How to Fix Mushy Rice (With 7 Recipes)

Are you tired of ending up with mushy rice every time you cook it? Learn how to fix mushy rice with these easy step-by-step instructions and recipes.

Rice is a popular kitchen staple, but it’s easy to end up with overcooked, saturated or mushy rice. Here are some useful —  and sometimes surprising — solutions for how to fix mushy rice. Plus, some suggestions for using your recovered rice.

The main reason rice turns mushy is too much water. The key to all our solutions is removing that excess water to return your rice to its desired state. To minimize the risk of mushy rice, always double-check your rice-to-water ratio and suggested cooking times. Too much water will leave your rice gooey, mushy and soggy. But fear not! Your rice can most likely be saved.

Why is My Rice Mushy?

Along with an excess of water, there could be other reasons why your rice hasn’t turned out. Somushy rice. What might be the cause?

• Did you forget to rinse the rice? Ideally, the rice should be rinsed before cooking. This will produce lighter, fluffier rice (this is also a healthy practice, as it reduces traces of arsenic and traces of dirt or dust).
• Did you guess the amount of water to use? Rice doesn’t need a ton of water. Keep with the suggested amount on the packet or the ratios suggested by your rice cooker if using one.
• You’ve cooked it for too long. Rice should be cooked specifically to time, as it will continue to cook once off the heat. Ideally, you need to serve the rice immediately to avoid it clumping or turning mushy. Don’t keep it warm.
• The rice is of low quality. Cheap rice may be low quality and have a tendency to spoil more quickly than higher quality rice.

But if you’re staring at a pot of mushy rice and wondering what to do, fear not. We have some ideas.

How to Fix Mushy Rice

Our handy list of tips goes from the simplest to the slightly unusual but hopefully will have your rice fixed in no time.

1. Take the lid off the rice, and take it off the heat, letting the excess water evaporate.
2. If more water than the above allows, drain the rice with a sieve. You could also run cold water quickly over it.
3. Rinse, then place in an oven-safe bowl and bake at 350°F (177 °C) for 5 minutes, until the excess water is baked off.
4. Evaporate the excess water in a microwave. Transfer to a microwave bowl and pop on a high temperature for 3-5 minutes.
5. Now here’s the odd one. Place a couple of slices of bread on top of the rice. It may sound peculiar, but the bread will take moisture from the rice, helping its recovery. Drain the rice, or use the evaporation method first. The dryer the bread, the better. This may take a couple of minutes to work. Remove the bread and fluff up your rice.

If the rice is too mushy for the above to work, you could repurpose it. Alternatively, if you don’t want to change recipes, you save the mushy rice in the freezer and make a new batch.

Delicious Rice Recipes

Now that you’ve learned how to fix mushy rice, you need to know what to do with it! Rice is versatile, so you have lots of options. Here are a few of our favorite ideas for rice:

1. One easy way to get rid of excess water is to fry it. Choose your favorite veggies and throw together a stir-fry, or try this quick and easy veggie fried rice recipe.
2. Mushy rice is perfect for rice pudding. Here’s a black rice pudding recipe that you can easily adapt for white rice too.
3. Take advantage of the stickiness by making this quick and easy mango sticky rice.
4. Add it to a more detailed recipe, where it will get mixed with other flavors, like this Lebanese mujadara recipe with lentils.
5. If you’ve fixed your mushy rice and it’s good as is, serve it with a mouth-watering vegan chili.
6. Do you like spicy food? Throw it in a curry. Try this tasty tofu and vegetable curry recipe to treat your tastebuds.
7. Cook up a batch of veggie burgers. You can add some of your rice to a number of burger recipes; just mix a few spoonfuls in with other ingredients. The stickiness may help the texture of your burgers.

If you’ve got leftovers, check out these recipe ideas for leftover rice.

Read more:

• How to Make Fluffy Rice Perfect Every Time
• Are Sprouted Onions Poisonous? Here’s What You Should Know
• Is an Olive a Fruit or a Vegetable? The Answer Might Surprise You

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