The Best Rice Cookers (2024) cook in a better way

Best Rice Cookers, the ultimate kitchen gadgets with limitless culinary potential, have revolutionized the art of rice preparation. In the days before the advent of gas or electric stoves, rice enthusiasts relied on traditional stone pots atop kamados, fueled by charcoal or wood. Mastering the delicate balance of fire control was essential to prevent scorching dishes. However, with the introduction of modern metal pots on gas stoves, achieving the perfect rice texture still necessitates precise heat management to prevent any undesirable browning.

Traditionally, medium-high heat and the right amount of water are used to cook rice on a stovetop. When the rice comes to a boil, the heat is turned down to low, and it cooks for about 10 to 15 minutes. Finally, the heat is turned off, which lets the steam take in or evaporate any leftover moisture. Even though this method seems simple, it can be difficult to get regularly good results.

But if you have a rice maker, you don’t have to guess and the process is easier. Even on the busy nights, a rice cooker makes it easy to make a bowl of fluffy sushi rice. It also lets you cook a lot of rice at once, which is great for making grain bowls or fried rice to eat all week long. Rice makers are easy to use and clean, and they make sure that the rice is always good every time.

We did a lot of testing on more than 20 highly ranked rice cookers to figure out which one was the best. After making a lot of cooked rice, we found one recipe that stood out as our favorite and always turned out the best. In the parts that follow, we give you more information about our top picks and explain how we tested each one.

Best Rice Cookers Comparison Table

Zojirushi 3-Cup Rice Cooker

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This rice cooker is great for people who have never used one before because it is easy to use. The user only has to wash and drain the rice, add the right amount of water, and press a button for the rice to start cooking. White rice took only 21 minutes and brown rice only 38 minutes to cook. There was a small layer of crispy rice on the brown rice, but it wasn’t that obvious.

This rice cooker is great for a family of up to six people because it has a 9-inch width and can hold 3 cups. Even though it is less complicated and smaller than our winner, the style is not changed. Still, it’s easy to lift the pot out of the body, and the rice is easy to scoop up. This rice cooker comes with a steamer basket, so it’s easy and quick to make a whole meal.

Dash Mini Rice Cooker

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The Dash Mini Rice Cooker is also a good choice for people who are just starting out, and it works well in small areas like dorms and AirBnBs. With a width of 8.5 inches and a height of 6.5 inches, you can take rice with you wherever you go. It took 35 minutes to cook the white rice, but the water level was a little too high, so the rice was lumpy and sticky. This is one of the Best Rice Cookers.

If there had been less water, the rice would have been fluffy and soft. The brown rice, on the other hand, took 55 minutes and was soft and fluffy with a thin layer of crispy rice at the bottom. This is a no-brainer for college students who want to cook in their dorm or small room. It’s small and can hold 2 cups.

Zojirushi Induction Heating System Rice

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There’s not much wrong with this Zojirushi, but if you’re not used to cooking rice in a precision rice cooker, you might be surprised at how long the cook times are. White rice takes about an hour, but brown rice can take up to two hours, which might seem like a long time to people who are used to cooking things faster.

We think, though, that this problem will go away once you get in the habit of starting your rice first or using the timer function. The quality of the rice will be worth it, we think. Aside from that, it would be great if it didn’t cost more than $300, but what can you do?

Toshiba TRCS01 Rice Cooker

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The Toshiba TRCS01 is often compared to the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy NS-ZCC10, a popular model that often tops other review sites (Editor’s note: We’ll be throwing a lot of alphanumeric model numbers at you because a lot of these companies make a lot of rice cookers and we want to make sure you’re finding the one you’re looking for). In a blind test, the TRCSO1 and Neuro Fuzzy produced equally chewy, fluffy, and tender white and brown rice.

While the Neuro Fuzzy has some advantages over the Toshiba (that retractable power cord<3), we felt that the Toshiba is the best programmable rice cooker for most American consumers, and we recommend the higher-end Zojirushi models for people who will use all their features. This is one of the Best Rice Cookers.

Hamilton Beach Programmable Rice Cooker

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The Hamilton Beach 37548 rice cooker surprised us with how well it did in all of our tests. It kept up with much more expensive rice makers. Even though it had a much simpler control panel, fewer settings, and a less flashy exterior than its competitors, it was just as good at cooking long-grain rice as it was short- and medium-grain rice, and it was the clear winner when it came to cooking brown rice.

It also cooked rice faster than anything else on the market. We think the Hamilton Beach 37548 is the best rice cooker for most homes because it works well and doesn’t cost too much. This is one of the Best Rice Cookers.

Cuckoo CR-0655F Rice Cooker and Warmer

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The Hamilton Beach 34758 and Cuckoo CR-0655F rice cookers worked well in all of our testing. The Cuckoo is pricier than the Hamilton Beach, therefore we only recommend it for serious rice cooks. Another rice cooker worked somewhat better than the Cuckoo CR-0655F, but its greater price made us recommend the Cuckoo. This is one of the Best Rice Cookers.

The Cuckoo performs well, has a tiny kitchen-counter footprint, a stylish design, and several cooking presets, including one for germinated brown rice (GABA). The Cuckoo’s control panel isn’t as intuitive as we’d like, but once you get used to it, you can customize how long to soak, heat, and cook rice, which is especially useful for cooks who buy and eat different types of rice, including “new crop” rice.

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