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Guides · Grains

Rice:
pick the texture first.

Fluffy, tender or sticky is decided by the grain before it ever meets the pot. Choose the texture, then rinse, measure and rest the rice to match.

  1. 01Texture
  2. 02Grain
  3. 03Rinse
  4. 04Water
  5. 05Rest
  6. 06Leftovers

Sources checked OCT 24, 2026

Three bowls of cooked rice: fluffy jasmine, long basmati and glossy short-grain.
Three grains, three textures. The grain decides before the pot does.

01

Fluffy or sticky is decided in the field

Rice starch comes in two kinds, and amylose is the one that matters most for texture. Long-grain rice has the most, 22 to 28 percent of its starch, so it cooks up firm, dry and fluffy. Medium-grain has 15 to 18 percent and cooks softer. Choose the texture first, then the rice.

Reach for long-grain white, basmati or jasmine.

02

Meet the grains

Tap one to load it into the water calculator below.

Small piles of jasmine, basmati, short-grain and brown rice.

03

Rinse off the dust, usually

White rice is milled, which leaves loose starch on the outside. Rinsing removes it. Otherwise it soaks up water as the rice cooks and glues the grains together. For brown rice, rinsing makes no real difference.

One trade-off: most US white rice is enriched with iron and B vitamins, and rinsing washes some of that away. USA Rice says so on its own cooking guide.

Gloved hands swirling rice in cloudy water.

04

How much water?

Recipes don't agree, so this calculator shows the range our sources give for your grain, not a single magic number. Start in the middle and adjust to your pot and stove.

Using a rice cooker? Its cup is smaller, ¾ of a US cup, and the water lines inside the bowl do the math for you.

1½–2 cups water

Long-grain white · About 15–20 min, then rest 10

05

Ten minutes with the lid on

When the water's gone, take the pot off the heat and leave it covered for 10 minutes. America's Test Kitchen lays a clean kitchen towel under the lid to soak up steam and stop stickiness. Then fluff with a fork to let the steam out and keep the grains apart.

A lid lifted off a pot of cooked rice in a cloud of steam. A rice paddle fluffing glossy cooked rice.

06

Leftovers: cool fast

Rice can carry spores of Bacillus cereus, and boiling doesn't kill them. University of Maine Extension's advice: get cooked rice into the fridge within two hours, or one hour if the room is 90°F or warmer. Split it into several containers so it cools quickly, eat it within 3 to 4 days and reheat it to 165°F.

  1. Into the fridge

    In shallow containers.

  2. Eat by

    Reheat to 165°F.