Slow oven brown rice
Is there a slow method of cooking brown rice in the oven?
Next week, I'm cooking for a group of friends. I'd like to start the rice, go to a meeting (~3 hours) and come back to finished rice.
I'm using long-grain (not Basmati) brown rice. I have an old oven, so no on/off timer available. Could I cook the rice on low heat for a longer time, or should I just plan to cook it ahead and reheat it?
Best Answer
Slow cooker
If you have a slow cooker as Catija suggested, you can totally do exactly what you want. Search for slow cooker rice pilaf if you need a starting point. I know you don't want new appliances, but slow cookers are a bit more general purpose, so maybe you have one or would be okay buying one, and future readers certainly might.
Oven
I'm also pretty sure the oven will work, but it might require a little experimentation to get the timing right. There are again a lot of recipes for rice pilaf in the oven, but they normally start with boiling water then take perhaps 45-60 minutes for white rice or 60-75 minutes for brown rice, at 350-375F, so they'd be very overdone after three hours. But if you reduce the temperature, you can extend the cooking time and make it more tolerant of cooking past done. A slow cooker isn't really very different from a tightly covered dish in an oven at a low temperature.
So, if I had to hazard a guess, I'd take a normal oven rice recipe (with the water boiling before starting), and reduce the temperature to 250F, then see how long it takes to be done and whether it's okay after three hours. It'd really be best to do a trial run sometime when you can actually check on it, though.
If that doesn't extend the time enough, you can probably stretch it even more by starting from non-boiling water, but I unfortunately don't have a good sense of what combination of water and oven temperature would accomplish a three-hour cooking time.
Reheating
If you don't want to experiment, your fallback of reheating can work too. The key in my experience is to add a bit of water then cover when reheating, so that it steams and moistens again, rather than getting dry and hard.
For one to two servings I just drizzle a little water in, maybe a couple teaspoons, before popping in the microwave. For a larger quantity like your situation, probably a bit more than that - the idea is that it mostly but not entirely boils away by the time it's all reheated, so that the rice isn't wet, but has been surrounded by steam the whole time. You can always check on it in the middle and see if it's nice and steamy, and add a bit more if it's starting to seem dry.
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How long does it take for brown rice to cook in the oven?
Bring the water, butter, and salt just to a boil in a kettle or covered saucepan. Once the water boils, pour it over the rice, stir to combine, and cover the dish tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 1 hour.Does brown rice cook slower?
The bran is what gives the rice its brown color, and it contains nutrients that plain white rice doesn't, since processing white rice is mainly a matter of stripping off the bran. This outer layer is what makes brown rice cook more slowly.Does brown rice take a long time to cook?
Most packs of brown rice will say to boil for longer than white rice, so for around 30-35 mins. The trick is to simmer it for most of that, then for the last 5-10 mins leave it, well covered, to absorb the water off the heat \u2013 resulting in light perfectly tender grains every time.How long does rice take to cook on low heat?
Simmer the rice. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until the liquid is absorbed, about 18 minutes.Cook Brown Rice in the Oven
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Answer 2
If you put a damp or even wet paper towel over the rice you are reheating in the microwave, it will steam and soften as well as heat the rice very nicely. I've tried this on several occasions and it works beautifully!
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