How to Make One Cup of Rice in an Instant Pot
I’m a huge fan of my Instant Pot. With this multifunctional miracle, I can prepare perfectly peeled eggs, crumbly rice and super tasty broth in a very short time. It’s also a great tool for making large batches of anything, but as a person living alone, I don’t always need a large batch of one.
This post is part of the new Small Food, Big Pot series , in which we teach you how to cook small portions of delicious food in a giant Instant Pot.
The Instant Pot now makes a three-liter mini me model designed for one family, but you can’t fit a whole chicken in a smaller insert, and single people deserve whole chickens, too. Luckily, you don’t need a tiny instant pot to make tiny portions. You can use large instant cooking utensils for small meals, and we’re going to show you how to do this by starting with one cup of rice.
To make one cup of rice in a giant instant pot you will need:
- 1 cup white rice
- 2/3 cup rice water plus an extra cup for the bottom of the cooker (this helps the Instant Pot build up pressure)
- 1 tablespoon butter (optional)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Stand for the stand that comes with the stove
- A smaller vessel that will fit inside a larger insert, such as a pyrex or stainless steel bowl.
Pour a cup of water into the bottom of the Instant Pot Stainless Steel Liner and place the stand inside. Rinse the rice and transfer to a smaller bowl. Add 2/3 cup water, oil and salt and place the bowl on the rack. Close the pot and make sure the outlet valve is in the “seal” position. Press the manual button and use the + button to set the time to 20 minutes, leave and do something else. (Use this time to cook some other ingredient in your meal, or maybe watch a rerun of The Office .)
When the cooking time is up and your Instant Pot emits a very aggressive beep, let the rice hang for another 10 minutes before manually relieving the pressure by turning the release valve to the “vent” position. Open the saucepan, let the residual steam sit to the side, and carefully remove the small bowl of rice from the insert using an oven mitt.
Whisk the rice with a fork and serve it to yourself and perhaps to another person in the same bowl you cooked it in. Rejoice in the fact that you’ve cooked a very reasonable amount of rice without doing anything at all. You also don’t need to clean the Instant Pot, which is super cool.