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Crock Pot Rice is a time saver. You set it and forget it for an easy side dish. Make a large batch and store in the freezer for a staple side for any meal.
Crock pot rice is a family favorite and one of my favorite ways to save money. It is a great way to enjoy an easy but delicious gluten free side dish. I can cook an entire pound or two of rice in 1 ½ to 2 ½ hours without ever having to look at the pan.
Sure, cooking rice on the stove is easy, but you have to keep watching it, stirring it, and making sure you don’t burn the bottom of the rice. Make sure you check out all my Crock Pot recipes here.
If you love rice, as much as my family, make sure to check out these other easy rice recipes, Easy Spanish Rice Recipe, Basmati Rice Recipe, Stick of Butter Rice, Dirty Rice Recipe, and easy Fried Rice Recipe.
Table of Contents
Why We Love This Recipe
Cooking rice in the slow cooker is similar to cooking it in a rice cooker. Following these easy steps with minimal effort allows you to cook the best rice with amazing texture.
You can easily add in spices or fresh herbs such as thyme to change the flavor. Make this budget friendly side with any meal.
Ingredients
Scroll to the bottom for the full recipe and ingredients in the recipe card.
Seasoning Variations
You can season it however you want, but I wanted to give you a few ideas to make your slow cooker rice even tastier.
- Chicken broth will instantly give you more flavor in your rice.
- Stir in Garlic Salt – Garlic will jazz up any plain rice.
- Add Butter – Throw in 2-3 tablespoons of butter when cooking the rice for a buttery flavor.
- Stir in Parmesan Cheese – When the rice is finished, add in salt and parmesan cheese. Grated parmesan cheese will melt more smoothly and will make an amazing flavor.
- Mix in Salsa and ground cumin for a Spanish rice.
- Sprinkle in some soy sauce when the rice is finished.
- Stir in shredded cheddar cheese and milk when the rice is cooked for cheesy rice.
- More Ideas – See How to Season White Rice for more ideas.
How to Cook Rice in a Crock Pot
- Step 1 – Rinse the rice with cold water to remove excess starch. Then add the rice in the slow cooker. Pour salt and water over the rice in your crockpot.
- Step 2 – You can do 2-4 cups of rice. 4 cups of rice is an entire 1 lb package so that is what I always do.
- Step 3 – Cook on high heat for 1 ½ to 2½ hours for white rice.
- Step 4 – Fluff with a fork and serve or freeze.
Recipe Tips
- Adding Water – You will want to make sure you have double the water than you do rice. So if you are cooking 2 cups of rice, use 4 cups of water. If you cook 4 cups of rice, you will need 8 cups of water (at least). I always add in a bit more.
- Mushy Rice – Make sure to add the right amount of water. It is best to make sure to wash the rice before placing in the slow cooker.
- Hard Rice – If your rice turns out hard, it could be that not enough water was added to the slow cooker. It also could meat that your slow cooker is set to high or it has not cooked long enough. You can add a little more water and continue cooking to soften the rice.
Serving Suggestions
Long grain rice makes the perfect side dish for any occasion. It is budge friendly and easy to make with these simple steps. We love to serve with Grilling Recipes and Stove Top Recipes.
These are some of our favorite Main Dish Recipes to Serve with Slow Cooker Rice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, and it is my favorite way to cook rice. This is the easiest way to make rice and I guarantee it will turn out fluffy every time.
Store the fluffy white rice in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Leftover rice will last about 3-4 days in the fridge. Reheat leftovers in the microwave.
Then what I do, is divide that crock pot rice into equal containers to freeze. It is the best idea and a must try if you want to save time and money.
It is really so easy to freeze rice. I then can pop my frozen rice in to the microwave for my own cheaper (or free) minute rice. Make sure you read my post on how to freeze rice.
Slow cooker rice is easy to make with any long-grain of rice. Brown Rice, basmati rice, jasmine rice or white rice all very easy to make in the slow cooker.
The type of rice does not change much to the recipe. You will still do the same amount of rice per liquid ratio, but the cooking time will increase.
