Kitchen Hack (noun): Refers to a shortcut found in the kitchen. A tip or a technique that makes one’s life easier, specifically when it comes to organizing or preparing a meal.
This is another one of those “I can do this in bulk, so why make it every time I need it when I can do it once” types of kitchen hacks. Along with making a big batch of bacon in the oven and making a large amount of shredded chicken in the slow cooker, this is a time saver. This time, it’s making a bunch of rice to use in future meals.
If I’m making a stir fry, then I’ll make rice for that meal while the stir fry is cooking. But if I need rice for a soup or a casserole, then it’s nice when I can just grab some from the freezer and throw it in the dish and move onto the next step.
The instructions can’t be any simpler – just make the rice as the package says. Just make a lot of it. Like 4-5 times as much. Then, boom! You have plenty for your freezer.
Freezing Rice
Ingredients
- Rice (preferably not minute rice)
- Water
- Pinch of salt (optional)
- Butter (optional) – a tablespoon or so, depending on how much rice you’re making. Just adds flavor.
Instructions
Follow the instructions on the rice package, but multiply the ingredients by 4-5.
Typically, you use twice as much water as rice, so if you’re making 4 cups of rice, you’ll need 8 cups of water.
For example, the rice package that I used had me:
- Bring the water in a large pot to a boil.
- Once the water boils, stir in the rice. Add the salt & butter - if using.
- Bring the rice back to a simmer.
- Cover and let cook according to the directions. Bring the temperature back to low.
- White rice will be done around 18 minutes. Brown rice might take 10 minutes more. When done, the rice will be tender, but shouldn’t be mushy.
Let stand for a few minutes, then drain off any excess water.
Let cool and then freeze in smaller portions. I typically do 1-2 cups of cooked rice in a package.
Jayme is a wife to 1 and a mother to three little boys (soon to be 4 next summer!). She coupons, but isn’t super extreme about it. She price matches and loves it! While she likes to cook, she’s in the stage of life where simple is usually better! She never knows how many hands she’ll have free at dinner time! You can find her at No Regrets Living.
Do you know if it’s suitable to eat plain once frozen? My DD loves rice…. but she prefers it plain. I’d love to try this!
Yes! Absolutely! I think it changes the stickiness a little bit, but it’s still perfectly good.
My boys love rice too!
This part does not make sense to me:
6. Cover and let cook according to the directions. Bring the temperature back to low.
7. White rice will be done around 18 minutes. Brown rice might take 10 minutes more. When done, the rice will be tender, but shouldn’t be mushy.
To me, this says you need to cook the rice like the package says (for example, my rice bag says to keep it on low for 45 minutes), then keeping it on low, you cook it an additional 18-28 minutes?
Help?!
Sorry about the confusion — above all else, follow your package instructions! Different rice have different cooking times. Essentially, you just wanna cook a bunch, cool it down, then freeze it!
I’ll re-word to be clear.
Tip – soak rice for an hour in cold water before cooking. The rice won’t break or stick to each other. Takes extra prep time but I like the texture better after defrosting.
Love this tip! Thanks for sharing.