A rice cooker might seem like a one-purpose appliance, but it’s actually a hidden gem in the kitchen. Beyond cooking fluffy rice, it can prepare a wide variety of meals that are quick, fuss-free, and full of flavor. These 9 easy rice cooker recipes show you just how versatile this handy gadget can be—perfect for busy weeknights, meal prepping, or whenever you want to simplify cooking.
Start with breakfast: oatmeal or congee cooks perfectly in the rice cooker without needing constant stirring. Add fruit, nuts, or honey for a warm, nourishing start to the day. For lunch or dinner, try simple one-pot meals like chicken and rice, curry, or jambalaya. Just toss in your ingredients, press a button, and let the cooker do the work while you focus on other things.
Vegetables also shine in the rice cooker. Steamed broccoli, carrots, or mixed veggies can be cooked alongside rice for an instant, balanced meal. For a more filling option, try rice cooker pasta or even mac and cheese—yes, your rice cooker can handle it!
If you’re craving something international, dishes like fried rice, biryani, or miso soup can all be prepared easily with just a few ingredients and minimal cleanup. And don’t forget dessert—rice pudding and even small cakes bake beautifully in a rice cooker, making it a surprisingly useful tool for satisfying your sweet tooth.
With these 9 easy rice cooker dishes, you’ll see your appliance in a whole new light. Whether you’re cooking for yourself, family, or guests, these recipes prove that the rice cooker is much more than a one-trick pony—it’s a time-saving, flavor-boosting kitchen essential.
Tex-Mex Lazy Tomato Rice
This recipe uses a rice cooker to get a full rice dinner on the table in a fun, fast, hands-off way. We used a Japanese-style cooker, but you could do this with almost any version. The tomato gets super soft and stirs right into the rice, making an instant sauce. Feel free to play with the ingredients and flavor profiles once you have the technique down.
Rice Cooker Mac and Cheese
Five ingredients and just one pot — what more could you ask for in an easy comfort meal?! Plus, it will be on your table in less than an hour! To make this simple mac’ and cheese, you’ll cook the macaroni in a rice cooker until soft, then stir in evaporated milk, cheese and a few spices. The end result is a creamy, cheesy dish that couldn’t be more convenient.
Rice Cooker Salmon and Rice Bowls
Your rice cooker can do a lot more than just steam rice, and enjoying a bowl of this light, flavorful salmon dish is a delicious way to prove it. Adding the ingredients to the cooker takes just minutes, and when the cycle is finished, you’ll be rewarded with silky soy-marinated salmon, tender mushrooms and super-flavorful rice that gets a boost from dashi powder. We suggested selecting about five toppings like sliced cucumber, scallions, seaweed salad, avocado and kimchi for your bowls, but feel free to use whatever combination you’d like.
Rice Cooker Pancake
Rice isn’t the only thing you can make in a rice cooker. With roots in Japan, this method that took online communities by storm requires little effort and leaves you with an easy to share pancake that is reminiscent of the fluffy Japanese souffle pancakes. Because rice cookers cook differently depending on the model, be sure to adjust the cooking time accordingly.
Lazy Sausage, Mushroom and Sweet Potato Rice
Your rice cooker can do more than just steam up a batch of rice. This recipe puts it to work to get a full meal on the table in a fun, fast and nearly hands-free way. A peeled and halved sweet potato gets soft enough during the cooking process so it can be mashed into the rice for an instantly sweet, almost creamy sauce for the pilaf. Italian sausage, fennel, wild mushrooms and sage add big flavor for a hearty, comforting meal.
Rice Cooker Pork Belly with Mui Choy
This hearty tender pork belly in a rich, savory sauce is made entirely in a rice cooker with flavors inspired by the Chinese classic, steamed pork belly with preserved mustard greens (mui choy kau yuk in Cantonese; mei cai kou rou in Mandarin). Here, we’ve streamlined the process, cooking the pork and mui choy (preserved mustard greens) all together with jasmine rice. To mimic the deep, long-braised flavor of the original, we fortified the sauce with umami-rich chicken broth, fish sauce and fermented red bean curd.
Shortcut Rice-Cooker You Fan
This recipe is inspired by the popular Taiwanese sticky rice dish you fan (“oil rice”), a comfort food favorite that’s packed with umami. We took the savory elements of the dish and streamlined them to make the whole thing quick and easy to prepare in a rice cooker. We subbed jasmine rice for the usual glutinous rice, which usually requires several hours of soaking before cooking.
Rice Cooker Rice Pudding
A rice cooker is the surprising secret to a creamy, rich and hands-off rice pudding that’s perfect every time. Making rice cooker rice pudding is easy and unlike the stovetop version it doesn’t need to be stirred constantly. The pudding can hang out in the rice cooker on the “keep warm” setting until you’re ready to serve it or you can refrigerate it until chilled. Either way you’ll have the beautiful, sweet scent of fragrant jasmine rice infused with vanilla and cinnamon wafting through your kitchen.
Rice Cooker Hainanese Chicken
Using a rice cooker is the key to getting the famously deep, savory flavor of Hainanese chicken without having to poach a whole bird. This delicious chicken-and-rice dish is named for Hainan, China’s southernmost province, but is popular throughout Asia and especially in Singapore, where it’s considered the national dish. We’ve streamlined it to make it perfect for weeknight meals. Skinless, boneless thighs are seared along with aromatics and jasmine rice, then everything is transferred to a rice cooker to cook together, infusing every bite with flavor.
