Oven-Baked Brown Rice

For anyone who's had trouble cooking brown rice, or wondered how to cook brown rice, this is your lucky day! First, there's this recipe for brown rice, my favorite, which cooks the rice in the oven and turns out moist, nutty kernels of rice. Oh! So! Good!

Year-Round Kitchen Staple. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Weight Watchers Friendly. Naturally Gluten Free. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real. Great for Meal Prep.

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What Brown Rice Is. And Isn't.

Think of brown rice as the emperor with his clothes on.

You see, brown rice isn’t its own variety of rice, as is often thought. Instead, every variety of rice starts off brown because brown rice is just unmilled rice, rice with all its "clothing" layers still intact.

Once those "clothes" are polished away, inside every grain of brown rice is a white, starchy and yes, naked, kernel stripped of flavor, fiber and nutrition.

I’ve loved brown rice for the longest time but had trouble getting it to cook consistently on the stove-top. Now that I’ve learned how to bake brown rice in the oven, it’s welcome at the table, in all its fully clothed goodness.

Plain Brown Rice Goes Spicy ... and Sweet

SPICY! So I love cooking brown rice this way so-so much, it's one of a few staples in my kitchen. But over the years, I got a little bored with its sameness and so decided to use the same effective technique with other grains – and to give the grains a little extra "zip" with savory spices. The result? The very wonderful Oven-Baked Whole-Grain Pilaf with Quinoa, Barley, Kamut & Other Grains, you'll want to try it too!

SWEET! Leftover brown rice? Turn it into Brown Rice & Quinoa Rice Pudding!

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COMPLIMENTS!

• "So stinking good!!!" ~ Pamela
• "This recipe came out PERFECT! The kids LOVE it." ~ msadinkra
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OVEN-BAKED BROWN RICE

So good, make it every week

Hands-on time: 5 minutes
Time to table: 1-1/4 hours
Makes 4 cups

• 2-1/3 cups water (or chicken broth or even beer)
• 2 teaspoons butter (or ghee or bacon fat for more flavor or olive oil for vegan rice)

• 1 cup (200g) brown rice, any variety
• 1/2 cup (100g) wild rice (or another 1/2 cup brown rice, see ALANNA’s TIPS)
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt

Set oven to 375F/190C. Bring the liquid and butter (see TIPS) to a boil in the microwave.

Meanwhile, in an 8x8 glass baking dish (or equivalent size round glass baking dish), stir together brown rice and wild rice. Sprinkle with salt. Pour hot liquid over rice and gently stir, distributing rice and salt evenly throughout dish. Cover tightly with a double layer of foil (or the glass top for a baking dish).

Bake for 60 minutes (see TIPS).

Remove from the oven. Fluff rice with a fork, then cover lightly with a paper towel and let rest for 5 minutes. Uncover and fluff again, let rest another 5 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

ALANNA's TIPS A mix of brown and wild rice is my favorite because it looks as good as it tastes. Plus, brown rice is cheap and wild rice is pricey so a blend helps stretch the food budget. Water boils more quickly with something to adhere to, in this case, just a small dab of fat. If the oven’s not fully preheated when the rice is prepped, pop it in anyway. Just increase the oven time by the remaining number of minutes. To prevent food poisoning, all varieties of cooked rice should be served and refrigerated promptly. Don't want to turn on the oven? Then here's another way to cook brown rice on the stove, also very good and slightly faster, see Perfect Stovetop Brown Rice from A Veggie Venture, my food blog.

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Half Cup: 129 Calories; 2g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 2mg Cholesterol; 154mg Sodium; 25g Carb; 1g Fiber; 0g Sugar; 3g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS Old Points 2 & PointsPlus 3 & SmartPoints 4 & Freestyle 4 & myWW green 4 & blue 4 & purple 0

Today’s recipe is adapted from Cook's Illustrated, a great magazine for cooks who want to understand the ‘"how’s" and "why’s" of cooking. In 2006, Cook's Illustrated gave me permission to publish the original version of their technique for cooking brown rice, see Foolproof Oven-Baked Brown Rice. Since then, I've made it week in and week out, adapting it to my own taste and technique.

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Delicious with Oven-Baked Brown Rice

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

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