Brown rice takes about 3 hours to cook on high.
More Easy Crock Pot Side Dishes
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Crock Pot Baked Potatoes Recipe
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Crock Pot Sweet Potatoes
Recipe by Cooking Method
Crock pot Corn on the Cob Recipe
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29 Easy Crockpot Side Dishes
We love this recipe. If you try making this crock pot rice recipe, please leave us a comment or a star review.
Crock Pot Rice
Ingredients
- 4 cups Rice
- 8 cups Water
- 1 tsp Salt
Instructions
- Place the rice on the bottom of the crockpot and season with the salt.
- Pour water over the rice. (You want double the water as rice, so if you have 2 cups of rice, you will need 4 cups of water).
- Cook on high for 1 ½ to 2½ hours for white rice.
- Fluff with a fork and serve or freeze.
Hey Jennifer! This is a big range on the cooking time as each crock pot cooks differently. If your crock pot has a clear lid, check it once all the lid in the crock pot has appeared to be absorbed by the rice. It’s ok to open the lid at the time, you just don’t want to open it a lot during the cook time or it will cool down the crock pot too much. I hope you get cooler weather soon!
1.5 – 2.5 hours is a huge spread. Is it OK to take off the lid to check the rice periodically?? (I frequently make steamed rice on the stovetop and opening the lid to check the rice is verboten.) Excited to try this recipe – we’ve had a spell of blazing hot weather and it has been 80+ degrees *inside* my house for over a week. Needless to say I’m avoiding the stove, but thanks to a conveniently located outdoor outlet I can use the crockpot outside, so this means rice is back on the menu, yay!
I don’t recommend cooking rice on low in the crock pot.
Just a question. Can the rice be cooked on low & for how long?
I’m going to try it!
My rice cooker just doesn’t cook it right anymore and it’s always sticky, even with rinsing and using oil and salt. I’m batching for Sweet & Sour Chicken for dinner tonight and then Veggie Fried Rice over the weekend so I’m cooking it in 2/3 Soy Ginger Ramen broth and the rest water. I really hopes that it turns out and not too gummy from any sugars in the broth or extra ginger paste.
Special thanks to all the people who either left a comment and to those, including Carrie, who answered. It’s really nice to know how some people made adjustments based on experience or taste.
I would do 5 cups of rice with 10 cups of water – This amount should fit fine in a 6 or 8 quart crock pot.
Hi. I need to make enough basmati rice for 20 people. How many uncooked cups of rice would I need and what is the maximum amount of cups you could do in one crock pot? Thanks.
If the rice is gummy, that usually means it’s not quite down yet and I would cook for a little longer.
So glad i seen how to do rice in the slow cooker, such a game changer. I make enough to have for meals for the month.
Just cooked in two 6 qt crockpots your rice recipe for 2 hrs, but cane out gummy, clumping…..even rinsed rice before putting in pots to remove starchiness, but maybe didn’t rinse enough?
This is super easy and simple. The rice has a great texture!
So easy and such a time saver!
Easy and delicious!!
I do this all the time now! Saves lots of time!
Sorry, I have updated the post. I no longer need to use butter or olive oil in my non-stick crock pot. If you have a ceramic insert crock pot, I recommend rubbing approximately 1 Tbsp of butter around the insert before cooking the rice. Thank you!
You didn’t mention hoe much olive oil to use ?
in a 7 quart crockpot what is the maximum amount of rice I can cook. I want to cook enough for 30 people
2 TBS olive oil, brushed inside walls of crock pot.
2 C brown rice (not instant).
5 1/2 C water
Pinch of salt
Cooked on High 2 1/2 hrs.
Came out amazing. I will never make brown rice any other way again thank you for changing meals for this family of 10 !
*1st time I made it, after I turned it off, I added 1 stick of butter 1 C of brown sugar and 1 C milk dash of cinnamon and served it for breakfast all of the Littles loved it.
*2nd time I made it, I cooked it with 6 tsp of Better Than Bullion, a pinch of cumin and a sprinkle of cilantro & cooked shred chicken and served for dinner.
