Garlic Rice is the easiest, best tasting side dish that you can serve with anything! From roast chicken to chops, stir fries to fish, Middle Eastern to Mexican food, this buttery rice is so flavourful you can eat it plain. Have some tonight, freeze some for later!
Garlic rice
Garlic Rice is one of my most-used side dish recipes and I feel a little selfish for keeping it to myself all these years! It’s a rice side dish that’s quick to make and literally goes with anything. Any cuisine, any food type. From an Argentinian Chimichurri steak to Chinese Char Sui Pork, French Ratatouille to Moroccan lamb meatballs, a slow roasted Greek Lamb Leg to Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken, I challenge you to think of a dish that this Garlic Rice wouldn’t go with!
Think of it like mashed potato. Or the rice version of everybody’s favourite garlic bread! Or – an easier version of fried rice. Make it today and heat it up tomorrow, keep a stash in your freezer. It’s just as much at home on your dinner plate as it is as part of a big buffet.
No sauce required
One specific thing about this Garlic Rice is that it’s flavoured enough to eat without smothering with sauce, like saucy stir fries and plain white rice. Here’s an example of what I mean – a dinner plate with Lime Chicken. I’d ordinarily serve it with something that stands on its own two feet, like Mac and Cheese, Potato Salad, or maybe some roast vegetables or hefty salad like my favourite Quinoa Salad.
But Garlic Rice is much faster to make!
Ingredients in garlic rice
So – hard sell done. 😂 Here’s all you need to make Garlic Rice!
Rice types – This recipe will work with long grain (my default), medium grain, short grain (sushi rice) or basmati.
Not suitable as written for brown rice, jasmine rice, wild rice, black rice or faux rice (cauliflower rice, quinoa etc). Jasmine rice can be made as Garlic Rice but you’ll need to follow the preparation steps per the recipe (rinse + less water).
Butter (unsalted) – The cooking fat of choice, for lovely buttery flavour. We use half to sauté the garlic that the rice is then cooked in, then the other half is stirred in at the end. Maximum butter flavour!
I used unsalted butter which is my default for cooking because then I can control the amount of salt from other ingredients. If you only have salted butter, skip the salt in the recipe.
Extra virgin olive oil makes a lovely alternative to butter. Use 4 tablespoons.
Garlic – Garlic minced with a knife will sauté better. A garlic press/crusher works ok here because we are using enough butter (garlic is wetter so doesn’t sauté quite as well unless you use plenty of fat). Jar garlic paste, however……don’t talk to me about that stuff! Sour, wet and barely resembles the flavour of real garlic!
Liquid chicken stock/broth OR water + stock powder – This rice really is tastiest made with liquid chicken stock/broth. It’s a standard pantry item for me which I stock up on when it’s on sale because I use it so much in my cooking.
However, as a cost effective alternative, stock powder plus water can be used. Use whatever amount the jar specifies. Usually it’s 1 teaspoon of powder plus 1 cup of water = 1 cup of liquid stock.
My favourite stock powders for this recipe:
1. Vegeta vegetable seasoning
2. Knorr Chinese chicken bouillon powder – cleaner, less “fake” chicken flavour than Western ones
3. Any other chicken or vegetable stock powder
How to cook garlic rice
It’s just like cooking plain rice – except we start with garlic butter, and finish with more butter. 😇 You know this is going to be good!
❗️No need to rinse the rice unless you are worried about cleanness which, if you purchase rice in packets from grocery stores, should not be a concern. Rinsing is not required for fluffy rice. What you need is the correct water to rice ratio: 1 1/2 cups of liquid for 1 cup of rice. Most recipes get it wrong! Read more about why you don’t need to rinse in How to Cook Rice.
If you insist on rinsing then reduce the stock by 1/4 cup – to account for the waterlogged rice. Else your rice will be overly soft and not as fluffy as it should be.
My default way to cook rice is on the stove but the recipe notes includes directions for rice cooker and oven.
