How to Cook Japanese Rice in a Pot

Rice is the main staple food of Japanese people, and is cooked daily in Japanese households. As a staple food, it holds a lot of value in Japanese cuisine and is eaten in many different ways. From being enjoyed along other flavorful side dishes, to being the base of donburi rice bowls, or even being made into onigiri, the possibilities are endless.

In our last post, we showed you how to prepare Japanese rice properly in a rice cooker. While rice cookers are common appliances found in Japanese households, they are not the end-all-be-all to making perfect Japanese rice. You can still make delicious Japanese short-grain rice using a pot over the stove!

These days, there is an increase of people in Japan who opt to make rice in a pot rather than in a rice cooker. The reason for this is, after all, that "the taste is delicious”. When cooking rice in a pot, the rice is heated by slow heat conduction, which makes the rice sweeter, and the material of the pot removes excess moisture, so the texture is firm and the rice itself tastes good.

Of course rice cookers also make delicious rice. They are a useful appliance because they have many functions to allow making fool-proof perfect rice, which we talked about in our rice cooker Japanese rice recipe. However, electric rice cookers range in price from about 5,000 yen to 80,000 yen (read, from around $50 to $800 USD!). If you are looking for a certain level of taste and ulta-high functionality, the market price for a rice cooker starts at 20,000 yen and up. (That is the equivalent to almost $200 USD.) Therefore, rice cookers are expensive! Also, if you and your family do not consume rice often, a quality rice cooker may seem like a steep investment.

Today, we would like to show you how you can make delicious and perfect Japanese rice in a pot every single time. Stay tuned to learn all of our tips and tricks, so that you can get superb results when cooking rice to pair along with other Japanese dishes.