Best Rice Cookers for Brown Rice – Reviews and Buying Guide
A rice cooker or rice steamer is an automated kitchen appliance that is specially designed to boil or steam rice. It incorporates a heat source, a cooking bowl and a thermostat. Rice cookers cook rice perfectly, keeping the grain separate neither undercooked nor overcooked. When you hear someone say something like that, you may naturally assume that the discussion is about white rice. Do rice cookers cook brown rice though? Cooking brown rice in rice cooker may not be just as straight and convenient as white rice.
Not all the rice cookers are primed for making brown rice! In some cookers, a thin crust is developed at the bottom, whereas in other models, it turns sticky instead of remaining fluffy. This can be a huge disappointment for the individuals who love to have brown rice as a part of their healthy meal. This is why the concept of a brown rice cooker started gaining traction. Today, we discuss all things related to brown rice and rice cookers, discover what the best brown rice cooker models are and if they are actually worth what they’re sold for.
Table of Contents
Best Brown Rice Cookers
1. Zojirushi NS-YAC18 Umami Rice Cooker
- Offers a wide range of settings
- GABA setting enhances the nutritional value
- Large rice quantities
- Suitable for large families
- Umami settings
- The power cord doesn’t retract
- No non-stick pan
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4.8/5.0
The Zojirushi NS-YAC rice cookers are smaller scale automated appliances that utilize fuzzy logic technology to control the cooking procedure. The NS-YAC18 has a 1.8-liter and 10-cup uncooked rice limit. For someone looking for a decent capacity within a good budget, this one just might be the best rice cooker for brown rice. The menu setting incorporate white, Umami, Sushi (best sushi rice cookers), porridge, blended, brown, sweet, GABA brown, rinse-free, snappy cooking and moderate cook.
Integrated by microcomputer innovation, you get a unit that does all the intuition for you, to the extent altering cooking times and temperatures as per the kind of rice you are cooking, and timing the pre-drenching of the crude grains following the last ‘pause’ period during steaming. The GABA setting functions admirably. Brown rice comes out delicate and delightful. The Umami setting permits the expansion of flavors for probably the most separating Japanese rice accessible in the US market. It allows the rice to be soaked and steamed to enhance the flavor.
This Zojirushi rice cooker also features a keep-warm function that keeps the rice fresh and warm for a prolonged time without drying it out. You can also reheat the rice if you want. The unit consists of a washable inner lid that ensures easy maintenance. Despite having a large rice making capacity, it doesn’t occupy too much space in your kitchen. So, if you have family members who have not developed the taste for brown rice till now, you might want to get them to try this with your special brown rice recipe.
2. Cuckoo CR-0631F Multifunctional Micom Rice Cooker
- Nonstick pan
- Simple design
- Small and portable
- Auto-clean function
- Suitable for a large family
- No auto clean function
- No handles on the inner pan
- High contrast marking would be better on the inner pot.
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4.5/5.0
Our 2nd pick for the best brown rice cooker comes from the house of Korean manufacturer, Cuckoo which is known to be the best Korean rice cooker in US. Cuckoo CR-0631F is a colorful and economic rice cooker perfect for preparing mixed rice, GABA, porridge etc. It is suitable for making rice daily for a family of 6 and the cooking is really fast. The turbo function cuts the cooking time by 8-10 minutes, which is great if you have small and impatient children at home.
It utilizes a Teflon covered aluminum container and accompanies an assortment of programs to cook glutinous rice. The principal thing to make reference to is the styling which is generally a white round plastic packaging, with an enormous front board in metallic pink. This shading plan doesn’t influence the flavor of the rice, however, it might conflict with your kitchen. The Teflon used to cover the inward container is dormant, yet there are a few people that notice the taste or aversion the item on their cookware. Teflon makes the rice come out conveniently and makes it less problematic to clean.
There is additionally an Auto-Clean function to sanitize within the unit between uses. The cover gets isolated from the machine so that it can be washed separately. Moreover, there are waterline markings within pan which easily comes out so that it can go in the dishwasher.
The front LCD board shows what mode you are in and the remaining cooking time. In the event that you need to set it up before you go out, you simply enact the clock. The force is somewhat low, so the clock is a significant component as it might be delayed for a large quantity of rice. Cuckoo is one of the very few brands that are profoundly known for their reliable rice cookers. If you have a thing for the company, take a look at our top compilation of the best rice makers from Cuckoo.
3. Cuisinart CRC-800P1 CRC-800 8-Cup Rice Cooker
- Modern steel look with Non-stick rice bowl.
