Martha Stewart's Foolproof Way To Make Perfect Rice Every Time

Making perfectly fluffy rice is a basic life skill everyone should master. Sure, some appliances, like a rice cooker, can help you prepare rice in minutes. However, while rice cookers work so much better than a stovetop, not everyone has one at home. Fortunately, culinary expert and homemaking guru Martha Stewart has a foolproof way of making perfect rice every time, and it uses the more accessible stovetop. In a video she shared on Instagram, Stewart demonstrates her method, starting with combining a cup of water, a tablespoon of unsalted butter, and half a teaspoon of salt into a pot. She then melts the butter and waits for the water to boil before adding a cup of washed rice. Stewart strongly recommends giving the grains a bath, saying it's "a pretty essential step" to remove dirt and thoroughly clean the rice.

Once the water is boiling, toss the rice in and stir. Bring the entire mixture to a boil again, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover the pot and let the rice cook for 16 minutes. Afterward, turn the stove off, but leave the cover on for 10 minutes, so the steam can continue cooking the rice to perfection. At the end of the clip, she notes that the steam will yield "very nice, fully individual grains." She also says that the classic stovetop method cooks the rice evenly, from top to bottom.

Because there is no universal rule for the water-to-rice ratio, it has always been a point of contention among rice makers. Some people practice the 2-to-1 ratio (two cups of water for every cup of rice), while others follow variations of this technique. Stewart herself employs different strategies. In a white rice recipe Stewart shared on her website, she suggests using 1-½ cups of water per cup of rice to avoid soggy grains. However, in her IG post, she recommends the 1-to-1 ratio, which she says will produce rice that doesn't clump. The type of rice you are cooking may require a different ratio as well. In her brown rice recipe, she recommends 1-¼ to 1-½ cups of water per cup of rice.

Stewart is not one of those people who flip the grains from time to time to guarantee evenly-cooked rice. Instead of flipping the kernels while simmering, she fluffs them with the tines of a fork before serving to ensure they don't form clumps after cooking.