What Is Instant Rice, Exactly?

For busy home cooks, convenience and speed are essential. That's why pantry staples like instant rice and boxed macaroni and cheese are so popular in many households.

While you can find boxed versions of products like pasta and mac and cheese from various brands, they all follow the same basic cooking instructions. But have you ever noticed the wide variety of “instant” rice options available in the store? Despite all claiming to cook in minutes, they're actually quite different from each other.

So what makes instant rice so quick to cook, and how does it work?

Everything You Need to Know About Instant or Parboiled Rice

Instant rice is a type of parboiled rice, but not all parboiled rice qualifies as instant rice. According to Janet Armstrong, the Culinary Insights Senior Manager at Mars Food and Nutrition (the company behind Ben’s Original), the key question is: What exactly is parboiled rice?

Simply put, parboiled rice is regular rice that has been “PARtially BOILed in water” to speed up cooking time, explains Armstrong.

Rice begins as “rough rice” when harvested, but it’s then hulled to become either whole-grain brown rice or hulled and milled to make white rice. While you can purchase these types in stores, they take much longer to cook than parboiled or instant rice.

In the 1940s, Erich Huzenlaub developed a unique steaming process to “seal” rice, which is now known as parboiling, according to Armstrong. Nowadays, several methods can rapidly reduce cooking time and produce parboiled, instant, and ready-to-heat rice options.

Parboiled rice (often labeled as “parboiled” or “boil-in-the-bag”) typically takes 10 to 12 minutes to cook. Instant rice requires about 5 minutes, while ready-to-heat rice takes only 2 minutes.

What Makes Instant Rice Cook So Quickly?

We know that parboiled rice cooks fast because it’s partially pre-cooked, allowing you to finish cooking it at home. But what about the even faster instant and ready-to-heat rice?

To create instant rice—like Minute Rice—manufacturers take parboiled rice and “puff” it, forming air pockets that let water easily absorb without needing to boil, explains Armstrong. That’s why all you need to do is boil water and let the rice soak it up when preparing instant rice.

With ready-to-heat rice, like Ben’s Original Ready Rice, the rice is fully cooked before it even reaches your kitchen.

“Ready-to-heat rice is made by packing dry rice and water (or flavored sauce) into a flexible, BPA-free pouch or cup, which is then sealed and cooked in a large-scale pressure cooker, known as a retort oven,” says Armstrong. “The steam cooking inside the sealed pouch or cup ensures the rice is fully cooked and sterile until you open it.”

In essence, ready-to-heat rice only needs a few minutes in the microwave or on the stovetop to warm up.

What’s the Best Method for Cooking Instant Rice?

The most common method for preparing instant rice—and the one you’re probably most familiar with—is cooking it on the stovetop. But since not all parboiled rice is the same, there’s no single “correct” way to cook it.

“You can prepare parboiled rice using a regular oven, microwave, pressure cooker/Instant Pot, steamer, or even a rice cooker,” says Armstrong.

However, Armstrong suggests checking the package instructions for the recommended cooking method for the specific type of parboiled rice you’re using.

Final Thoughts

Although all these rice varieties are marketed as “quick-cooking” options, not all “instant” rice is truly the same. In fact, it’s more accurate to refer to it as parboiled rice, since only “puffed” rice is considered instant rice.

Whether you prefer parboiled, instant, or ready-to-heat rice, there’s no denying that quick-cooking grains are a lifesaver for whipping up simple meals everyone can enjoy.