Updated 9/17/2020

Meals You Can Make With Rice

Making meals with rice will stretch the grocery budget but it also creates a lot of variety in meal planning. Some of our favorite meal are made with rice like Shrimp Fried Rice and you can make it at home.

When I was growing up, my Mom served rice with every meal because my Dad wanted it. He grew up in hard times and ate a lot of rice and learned to love it.

Rice may be a common side dish but don’t discount it’s versatility. It can also be a key ingredient or a good budget stretcher. You can make a meal with just a bowl of rice if you want to.

Brown or White Rice

Brown rice is more nutritious than white rice because it is the entire whole rice grain. You will enjoy more fiber, more antioxidants and amino acids.[source] Brown rice generally takes a little longer to cook.

White rice has been striped in the processing thus removing some of the natural fibers and nutrients. It is also higher in carbs and the most popular choice.

Both white and brown rice are naturally gluten free so that is good news!

How To Cook Rice

2 to 1 Liquid Ratio

No matter your preference, both white and brown rice are cooked with a ratio of 2 to 1. Twice the liquid for the amount of rice you are cooking. One cup of rice requires 2 cups of liquid to cook.

How to preserve chicken broth. How to freezer chicken broth. How to can your own chicken broth at home.

Broth or Water

Rice is most often cooked in water but can also be cooked in broth for added flavor. You can mix the two and that would be most desirable so the broth flavor doesn’t overwhelm. Personally I like to use half water and half broth.

Brown or White rice can be easily added to many recipes to stretch the meal or add more variety to a dish. You will find rice to be a rib-sticking ingredient in old fashioned but still delicious meals like Chicken and Rice Soup.

Also See: How To Preserve Chicken Broth

Rice Cooker or No?

This one has the most ratings and among the highest ratings on Amazon which is impressive.

I make rice on the stove in a pot because that is how I learned to do it. My hubby has preferences for when he wants his rice to be sticky or dry. He likes sticky rice when he is cooking his Shrimp Fried Rice recipe. I can control how the rice turns out better by cooking it on the stove. What is your preference?

7 Tasty Meals Served with Rice

Rice may be one of the main ingredients or it may be buried under meat and gravy. Either way, we use rice as a delicious side dish and grocery budget stretcher.