How to Cook Parboiled Rice
Parboiled rice has already been partly cooked before it was dried and bagged, which is why it needs a little more water and a little longer than ordinary white rice: about 2 cups of water per cup of rice, simmered covered for 20–25 minutes. It also survives a mistake better than most rice. One thing to clear up first, though — “parboiled rice” in a bag and “parboil the rice” in a recipe are two different jobs, and this page covers both.
Two different things people mean
Before the method, one distinction that saves a wasted bag:
- Parboiled rice (this page’s main job). Rice that was soaked, steamed and dried by the producer before it was sold — sometimes labelled converted rice. You buy it in a bag and cook it once.
- “Parboil the rice” in a recipe. An instruction to partly boil rice yourself, then drain it, before the real cooking begins. That is a step inside another dish, not a bag you buy.
Both are on this page because both come up when people look up how to cook parboiled rice. The first is the one you are almost certainly here for, so it comes first.
The method
- Rinse it if you like, then drain well. Rinsing is optional on parboiled rice and mostly a matter of habit; if you do it, let it drain so you are not adding water you did not measure.
- Bring the water to a boil first. Cold-start rice sits warming up instead of cooking, which is how timings drift.
- Add the rice, cover, and drop to the lowest heat that still simmers.
- Leave it alone for 20–25 minutes, or until the water is gone. Lifting the lid costs steam and stretches the time.
- Rest off the heat, lid on, for five to ten minutes, then fork it through once.
How much water. About 2 cups per cup of rice is the working number, and the grain length nudges it:
| Grain length | Water per 1 cup rice | Covered simmer |
|---|---|---|
| Extra long grain | 2¼ cups | about 25 minutes |
| Long grain | 2 cups | 20–25 minutes |
| Medium grain | 2 cups | 20–25 minutes |
The extra long and medium rows are the published figures. The long grain row is ours, by inference — it sits between the two published ends and matches the plain working number of 2 cups. Treat it as a starting point to adjust from, not as a quoted figure.
On the timing, the published figures do not all agree. The two rows above come from stovetop methods that land at 20 to 25 minutes. A national rice industry body gives 25 to 30 minutes for parboiled rice, which is wider than both. Taken together, published timings for this rice sit somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes. Start from the packet and the row above, and judge the end by the rice rather than by a clock.
The part that makes parboiled easy: it tells you when it is wrong
Parboiled rice is more forgiving than ordinary white rice, and the adjustment is unusually simple. Rather than guessing a new ratio from scratch, move one notch in the direction your last batch failed:
| What last batch did | Next time |
|---|---|
| Sticky, mushy, grains collapsed | Drop to 1¾ cups per cup |
| Dry, firm, water gone too early | Go up to 2¼ cups per cup |
| Fine | Write down what you did and stop changing it |
Only change one thing at a time. Two changes and you will not know which one worked, and you will be guessing again next week.
Why it behaves differently from ordinary white rice
Parboiled rice is not a variety of rice — it is a way of treating rice. The grain is soaked, steamed and dried before it is milled and bagged, and that process does two things that matter in the pan.
- It has to re-absorb water that was driven out of it, so it wants slightly more water and slightly longer than an untreated grain of the same length.
- The grain is harder and less likely to break, which is why it comes out separate and fluffy rather than clumping, and why it survives a bit of extra stirring better than milled white rice.
It also means parboiled rice is not brown rice, despite sitting between the two in colour and in timing. Brown rice keeps its bran layer and needs much longer; parboiled rice has had the bran’s goodness driven inward during processing but cooks on a white-rice timescale. If you were told to swap one for the other, the timings are not interchangeable.
For the full comparison across grains, see the rice to water ratio page, and if what you have is ordinary long grain rather than parboiled, use the long grain method instead.
If a recipe tells you to parboil the rice
This is the second meaning, and it is a different job. Here “parboil” is a verb: you give raw rice a short boil, drain it, and then cook it properly in something else. It is common in West African and South Asian cooking, and it exists for a specific reason — the rice is going to be finished in a sauce or a stew, and starting it in plain water first stops it burning before the rest of the dish is ready.
- Bring a large pot of unsalted water to a rolling boil.
- Add the raw rice and boil it for 4 to 6 minutes — not until it is cooked through. The signal to pull it is the grain itself: the tips turn translucent while the centre stays opaque, which is partly cooked rather than done.
- Drain it, and rinse it under cold water to stop it cooking further.
- Use it now in the dish that asked for it.
The two are easy to tell apart: if the instruction is on a bag, it is the rice you are cooking. If it is in a recipe, it is a step before the real cooking.
What goes wrong
- Hard centre after the time is up. It wanted more water or more time. Add a splash, lid back on, and give it another 2 to 4 minutes on the lowest heat, then check again.
- Soft and clumped. Too much water, or the heat was too high and the grains broke. Go down one notch next time.
- Burnt bottom. The heat was too high for the pan. Parboiled rice is tolerant but not of a hot dry pan.
- Water gone in ten minutes. The lid was not sealing, or the heat was far too high. It should be the barest simmer.
- Fine one week, wrong the next. You changed bag or grain length. Check the packet before you change your method.
FAQ
Is parboiled rice the same as converted rice?
Yes — converted rice is the other common name for the same treated rice. Both refer to rice that was soaked, steamed and dried before milling.
How much water for parboiled rice?
About 2 cups of water per cup of rice, with extra long grain wanting closer to 2¼ and medium grain sitting at 2. Check the packet if you are unsure which you have.
Do you have to rinse parboiled rice?
No. It is optional, and mostly habit. If you do rinse it, drain it well so you are not adding unmeasured water to the pot.
Is parboiled rice the same as brown rice?
No. Parboiled is treated white rice that cooks on roughly a white-rice timescale; brown rice keeps its bran and needs considerably longer. They are not interchangeable in a recipe.
Why does my parboiled rice take longer than white rice?
Because the treatment drives water out of the grain, and cooking has to put it back. It needs a bit more water and a bit more time than untreated white rice of the same length.
My recipe says to parboil the rice — is that the same thing?
No. That is an instruction to give raw rice a short boil and drain it before cooking it in something else, usually a stew or a sauce. It is a step in a recipe, not a type of rice.
Can I cook parboiled rice in a rice cooker?
Yes. Use the cooker's own cup for the rice and match it with water, then let the machine finish and rest it. The cooker handles the rest for you.