Your Rice Cooker Can Do More Than You Think

📖 Get Make It Go Further — the habits from my mother's kitchen, written down for an American grocery store (244 pages, 46 dinners): https://mrsjinkitchen.com One-pot chicken and rice in the rice cooker, with steamed eggs, congee and rice cooked in soup: seven things my mother would have done with the machine you only use for rice. If dinner takes three pans while the cooker sits with the cord wrapped around it, the box lied to you. Every measure is below. Hao ma? 🍚 THE CLOCK 10 minutes at the board, 35 minutes of the machine working alone. Fill it before you leave; press the button when you walk in. 🍚 THE CARD: ONE-POT CHICKEN AND RICE Serves 4. 2 cups jasmine or long-grain rice, washed until the water runs nearly clear 2½ cups (600 ml) water, or chicken broth for gold rice 4 boneless chicken thighs, about 1½ lb (700 g), cut in 1-inch pieces 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp cornstarch, 1 tsp sesame oil, tossed with the chicken 4 slices fresh ginger 2 cups green beans or broccoli, cut small 2 green onions, cut fine; 1 tbsp neutral oil for the sizzle Rice and liquid in the cooker pot. Lay the ginger and the coated chicken on top in one layer. Do not stir in. Close the lid, press cook. About 25 minutes. When the bubbling turns to a whisper, about 5 minutes before the click, lift the lid once, lay the vegetables on top, close it. At the click, leave the lid ON 10 minutes. Chicken must read 165°F. Lid off. Green onion over the chicken. Heat the oil in a small pan until it shimmers and pour it over the green onion. Serve. 🍚 STEAMED EGGS (the basket) 3 eggs beaten with 1 cup (240 ml) warm water and ½ tsp salt, strained into a heatproof bowl, covered with foil. Bowl in the steamer basket over 2 cups cooking rice. Done at the click: smooth top, trembles like set milk. Soy, sesame oil and green onion on top. 🍚 CONGEE ¾ cup rice, 8 cups (1.9 L) water or broth, 3 slices ginger. Porridge setting, or cook cycle then keep-warm. Keep-warm holds it 2 hours at most; never overnight. Done when the grains break and it is thick and white. 🍚 I WILL NOT ARGUE Water or broth under the rice. Thighs, pork shoulder pieces or a sausage on top. A plate on chopsticks if the basket is lost. 🍚 THE PAN IS HONEST Pitted, holey egg top → steam too hard, or no foil. Thin, clear congee → not long enough. Pink chicken at the bone → whole thighs instead of pieces. Gray vegetables → went in at the start. Flat chicken → oil not hot; no hiss. Rice gold and smelling of chicken → the cook's reward. 🍚 ONE QUIET THING ABOUT THE STORE The basket came free in the box. Chicken thighs are about $2 a pound; breasts about $4. The pot and the basket replace three pans. Nothing to buy. 🍚 THE HABIT Fill the cooker in the morning and keep the pot in the refrigerator until you press the button. Cooked rice keeps 4 days covered. Congee keeps 3 days. Steamed eggs never go in the freezer. 🍚 WHAT I WOULD ASK OF YOU Carry two things: the basket out of the drawer, and the meat on top of the rice. Then tell me if the whole dinner came out of one pot, honestly whether the cord was still wrapped around it, and your state. 🍚 NEXT TIME IN THIS KITCHEN That bowl of steamed eggs, and everything that can go into it. #ricecooker #chinesecooking #onepotdinner 🥢 Subscribe for a new kitchen habit every week — ordinary groceries, better dinners.