In Case You Didn't Know, A Rice Cooker Is Ideal For Steaming Eggs
Many people aren't fans of owning unitaskers, aka single-use kitchen gadgets, and rice cookers are often lumped into this category. This makes a lot of sense, especially for those of us with limited storage space. But rice cookers are way more versatile than their name implies — these proto multi-cookers have been a favorite with college students and other budget- and space-conscious cooks for a while for making a whole variety of things.
One of the best ways to explore the other possibilities of the rice cooker is to use it to cook eggs. Simply set up your pot to cook rice as usual with your preferred ratio of rice and water, and then plop several eggs in with them. Cover the pot and hit the "start" button, and you'll have cooked eggs on top of your cooked rice (literally). YouTube content creator Uyen Ninh does just this whenever she cooks rice, and whether you consume the eggs immediately or store them in the fridge, it's a good way to make sure that you have cooked eggs at the ready for your next meal.
Steaming eggs and other ingredients
If you don't feel like having rice or turning on the stove to boil eggs, you can use the rice cooker to cook just the eggs. No matter where they are on the fanciness scale, rice cookers tend to come with steamer baskets that neatly fit into the pots. Fill the rice cooker pot with up to 2 inches of water, and then arrange the eggs in the steamer basket before placing it into the pot. Turn the cooker on, and the water in the pot will heat up and boil, essentially steaming the eggs. Cooking times will vary according to the make and model of your rice cooker, but about 20 minutes is a safe starting point for hard-cooked eggs. Experiment with cooking times to get your preferred doneness — even soft-cooked eggs!
This steamer basket insert is also useful for cooking ingredients other than eggs, including various vegetables and proteins. Try this steaming method with different combinations, like carrots and chicken, broccoli and salmon, or even thinly sliced beef. As the ingredients steam and cook, their drippings fall into the cooking rice below, flavoring the rice even further. You may need to add the ingredients to be steamed at different times so that your food doesn't overcook — experiment with your own rice cooker to find out what works.
How else can a rice cooker be used?
As many an Asian college student knows, rice cookers are the unsung hero of budget cooking. A once-viral hack is this chicken rice made with leftover KFC chicken and a little soy sauce. Spice mix packets can be stirred into the water and rice before cooking to flavor the rice right from the beginning. Adding twice the amount of water will turn your rice into congee, varying the texture of your dinner. Just remember to avoid making common mistakes when cooking rice.
You can also forgo rice altogether and use the rice cooker as a vessel to make soups and stews, or even to host hot pot parties. Simply set your rice cooker to the "warm" setting, and it can be used as a slow(ish) cooker that will bubble away while you sort out other tasks. Whether you have one of the best rice cookers of the year or a plain old lever-button variety, you can definitely hack the rice cooker to your heart's content. Saving space and time? Sign us up.