We sometimes eat combined brown rice like you too. 1:2 or 1:3, depending on the food we eat, but I always use my Zojirushi rice cooker to make rice. I saw articles not too long ago about pressure cooking brown rice, but don’t remember reading something harmful in the articles. The “Rice” function on IP is low pressure. But I had never tried it with brown rice…
I’m glad to hear IP made a better rice than your Tiger rice cooker. By the way, my favorite way to make rice these days is to use Kamadosan (donabe). It’s amazing. I’ve tested with just “okay” rice and it came out pretty amazing too. I should not eat too much rice, but I can’t help eating more shiny and delicious steamed rice (from Japan) cooked in Kamadosan… oishii…. simple happiness. If you have a chance to try, I highly recommend cooking rice in a kamadosan. Life changing!
Arigatougozaimasu!
Kamadosan sounds amazing.
It doesn’t look like I can get it here, so next time when I go back to Jp, I’ll check it out…
Hi! Would you need to adjust anything at all when using Jasmine rice here?
Hi Missy! I had never cooked Jasmine rice, and since it is so different from Japanese short grain rice, I would suggest following the right instructions. I’m sure you can find the perfect instruction specific for jasmine rice online. I wish I can help, but without making it myself, I wouldn’t know…. sorry Missy!
No worries! I’m still excited to try this with Japanese short grain. I’ve been surprised how finicky it has been to cook rice in the Instant Pot successfully.
Hi Missy! This process works, but not as convenient as you have to naturally release after 10 mins etc… but if the Instant Pot is the only device to cook rice, I totally think it makes great rice with right texture etc. Just never skip soaking Japanese rice. It’s a very important part. 🙂 xo
Thank you for this very helpful post! I live in Japan and because of limited kitchen space, I only have an IP and not a rice cooker. I have had a hard time figuring out the best ratio/time to cook Japanese rice in it. Your soaking instructions make a lot of sense.
I do have a question, though: what would you recommend for 玄米 ? I nearly always cook with brown, short-grain Japanese rice instead of white. Would love to hear the changes you would make for cooking time, etc. Thank you!