Baked Brown Rice

In addition to both me and the 9 year old ending up with 6 weeks of bronchitis the end of October through November, one of the reasons why I took a blogging break was because my husband decided he needed to lose some weight and eat healthier.  Even though I try to cook healthy for supper, and we don't eat that much by way of processed foods, he wasn't eating healthy through the day.

So we made some changes.  Among other things, we cut out all carbs for several weeks, and after that we cut out all white carbs completely (with the exception of my gluten free flour mix).  That mean doing away with white rice.

Let me tell you, I hate cooking brown rice.  It takes forever and it always seems to be unpredictable.  The first time I made it, half the rice was perfectly cooked.  The other half was practically raw.  I've struggled, ya'll, and we've had some fairly unpleasant meals as a result.

Then I discovered the method of baking rice.  There are several methods online and in the blogsphere.  The method I finally settled on was Alton Brown's.  Say what you will about him, the dude knows his culinary science.  After baking the brown rice multiple times now, we no longer have half-cooked, crunchy rice.

Perfectly Cooked Brown Rice - Every Time

1 cup brown rice
2 1/4 cups hot water
1 Tablespoon butter
salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  In a 9x9 casserole dish, stir together rice, hot water, and salt.  Place pats of butter evenly over the rice mixture.  Cover dish tightly with lid or aluminum foil.

Bake for one hour.  Remove from oven and fluff with fork.

Serve immediately, stir into your favorite recipe like chicken fried rice, or freeze in one cup portions for later use.

Here are some of our favorite ways to use rice:

Beefy Rice Romano

Chicken Fried Rice

Yellow Rice