- Doesn’t occupy much space
- User-friendly
- Offers convenient cleaning
- Makes excellent brown rice and quinoa
- Glass lid is made of safety glass
- Replacement parts are easily available from Cuisinart for a reasonable price.
- Some users will experience boil over issues
- Keep warm mode begins a little too late, resulting in crusting of the bottom layer
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4.5/5.0
This Cuisinart rice cooker makes it quite convenient to cook the perfect rice for your family. It has the capacity to make around 8-15 cups of rice at one time, which is quite sufficient for a family of 6. It can also be used for steaming meat and vegetables. Considering the design, it is integrated with brushed stainless steel (you can also check our review of Rice Cookers with Stainless Steel Inner Pot) and features a square modern shape which offers an appealing look. It incorporates a steaming basket (can be used to steaming vegetables), coated anodized aluminum cooking bowl, paddle, glass lid and a measuring cup. You can use the basket to steam other food items while you are cooking rice.
Moreover, it includes a steam vent which prevents splattering and its chrome-plated handles stay cool so that you can touch it easily without any discomfort. Cleaning this rice cooker is also easy as it features the non-stick coating. Additionally, it offers easy storage as the cord pulls out and retracts.
It features some programmable controls as well such as traditional level control with warm and cook settings along with warm and cook indicator lights. The two distinct LED lights illuminate, one during the cooking phase and the other one automatically switches to warm when the rice gets completely cooked.
This feature is really useful as it allows you to do multiple tasks at the same time without worrying about the cooking of rice. Also, you can use the measuring cups and rice spoon to have ideal water and rice proportions so that they can be neither undercooked nor overcooked.
You can wash all the removable parts in the dishwasher by using any cleanser. The cooker measures 9 by 9 by 10 inches and not bulky too. It can be easily placed on the kitchen countertop while managing other essential accessories.
4. TIGER JBV-A10U 5.5-Cup Rice Cooker
- Offers perfectly cooked brown rice every time
- Can use as a slow cooker, steamer and multi cooker.
- Rice doesn’t stick or burn at the bottom. Overall the product seems extremely well built & solid.
- Easy to read display with light indicators.
- Featured with Synchro-cooking function
- The slow cooking function is a plus
- It’s hard to clean the lid as it is not removable
- The non-stick coating wears off quickly
- No cord wrap or detachable power cable.
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4.4/5.0
This rice cooker is much more advanced than the simple press button cooker. It is white in color which gives it an elegant look and comes with an easy carrying handle. It allows you to cook two dishes at the same time by utilizing its ‘tacook’ synchronized cooking function. It allows you to cook rice and the other main dish simultaneously. But, there is a limit of maximum and minimum amounts of rice that you can cook following this functionality. This rice cooker can also be used as a Multicooker. If you reckon you’d extract more value from a multicooker, we’ve listed our highly recommended multicookers that far outweigh the benefits from regular rice makers.
The cooking or Tacook plate doesn’t have openings in the steam tray and it won’t spill out any fluid or sauce to the rice from the base. Without the holes, it won’t influence the texture and flavor of the rice in a negative manner. The Tacook plate is intended for steaming and it is BPA free so you won’t need to stress over it being awful for your wellbeing from utilizing it to steam your food.
It also offers various other settings that you can use while preparation distinct dishes. Some of them include plain setting which is used for cooking fluffy rice, brown rice function which is specially designed for prolonged water absorption for best results and slow cook or steam setting which is only used to steam food items. Besides these, keep warm function sets the cooker on warm mode automatically after the rice being cooked completely. You can leave the rice cooker in this mode for around 12 hours.
5. Panasonic SR-DF101 5-Cup Rice Cooker
- The fuzzy technology
- Easy to clean
- Offers a faster meal preparation
- Precise temperature controls enhance the flavors and aromas
- Preset cooking functionality
- It doesn’t sustain a good quality of rice
- Not suitable for cooking sticky rice
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4.2/5.0
It is one of the leading japanese rice cooker in the industry that uses induction cooking, which produces an electric current inside the pot to heat and cook rice, soup, porridge and other food items. It offers a microcomputer fuzzy logic controller, which makes precise adjustments in cooking times and temperatures, depending on how much rice is being cooked. It helps in the ideal cooking of rice and provides more consistent results as well. Moreover, it also results in faster cooking no matter what type of rice is being cooked.
It offers one-touch cooking function in which you just need to select a pre-programmed setting to cook any food item, including brown rice, white rice, mixed rice and short or long-grained rice. Each one of them gets cooked perfectly similar to the restaurant quality. Besides this, the keep warm mode automatically gets activated once the cooking is done and it keeps the food items at ideal serving temperature for up to 12 hours.
