How to Make Peruvian-Style White Rice in a Rice Cooker

In Peru, white rice is not just boiled. It starts with garlic toasted in oil, which gives every grain a light golden color and a savory smell. This guide walks you through that method step by step using a basic rice cooker.

This guide is for anyone who has never cooked rice the Peruvian way, especially students living on their own who have a basic rice cooker and little or no cooking experience. You do not need a stove or any special skills. If you can chop garlic and press a button, you can follow it.

Purpose: By the end you will have a pot of loose, fluffy white rice with a toasted-garlic flavor, the kind served next to almost every main dish in Peru. Once you learn it, you can make it any day with ingredients from any grocery store.

Total time: about 25–30 minutes (about 10 minutes hands-on).

Difficulty: beginner.

Read the whole guide once before you start. The garlic step moves fast, so the guide has you measure everything first. All amounts are written for 1 cup of rice; for more, multiply everything by the number of cups (see the chart in Supplies). Keep a phone timer handy for Steps 12 and 13.

All photos in this guide were taken by me while making this recipe.

Ingredients

1. Long-grain white rice: uncooked (Amount on the chart below)
2. Sesame oil (aceite de ajonjolí): a thin layer covering the bottom center of the pot (see Figure 5)
3. Garlic: not precesed (Amount on the chart below)
4. Water: measured with the same cup as the rice (Amount on the chart below)
5. Salt: a little less than 1 full soup spoon per cup of rice

Tools

1. Basic rice cooker: one with a removable inner pot and a single switch with COOK and WARM lights. I used an Aroma rice cooker.
2. A cup or mug: any size works. What matters is using the same one for the rice and the water.
3. Knife and cutting board, or a grater: to mince or grate the garlic very finely.
4. A soup spoon: to measure the salt and to stir.

Amounts Chart

1. 1 cup rice – 1 clove garlic – 1 cup water – 1/2 spoonful of salt
2. 2 cups rice – 2 cloves garlic– 2 cups water – 1 spoonful of salt
3. 3 cups rice – 3 cloves garlic– 3 cups water – 1+1/2 spoonful of salt

Water can go slightly over the cup for softer rice or slightly under for firmer rice.

One full cup is the standard used in this guide.

A few words you will see in this guide:

1. Mince: to chop into very small, even pieces, about the size of a grain of rice or smaller (Figure 3).
2. Toast: to cook the garlic in hot oil until it turns light golden brown. Toasting releases its flavor; going past golden burns it.
3. COOK mode: the rice cooker setting that heats the pot. The COOK light turns on when you press the switch down (Figure 6).
4. WARM mode: the setting that keeps food warm without cooking it. The cooker switches to WARM on its own when the pot is dry or the rice is done (Figure 7).
5. Inner pot: the removable non-stick bowl inside the rice cooker where all the cooking happens.
6. Fluffy: cooked rice where the grains are soft and separate instead of sticky, hard, or mushy (Figure 12).

Figure 2: One level mug of uncooked rice.

Part 1: Get everything ready

Fill your cup with 1 cup of uncooked rice and level it off with your finger. Set it aside next to the rice cooker. See Figure 2.

Remember which cup you used. You will measure the water with the same one in Step 5.

You should have: a level cup of dry rice, ready to pour.

Figure 3: Garlic minced to the right size: tiny pieces, all about the same.

Peel 1 clove of garlic per cup of rice. Chop it as finely as you can, or rub it against the small holes of a grater. Smaller pieces toast evenly; big chunks burn on the outside before the inside cooks.

Warning: Curl your fingertips under and chop slowly. A garlic clove is small and slips easily.

You should have: a small pile of garlic pieces about the size of rice grains or smaller, like Figure 3.

Figure 4a: One cup of water, same mug as the rice. Figure 4b: A little less than one full spoonful of salt per cup of rice.

Using the same cup from Step 3, measure 1 cup of water (Figure 4a). Then scoop 1/2 poonful of salt with a soup spoon (Figure 4b). Keep both within reach of the rice cooker.

You measure these now because once the garlic is golden in Step 8, you have to add the water right away.

You should have rice, garlic, water, and salt all measured and lined up next to the cooker.