Sauté the garlic in half the butter for 30 seconds or until it turns light golden and smells amazing.
Coat rice in that awesome garlic butter until it becomes a little translucent, like we do with risotto!
Steam 15 minutes – Add the stock and salt, turn up the heat and bring to a simmer. Once you see bubbles on the surface of the water, immediately put the lid on and turn the stove down to low (or medium low if you’re using a weak/small burner). Then cook for 15 minutes.
Rest 10 minutes – Take a quick peek to ensure the water has been absorbed. Then remove off the stove – lid still on – and rest for 10 minutes.
Butter and fluff – Fluff the rice, then toss the butter in and fluff through until melted.
Optional parsley – Also fluff the parsley through, if using. Little green specks looks pretty but doesn’t add anything for flavour, so it’s optional. Then it’s ready to serve!
Quick tips
Use a large saucepan or small pot (~24 cm / 10″) – we’re making 2 cups of rice which is 6 cups cooked. If your cooking vessel is too small, the depth of the rice will be too high which means it will take longer to cook and the rice will cook unevenly (the bottom layer is soggier).
A clear lid saucepan is super useful for rice cooking because you can see what’s going on! ie Ensure water is simmering, can check to ensure the water has been absorbed without lifting the lid.
DO NOT STIR, DO NOT LIFT LID while the rice is cooking! That is the surefire path to mushy, unevenly cooked rice.
DO NOT skip the resting time! This is super important – the rice is actually not fully cooked even once the water is absorbed (try some, you’ll see). Also, the rice is wet. During the resting time, the rice finishes cooking and the water on the surface of each grain gets absorbed. There is no shortcut for this!
The most versatile recipe I’ve ever shared?
This really may be the most universal recipe I’ve ever shared. I honestly can’t think of a single dish that it wouldn’t go with – except, of course, recipes where starch is already built in, like pasta, pizza etc.
Make this tonight and freeze some for later.
I hope you love it as much as I do. And use it Forever! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Garlic rice
Ingredients
- 50 – 75g/ 4 – 5 tbsp unsalted butter , divided (Note 1)
- 5 garlic cloves , finely minced (Note 2)
- 2 cups white rice (uncooked) – long grain, medium grain, short grain (sushi rice) or basmati (Note 3)
- 3 cups chicken stock/broth , low sodium (stock powder option – see Note 4)
- 3/4 tsp cooking/kosher salt (or 1/2 tsp table salt)
- 1 tbsp parsley , finely chopped, plus extra for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- No need to rinse the rice. The rice will be fluffy because this recipe uses the right ratio: 1.5 cups liquid for every 1 cup of rice.
- Sauté garlic – Melt half the butter in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Once foamy, add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds until it turns light golden.
- Coat rice – Add the rice and stir for 30 seconds or until the grains turn translucent.
- Simmer – Add stock and salt. Turn heat up to high, then once the water starts bubbling, put the lid on and immediately turn the stove down to low (or medium low, if your stove is weak/small). (Note 5)
- Cook 15 minutes – Cook the rice for 15 minutes. No stirring, don't lift the lid.
- Rest 10 minutes – Tilt the saucepan and have a quick peek to ensure all the water is absorbed. Then remove off the stove, with the lid still on, and rest for 10 minutes.
- Fluff rice, then fluff through remaining butter until melted. Toss through parsley, then tumble into serving dish. Sprinkle with extra parsley then serve!
