How to Cook Japanese Short-Grain Brown Rice in a Rice Cooker

1. Before You Start: Please note that Japanese short-grain brown rice requires a soaking time of 6 hours to overnight. The rice-to-water ratio is 1 to 1.6 (or 1.7) for Japanese short-grain brown rice. Please read the blog post for a detailed explanation. If you‘re cooking short-grain white rice, see my post on how to make white rice.Also note that ¾ cup (150 g, 1 rice cooker cup) of uncooked Japanese short-grain rice yields 2¼ cups (330 g) of cooked rice. This is enough for 2 Japanese rice bowls (typically 150 g each) or 3 onigiri rice balls (typically 110 g each). 1 cup of cooked rice weighs about 5.3 oz (150 g).
2. Gather all the ingredients. To measure the rice, overfill a US cup measure (a ¾-cup measure works well for this) or a rice cooker cup with uncooked short-grain brown rice and level it off. Put the rice in a large bowl. Repeat until you have the measured amount of rice needed. Here, I‘m preparing 3 rice cooker cups (2¼ cups, 540 ml) of brown rice.

To Wash and Soak the Rice

1. Quick Rinse: Add just enough water to the bowl to submerge all the rice. Then, discard the water immediately. Repeat one more time. Tip: Rice absorbs water very quickly when you start rinsing, so this step helps remove impurities from the rice and prevent it from absorbing the first few rounds of milky water.
2. Wash and Rinse: Next, use your fingers to gently agitate the wet rice grains in a circular motion for 10–15 seconds. Using very little water allows the grains to rub against each other. It also reduces the absorption of impurities from the milky water. Add water and immediately discard the cloudy water. Rinse one more time.
3. Repeat Wash and Rinse two more times.
4. Drain: When the water is almost clear, use a fine-mesh sieve to drain and shake off any excess water. Then, transfer the well-drained rice to the inner pot of a rice cooker (I use the Zojirushi IH).
5. Add the measured amount of room-temperature water (900 ml for my 3 rice cooker cups of rice) to the inner pot. The water must be room temperature, not warm or hot. Add a bit of salt (I added ¾ tsp) and distribute evenly.
6. Mix it well with a chopstick (or your fingers) and level the rice so that it‘s evenly submerged in the water. Transfer the inner pot to the rice cooker. Soak the brown rice for 6 hours to overnight.

To Cook and Steam the Rice

1. Now, select your menu on your rice cooker; I selected the Brown Rice setting. Then, press Start. Note: This Zojirushi rice cooker takes 83 minutes to cook 3 rice cooker cups of Japanese short-grain brown rice; the program includes 10 minutes of soaking time and 10 minutes of steaming time. When the rice is done cooking, let it steam for 10 minutes (if your rice cooker program does not include steaming time.) When you open the lid, you should see small steam holes in the cooked rice.
2. For a pot on the stove (optional): Start cooking the rice in a heavy-bottomed pot without a lid over high heat until the water boils. Then, stir and reduce the heat to low. Cook, covered, for 30 minutes. Let it stand, covered, for 30 minutes to steam.
3. Fluff the rice with a rice paddle. Insert the rice paddle vertically, scoop up the rice from the bottom, then slice it to “fluff“ the rice. Remember to fluff the rice using a slicing motion.
4. Serve and enjoy!

To Store the Cooked Rice

1. Transfer the hot rice to airtight containers and close the lid to keep the moisture in. Let it cool completely before storing the containers in the freezer (read my tutorial post How To Store Cooked Rice).