Serious Eats ·Feb 09, 2023

We Tested 17 Rice Cookers—Here Are Our Favorites

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who grew up with a rice cooker, and those who didn't. If you didn't, I extend to you my sincerest sympathies; if you did, high five!

Needless to say, if you don't eat much rice, or if you (inexplicably) dislike rice, then this equipment review isn't for you. But if you love rice and eat a lot of it, there are few kitchen gadgets that are as useful as a rice cooker. A good rice cooker offers convenience and gustatory pleasure in equal measure: perfectly cooked rice, whenever you want it, whether it's first thing in the morning or right when you get home from work.

The Best Rice Cooker for Control Freaks: Cuckoo CR-0655F Rice Cooker and Warmer

While the Hamilton Beach 34758 performed excellently in all of the tests we conducted, the Cuckoo CR-0655F rice cooker was another consistently strong performer. Given its slightly higher price point relative to the Hamilton Beach, we decided to recommend the Cuckoo only for those home cooks who are quite serious about rice. Similarly, while another rice cooker performed marginally better than the Cuckoo CR-0655F, its much higher price compelled us to recommend the Cuckoo, instead.

Other than its good performance, the Cuckoo has a relatively small kitchen-counter footprint, an attractive exterior, and a number of different cooking presets, including one for germinated brown rice (GABA). While the control panel isn't as intuitive as we'd like, once you get used to operating it, the Cuckoo offers up a range of customization options, including how long to soak your rice, how long to heat it, and at what temperature to cook it, which is particularly useful for cooks who regularly purchase and eat different varieties of rice, including "new crop" rice, or rice that has been harvested relatively recently.