Recipe Notes:
1. Butter – I provide a range because more is tastier (and I fully endorse it), but the lower end of the scale is the minimum for a tasty dish that some might consider to be more sensible for a Monday night dinner. 🙂 2. Garlic minced with a knife will sauté better but a garlic press/crusher works ok too – garlic is wetter so doesn’t sauté quite as well. Jar garlic paste, however, don’t talk to me about that sour stuff! 3. Rice types – This recipe will work with the listed rice grains. Not suitable for brown rice, jasmine rice (you can add garlic butter to the jasmine rice recipe), wild rice, black rice or faux rice (cauliflower rice, quinoa etc). Alternative method – Cook brown rice etc per recipe. Sauté the garlic in butter, then tip the cooked rice in and toss in the garlic butter. Flavour infusion not quite as good but still extremely tasty! 4. Liquid stock will give a better flavour but a good substitute is to use stock powder plus water. My favourite is Vegeta, a vegetable stock powder. Chicken stock and other brands of vegetable is also suitable. To use stock powder, make this recipe with 3 cups water (750 ml) + stock powder for this amount of water per the jar instructions (usually 1 teaspoon per 1 cup water) + 1/4 tsp salt (NOT 3/4 tsp per recipe, rice too salty). 5. Rinsing is not the secret to fluffy rice, the correct liquid to rice ratio is (1.5 cups liquid: 1 cup rice). However, you should rinse if you are concerned about rice cleanliness (if you buy in packs at grocery stores, you shouldn’t be) or if you just can’t break the habit. But if you do, you MUST reduce the stock by 1/4 cup, to account for the water logged in the rice. If you don’t, your rice will end up overly soft and slightly mushy. 6. The liquid should have small bubbles / actively rippling when the lid is on and the stove is on low/medium low. If the heat is too low and the water is doing nothing, then the rice is just sitting there, bloating in hot water instead of cooking! 7. Other cook methods:
- Rice cooker – Follow the recipe up to stirring the rice in the garlic butter. Then scrape it all into the rice cooker, add the stock and salt and cook per the rice cooker instructions.
- Oven – Follow the recipe up to bringing the stock to a boil in a pot. Then pour it all into a casserole pot with a lid. Bake for 35 minutes until liquid all absorbed. Rest 10 min with lid on, then fluff, stir through butter and parsley.
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
I shared a fun little RecipeTin Meals organisation diagram on Instagram over the weekend. Everybody reports to CEO Dozer! 😂
Hi Nagi
Could I add Mushrooms to this? I’m a mushroom rice fan and just wondered if I could perhaps saute mushrooms and add when its resting?
This is amazing with eggs scrambled or over easy for breakfast too.
Made this tonight and OMG its absolutely so easy to make and so delicious. My husband did ask though if we were trying t keep the vampires away tonight 😂
Oops…and garlic of course🤭
Hey Emma, a shame you won’t be tasting the delicious garlic rice☹️. I take your point about garlic and butter making anything taste good…so here’s to butter and rice🥳 🎉🎊😁.
Is it me or does anyone else wonder what Emma cooked for dinner? ha ha. We all have bad days, but garlic rice with gobs of butter makes my tummy say yum yum! It’s delicious. Please slowly back away from the kitchen, Emma and put the knife down.
The garlic rice improves any meal. So simple too!
Nagi,
Your site and Asian recipes are fantastic. (For Italian and French cooking I mostly have my own).
This recipe is very similar to one used by Craig Claiborne which is in his Kitchen Primer. Differences: he uses onion instead of garlic, adds parsley and bay leaf, and cooks in the oven at 425F for 25 minutes (broth to rice ratio same, butter same except it all goes in at the outset). It produces separate grain buttery rice (Emma would not approve) every time.
One needs to leave out the bay leaf when using for Asian/Indian dishes – doesn’t go. I like it much better than risotto alla milanese when fixing osso buco.
i made this and used finely chopped coriander stalks instead of parsley. It was excellent and ill be using it with alot of my cooking that has rice.
Nagi-I am a huge fan of your recipes and they make me look like I know what I am doing in the kitchen. Thank you for that! Question-I am normally a stove top rice expert. But, we recently moved and our new stove top (Induction) makes the worst rice. I finally bought a rice cooker so we could continue to have rice. How would you adjust this recipe to a rice cooker? (Many, many, failed pots of rice on the stovetop. Makes me so sad.)
