What to Cook With Rice — 12 Easy Meals

Most rice problems come from too much water, too much heat, or lifting the lid too often. The absorption method — a 1:1.5 ratio of rice to water, brought to a simmer, covered, and left completely undisturbed for 18 minutes — works reliably for long-grain white rice without a rice cooker. Once you understand the ratio and the resting step, rice becomes completely foolproof.

For specific dishes, the approach changes: risotto uses a constant liquid addition method that breaks down the starch deliberately; biryani uses parboiled rice that finishes in steam; fried rice needs day-old cold rice so the grains are dry enough to fry rather than steam. The recipe pages cover these techniques in full.

The fastest rice meals use either pre-cooked rice or very fast-cooking rice varieties. Egg foo young — the Chinese omelette — takes 12 minutes and is one of the best quick rice accompaniments in this list. Arroz con pollo can be on the table in 30 to 35 minutes if you use boneless thighs and a wide pan that cooks everything quickly.

When you're short on time, a bowl of day-old rice, two eggs, soy sauce, and whatever vegetables are in the fridge makes a complete fried rice in 8 minutes. It's not on this list as a standalone recipe, but it's the single most useful thing to know how to do with rice.

Egg foo young is traditionally served over or alongside steamed rice, and the combination of the thick omelette and the savoury gravy over plain rice is one of the best quick meals in this collection. The recipe works equally well as breakfast, lunch, or a light dinner — it's fast, high in protein, and uses ingredients you almost certainly already have.

Great for: a quick weeknight dinner, using up leftover rice, a high-protein meal in minimal time.

Arroz con pollo — Spanish for chicken with rice — is one of the most complete one-pot rice meals you can make. The rice absorbs the cooking liquid from the chicken and the sofrito, taking on colour and flavour throughout. It's the kind of dish that looks like it took much longer than it did and reheats brilliantly the next day.

Great for: a complete one-pan family dinner, meal prepping in bulk, a dish that's genuinely better on day two.

Risotto has a reputation for being difficult or time-consuming, but the technique is actually straightforward once you understand what you're doing. The constant stirring and gradual liquid addition breaks down the surface starch of Arborio rice, creating the creamy, saucy texture that defines the dish. You cannot rush it — 22 to 25 minutes of consistent attention — but the technique itself isn't demanding.

Risotto alla Milanese, made with saffron, is the most classic version. Once you can make that well, every other risotto is a variation on the same process.

This saffron risotto is the benchmark version — butter, onion, Arborio rice, white wine, saffron-infused stock, and parmesan. The saffron turns the rice a deep golden colour and adds a floral, slightly honeyed flavour that makes it completely distinct from any other risotto. It's traditionally served with braised ossobuco but works as a standalone dish.

Great for: learning the risotto technique properly, a dinner party side, a vegetarian main with a good salad alongside.

Mushroom truffle risotto uses the same technique as the Milanese but adds a deeper, earthier flavour profile through a combination of wild mushrooms and a finishing drizzle of truffle oil. The truffle oil goes in right at the end, off the heat, so the flavour stays bright and doesn't cook off.

Great for: a special occasion dinner, impressing guests with something that sounds far more complicated than it is.

Some of the world's most celebrated dishes are built around rice cooked with meat, vegetables, and aromatics in a single vessel. Biryani, maqluba, and chana masala served over basmati are all in this category — complex, deeply flavoured meals where the rice is part of the dish rather than a side.

These take longer than the quick options above, but most of the time is passive. They also scale well and are better the next day, making them excellent candidates for batch cooking.

Chicken biryani is one of the most fragrant and satisfying rice dishes in the world. The technique — marinating the chicken in yoghurt and spices, par-cooking the rice separately, then layering and steaming together — sounds complicated but is well within reach of a home cook following a detailed recipe. The result is extraordinary.

Great for: a weekend cooking project, an impressive meal for guests, making enough to eat well for several days.

Maqluba is a layered Palestinian rice dish that's inverted onto a plate to reveal its contents — chicken, rice, and fried vegetables arranged in alternating layers. The reveal moment makes it impressive at the table, but the flavour is what keeps people coming back. Warmly spiced, deeply satisfying, and distinctly unlike anything in the European cooking tradition.

Great for: cooking something genuinely different, a celebratory meal, feeding a large group from a single pot.

Chana masala served over basmati rice is one of the best budget meals in this collection. Tinned chickpeas, tomatoes, onion, garlic, and a handful of spices produce a deeply flavoured curry that tastes far more involved than the ingredient list suggests. It's vegetarian, high in protein and fibre, and the leftovers improve overnight.

Great for: budget cooking, vegetarian meals with real substance, batch cooking for the week.

Rogan josh is a slow-braised Kashmiri lamb curry that's traditionally served with plain basmati. The deep red colour comes from Kashmiri chilies — flavourful rather than aggressively hot — and the sauce builds complexity through whole spices and a long, unhurried simmer. Serve over rice with a simple raita on the side.

Great for: a weekend curry dinner, making ahead because it improves the next day, a richly flavoured meal that justifies the cooking time.