How much rice/water can I make in a 6 quart crockpot?
i use black rice for lunches.
Crock pot prepaid & freeze.
in sandwich bags.
Green steamed vegetables.
Smoothie:
4 oz silk protein nutmilk,
Frozen pitted cherries (hand full),
1 banana, 3 strawberries, 1 tablespoons
Frozen concentration pineapple/orange
Juice. 1 granny Smith apple.
3 tablespoons nonfat Greek yogurt.
That’s ” Wall timer” spelling correction,
Override 🙁
For anyone who has their rice turn out really sticky or gooey, try putting it into a strainer and rinsing it under cold water. This helps to rinse away the additional starch so the rice separates and is usable.
Thanks for this great recipe and the suggestion to freeze the rice! I was apprehensive to use brown rice before finding this because of the cooking time, but cooking a large batch to freeze for later works perfectly.
Not sure what everyone is talking about. I followed this recipe to to the letter and my rice came out fab! Thanks!
I’m going to try this method since I can’t cook it correctly on the stove & believe it or not it doesn’t turn out well in my rice cooker. I’m supposed to eat brown rice & my husband would be happy if he never had to eat any rice again.
No stupid questions here -no we are talking about the bagged rice – not the minute rice. It is much cheaper in the bags.
Hi, this is probably a dumb question but minute rice, instant rice, that’s not the kind of rice your talking about, correct? Should i usethe rice that is in a bag? I have only ever used instant rice in the microwave
Oh man. That happened once for me. I think it was cooked too long. When I shortened the cook time it worked much better.
This did not work for me at all…..it went from watery and not cooked to gummy and disgusting.
There is no dumb question here Basia :). Ours doesn’t really dry out, but if it does, add in two to 3 tablespoons of water before you reheat it. Or we have even added a few tablespoons of butter.
This is probably a really dumb question but how do you reheat your rice without it drying out?
Oh Bri, don’t feel bad. We are all entitled to our opinions. I make rice in the crockpot and on the stove. However, there are often times when I I don’t have 30 minutes to make rice, because the kids need to eat as soon as the get home from school or inbetween activities. However, I can toss it in the crockpot before I leave for the carpool lane, and I love having it ready for me when I get home. 🙂
I am sorry, I suppose I shouldn’t have made my comment. You may delete if you wish. I wrote it with the thought of helping you actually conserve time but that is not the way it appears. It was not meant as an attack of your idea or way of doing things. I do apologize if it came across that way. The internet is so full of people being negative and attacking people and I don’t want to be one of them.
I cook 4 cups of rice (or more) for any meal I need rice in and I always do it on the stove top. In fact, mostly my 11 year old cooks the rice. She sometimes even makes rice for breakfast before I am even out of bed. I see nothing about cooking it in the crock pot that actually saves time or effort. For white rice you bring 2 cups of water per 1 cup of rice in a pan and bring it to boil. Then you pour in your rice, turn onto low, set a timer for 20 minutes, and walk away until the timer goes off. Brown rice is the same except the time is 40 minutes like you mentioned above. In my head cooking rice for 20 minutes or even 40 minutes saves more time than 3 hours. You can still divide and freeze the rice and you saved 2 hours or more of time.
Michele, I think you probably just cookied it too long. I would cook it when you are at home (like on the weekend) so you can get an idea of how long it takes your crock pot to cook it. Then from that day on you will know what a good amount of time is.
I just saw this today, January 12, 2015, posted on my facebook newsfeed. Oddly enough, I was just preparing a post for my blog for tomorrow about my goof-up with making rice in the crock pot.
I used brown rice. It was about 1 1/2 cups of rice and if I remember correctly, I put nearly 4 cups of water in my little 1 1./2 qt crock pot on low. The problem is that when we got home (5 1/2 hours later) the rice was all sticky. I read a recipe recently where the blogger made a chicken and rice recipe in her crock pot but when she used brown rice it got too sticky; she fixed it by using instant brown rice. I have to tell you mine was like mush.
Do you have any ideas for me?