Morning Sharron! How odd – how is the induction different I wonder? Heat control is supposed to be so precise!! For the rice cooker, just follow the recipe up to stirring the rice in the butter. Then scrape it all into the rice cooker, add the stock and salt and cook per the rice cooker instructions. I’ll pop these directions in the notes! N x
Also the quality of the pot seems to make a difference. Some pots are rated induction and do work with the magnatization(if that’s a word) but just not quite as well.
Unfortunately with induction the heat control, although excellent (I prefer it to nirmal electric hob) the “element” heats the flat part of the pot ir pan and it has a minimum diameter so round bottoms are out. Flat bottomed woks work to an extent but it’s just not quite the same (someone smarter than me can explain why). these days I use a pan but it’s just not the same (or it’s my imagination). They do have induction wok hobs (single) that wrap around a wok but they are at proffessional pricing from what I can see (2,500.00 & upwards from research online in Aus)
Dear Nagi, First of all I want to thank you for your phenomenal TDF recipes. I have made many and also told others about your website, even strangers in line at the grocery store. My question is; why not Jasmine rice? (Of course, I have a 25 lb of it.!) 😊
The rice sounds delicious and I’m looking forward to trying it.
BUT … we have a problem. In your garlic rice notification email you mentioned making caramel popcorn with bacon. I rushed immediately to your website for the details and could not find any on the caramel popcorn page!
Desperately need to know how to add bacon into the caramel popcorn recipe. Please!
Thank you!
This looks yummy. Was looking for an easy rice recipe that would be tasty on its own, Grateful for detailed directions because I am someone who messes up rice.
I live at high altitude. Any tips for cooking this rice? Mine never comes right!
I am at high altitude as well, and it was great
I checked so many UTube, cooking sites to make some great rice. THANK you so much – this is a perfect recipe as all your recipes are!
Love it all! Love your recipes, your cookbook, your butter, cheese, salt, your sense of humor and, of course, Dozer! Thank you for everything you do! You brighten days with your recipes and your cute posts! Keep up the great work!! xo
I love your recipes and Dozer stories Nagi!! Huge fan! My friend and I both lugged around your cookbook when we recently attended the Perth good food show. We were so disappointed that your book signing couldn’t go ahead day 1. But today I received your and JB’s little sticker notes – thank you!!! Keep up the amazing work that you and your team do. It’s very much appreciated xo
Hi Nagi can’t wait to try this I was never able to make perfect rice until I used your 1 cup to 1plus 1/2 cup water on stove for 13 mins. So perfect also boiled eggs hmmmmm I’m going off on a tangent here. Anyhoo live your website have followed you for many years and got your book. To all the naysayers out there just be nice or be quiet!!! Big hello to Dizer from my two Goldie’s Ruby and Bear. Oh and yes I’m definitely trying this recipe tomorrow and I know it will be good. Thank you Nagi when ever I need a recipe your my first port of call 🦮🐾
Sorry about the spelling mistakes…….Dozer and love your website hmmmm spell check!!!
Hi Nagi, I don’t think that Emma will read this as she has unsubscribed 🙄. I do hope that she is feeling better soon. Keep up the good work Nagi.
There is a place in our diet for the gooey, cheesey, buttery food that many of us enjoy eating. Nowhere have l seen you suggest that this be the sum total of our daily intake.
(that being said, I’m sure you don’t need me to defend you, just letting you know that you are appreciated).
Hi Nagi first let me say I love all your recipes. I’ve learned so much from you. Second I was wondering about the amount of liquid in this recipe. I thought when cooking rice you doubled the liquid. In this recipe it has 2 cups rice with 3 cups liquid wouldn’t you normally use 4 cups of liquid for 2 cups of rice. Just checking before I make it today. Thanks for everything.
Morning Patty! Actually, 1 cup of rice to 1.5 cups of water is my standard for what I consider to be perfect fluffy rice. 1 cup rice to 2 cups of water makes the rice softer and more sticky and less fluffy. Try 1 to 1.5 cups. It’s a game changer! (Also, no rinsing rice!) – N x ❤️