The best rice cooker for 2025

If you’ve ever struggled with mushy grains, burnt bits or inconsistent texture, investing in the best rice cooker for you can transform how you cook rice at home. These smart kitchen tools take care of the timing, temperature and technique, freeing you from stovetop babysitting and delivering reliably fluffy rice every time. Whether you’re making a quick cup of rice on a busy weeknight or prepping for a family feast, a good rice cooker is a game-changer for convenience and consistency.What makes a rice cooker so appealing is how versatile it can be. Many modern models do much more than just steam white rice — they can cook brown rice, handle other different types of rice and even prepare oatmeal, soups and stews. With features like keep warm settings, preset cooking functions, and easy-to-clean nonstick inner pots, they’re built for the modern home cook. In this guide, we’ve rounded up the best electric and multi-use rice cookers to suit every kitchen, no matter your budget or experience level. Best rice cookers for 2025 How we test rice cookers Since rice is a foundation for so many different cuisines, I placed a high value on a machine’s ability to cook different types of rice well. I started testing each electric rice cooker by making a Japanese style, sushi-grade white rice. The appliances that delivered tasty results moved on to the brown rice round, then the top performers made long-grain white basmati as a final challenge. Some models I tested included a steamer basket, but I didn't try all of them out. This is a rice-only party. Multi-cookers and steaming functions are merely a nice bonus in these, although if that's a feature you want, an instant pot might be more your jam. While I weighed rice tastiness and texture as the most important criteria, I also assessed how easy the machines were to use and to clean. That includes things like how intuitive the cooking functions are, whether the inner pot is nonstick and how well the keep warm setting performs. I also took note of helpful kitchen tools that came included like a measuring cup, which is essential when getting the amount of water just right for each cup of rice. Because a cool piece of gear that sits in your cabinet gathering dust is a cool, but ultimately useless piece of gear. I limited my testing to models retailing for less than $300, which felt like the most I could recommend investing in a specialized appliance, and value for cost wound up being the distinguishing point for a good rice cooker.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/best-rice-cooker-120015478.html?src=rss

Jun 24, 2025 - 15:10

If you’ve ever struggled with mushy grains, burnt bits or inconsistent texture, investing in the best rice cooker for you can transform how you cook rice at home. These smart kitchen tools take care of the timing, temperature and technique, freeing you from stovetop babysitting and delivering reliably fluffy rice every time. Whether you’re making a quick cup of rice on a busy weeknight or prepping for a family feast, a good rice cooker is a game-changer for convenience and consistency.

What makes a rice cooker so appealing is how versatile it can be. Many modern models do much more than just steam white rice — they can cook brown rice, handle other different types of rice and even prepare oatmeal, soups and stews. With features like keep warm settings, preset cooking functions, and easy-to-clean nonstick inner pots, they’re built for the modern home cook. In this guide, we’ve rounded up the best electric and multi-use rice cookers to suit every kitchen, no matter your budget or experience level.

Best rice cookers for 2025

How we test rice cookers

Since rice is a foundation for so many different cuisines, I placed a high value on a machine’s ability to cook different types of rice well. I started testing each electric rice cooker by making a Japanese style, sushi-grade white rice. The appliances that delivered tasty results moved on to the brown rice round, then the top performers made long-grain white basmati as a final challenge. Some models I tested included a steamer basket, but I didn't try all of them out. This is a rice-only party. Multi-cookers and steaming functions are merely a nice bonus in these, although if that's a feature you want, an instant pot might be more your jam.

While I weighed rice tastiness and texture as the most important criteria, I also assessed how easy the machines were to use and to clean. That includes things like how intuitive the cooking functions are, whether the inner pot is nonstick and how well the keep warm setting performs. I also took note of helpful kitchen tools that came included like a measuring cup, which is essential when getting the amount of water just right for each cup of rice. Because a cool piece of gear that sits in your cabinet gathering dust is a cool, but ultimately useless piece of gear. I limited my testing to models retailing for less than $300, which felt like the most I could recommend investing in a specialized appliance, and value for cost wound up being the distinguishing point for a good rice cooker.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/best-rice-cooker-120015478.html?src=rss