Figure 5a: The right amount of sesame oil, a thin layer in the center of the pot. Figure 5b: COOK mode. Figure 5c: WARM mode; if you see this light while toasting the garlic, put the lid on and press COOK again.

Part 2: Toast the galic

Place the inner pot in the rice cooker and pour in enough sesame oil to make a thin layer over the center of

the bottom, as in Figure 5. Plug in the cooker and press the switch down to COOK (Figure 6).

Wait until the oil is hot. It will look thinner and start to shimmer. To test it, drop in one piece of garlic: if it sizzles right away, the oil is ready.

NOTE: If the light jumps to WARM (Figure 7). Many basic rice cookers flip from COOK to WARM by themselves when there is no water in the pot, and they will do it again every time you open the lid during Steps 6 to 8. If this happens, put the lid on and press the switch down to COOK again. Once you add the water in Step 9, the cooker stays on COOK even when you open the lid.

You should see the COOK light on and the oil shimmering in the bottom of the pot.

Figure 6: Garlic just added: still pale, sitting in the oil.

Add all the minced garlic to the hot oil. Use the spoon to spread it out so every piece is touching the oil. Pieces stacked on top of each other will not toast, and pieces sitting outside the oil will burn.

Stay at the cooker and stir every few seconds from this point on.

You should see pale garlic sizzling in a single layer in the oil, like Figure 6.

Figure 7: The target color. Add the water now.

Keep stirring and watch the color. After about 1 to 2 minutes the garlic will turn light golden brown, like Figure 7. As soon as it reaches this color, move straight to Step 9.

1. Too early: pale or white. Keep going.
2. Just right: light golden brown with small bubbles around it.
3. Too late: dark brown or black, with a sharp, bitter smell. Throw it out, wipe the pot, and start again from Step 6.

You should see golden garlic that smells toasted and nutty, not burnt.

Figure 8: Water, toasted garlic, and salt in the pot.

Part 3: Cook the rice

WARNING: The water will spatter and steam as it hits the hot oil. Pour slowly from the side of the pot and keep your face back.

Pour the 1 cup of water into the pot. Make sure the switch is on COOK. From here on, it will stay there.

Then add the salt you measured in Step 5 and stir until you can no longer see the crystals.

Figure 9a: Rice just poured in. Figure 9b: After stirring, all the rice is under the water.

Immediately after stirring in the salt, pour in the rice. Do not wait for the water to heat up first: water

lost to steam changes the 1-to-1 ratio, and the rice can come out dry.

Stir gently and spread the rice out so all of it is under the water (Figures 9a and 9b).

You should see an even layer of rice with no dry grains sticking out above the water.

Put the lid on and leave the rice cooking on COOK for 10 minutes. Set a timer on your phone. When the time is up, open the lid carefully, stir the rice once from the bottom, and put the lid back on.

You should see most of the water absorbed, with the grains starting to swell and turn opaque.

WARNING: Steam comes out when you lift the lid. Open it away from your face.

Every rice cooker heats with a different power, so the total time changes from one cooker to another. After the first 10 minutes, check the rice every 5 minutes.

Each time, look at it and taste a few grains from the top. The rice is done when:

1. There is no water left at the bottom of the pot.
2. The grains look plump and separate.
3. The grains you taste are soft all the way through and not dry or hard in the center.

If it is not there yet, close the lid and check again in 5 minutes. Most basic cookers also switch to WARM on their own when the rice is done.

Figure 10: The finished rice, ready to serve.

You now have a pot of rice made the way it is made in most Peruvian homes. In Peru this rice sits next to almost every main dish, such as lomo saltado, ají de gallina, or a plate of beans, so it is worth making a little more than you think you need.

Once the process feels natural, you will not need to measure as carefully. Keep the one rule in mind: one clove of garlic, one cup of water, and a little less than a spoonful of salt for each cup of rice, and toast the garlic only until it is golden.

Compare your rice with Figure 10. Peruvian-style white rice should be:

1. Loose: the grains separate easily when you move
   them with a spoon.
2. Soft: tender all the way through, with no hard
   center.
3. Lightly golden: a faint tan color and small
   specks of toasted garlic.
4. Fragrant: it smells of toasted garlic and
   sesame, not just plain rice.

If your rice didn't turn out this way, you may check the chart above to figure out why.