Along with this, you get a steaming basket, a measuring cup for portioning the desired amount of rice and water and a non-scratching spoon for a legitimate Asian-style service. You can use it on special occasions to impress your guests.
It is also really convenient to clean it as the non-stick pot requires only some warm water and a dishcloth. Avoid washing it in the dishwasher as it will damage the device and scratch the non-stick parts.
Rice Cooker for Brown Rice- Buying Guide
How is a Brown Rice Cooker different from its Regular Counterpart?
The regular rice cookers are not proficient in cooking brown rice and most of the buyers usually complain that the brown rice is too hard or undercooked. While white rice and brown rice are similar grains, but they are cooked in a different manner. The white rice is stripped of its bran layer and the germ while on the contrary, brown rice has both. That’s why it tends to be crunchier and takes more time to cook as well.
Distinct brown rice cookers take different amounts of time to cook brown rice. The one crucial feature that sets the brown rice cooker apart from its regular counterparts is the dedicated brown rice setting. If you’re going to be making brown rice in your rice cooker, you must select a rice cooker with brown rice setting. It automatically adjusts all the settings for the specific type of rice and you need not monitor the progress. You just need to set it and forget it until the timer of the rice cooker turns off. Once, it’s cooked all you have to do is fluff it and it is ready to be served.
Factors to Consider while Selecting the Best Rice Cooker for Brown Rice
1. Cooking Capacity
The capacity of a rice cooker is usually referred to as the amount of cooked or uncooked rice that can comfortably fit in the cooking bowl. This ranges from 1 to 42 cups, from a small portion to multiple servings. If you are looking for a rice cooker for home use, then models that can handle 1-10 cups of uncooked rice would be an ideal fit for you. On the other hand, for the families with 5-6 members, something in the range of 4-5 cups will do the right job and if you are looking for commercial purposes, then find the models that can accommodate up to 46 cups at one time.
2. Dedicated Brown Rice Setting
There are different varieties of brown rice and they have one common feature; the grains are not polished and the outer bran layer remains intact offering a tan color. The higher fiber content also provides a nutty flavor and chewy texture. Many rice cookers are blended with a brown rice setting which makes the cooking process pretty convenient. You just need to add water to the corresponding level for brown rice and select the “Brown” setting. The rest of the things are taken care of by the setting itself, including cooking time and the ideal temperature requirement.
3. Nonstick Inner Pot
Make sure that the rice cooker you select comes with a non-stick cooking bowl. This feature doesn’t let the rice to stick at the bottom of the pot and circumvents the formation of the thin crust as well. Besides this, it also offers a convenient cleaning as you don’t have to scrub the remains of burnt rice. This feature is majorly found in Instant pots only.
4. Simmer/ Slow Cook Function
The slow cook function allows you to prepare various other meals as well apart from just cooking rice. You can steam vegetables and thin cuts of meat, boil eggs, prepare soup, oatmeal and other breakfast recipes in your rice cooker. It eliminates the requirement of using different pans for preparing distinct meals as now you know how to convert your rice cooker into a slow cooker and relish the multi-functional feature.
5. Keep Warm and Reheat Functions
Once the rice gets cooked completely, the rice cookers automatically shift to keep warm mode. They have the tendency to keep the rice fresh, warm and at ideal serving temperature for up to 12 hours. Most of the models come with a reheat option as well. To reheat the rice, you will need to add a tablespoon of cold water, place the rice in the rice cooker and then press the keep warm button. With this gentle function, the rice will reheat slowly. It’s great for the ones who lead a hectic life and don’t have time to cook fresh rice every time
6. Dishwasher Safe Removable Parts
If you own a dishwasher and like to use it frequently for washing multiple utensils, then you should lookout for a rice cooker that highlights dishwasher safe accessories. It makes the cleaning process quite convenient, especially for the ones who don’t have time to wash dishes. Also, most of the models don’t come with removable parts which make cleaning quite a daunting task. Therefore, make sure to pay attention to this while making a purchase.
Conclusion
Rice is a basic yet intricate meal to prepare and only a few of us have high command over it. That’s why rice cookers were invented, especially for the rest of the individuals who frequently deal with undercooked and raw rice, even after spending an adequate amount of time in cooking. Rice cookers can be a turning point in your cooking phase. Ensure that you select the absolute one by analyzing all the essential functionalities during the purchase. Also, check for the brown rice setting if you are primarily buying the rice cooker for preparing your healthy brown rice recipes.
