You have read a hundred of these
You’re right: most recipe sites are a mix of copy-pasted instructions and ads. We started this because we were tired of seeing rice dishes reduced to ‘boil water, add rice, wait 15 minutes.’ That’s not cooking. That’s assembly.
Every recipe here is built from scratch, not just retyped. We don’t cherry-pick the easy ones—we tackle the tricky ones first. The ones where the rice sticks, the sauce curdles, or the texture turns to mush. Because if we can’t fix it, neither can you.
And if you’ve ever burned a pot of rice or cried over a failed risotto, you know the difference between a recipe and a *method* matters. We focus on the latter.
We know they’re out there—and we’ve written a few ourselves.
Anyone can write that they test things
We test every recipe at least three times, often more. The first batch is for the technique: getting the ratios right, timing the heat, nailing the texture. The second is for adjustments—fixing the salt, tweaking the liquid, or swapping an ingredient that didn’t work. The third?
That’s where we answer the questions we know you’ll have.
Some recipes take 12 hours to perfect—not because they’re complicated, but because we’re stubborn. Like the perfect *arroz con pollo*: we tried five different ways to cook the chicken before we settled on poaching it first. (Yes, that’s overkill. No, we won’t apologize.)
We throw out failed batches without photos. The ones that make it here? They’ve been through the fire—literally, sometimes. And if a recipe doesn’t hold up after five attempts, it doesn’t get published.
You’re assuming we’re lazy—and you’d be right to doubt most sites.
About the author
Rudy Salazar is the founder and editor of *Rice Recipes 101*, where he turns family kitchen lessons into recipes you can actually use.
The rules i work by
- 1No shortcuts in seasoning
Salt is added in stages, not all at once. This means tasting as you go—and yes, it slows things down. But bland food is a crime, and we don’t do crimes.
- 2Rice first, everything else after
The grain is the star. If it’s mushy or dry, no sauce or protein can save it. We cook it first, then build the dish around it. This costs time, but it costs less than ruined rice.
- 3No ‘approximate’ measurements
Cups and ‘pinches’ are for guesswork. We weigh ingredients when precision matters—like rice to liquid ratios—and we’ll never say ‘about 2 tablespoons’ when we mean exactly 1.5.
- 4If it’s not photogenic, it’s not published
This isn’t about pretty plates. It’s about whether the food looks *right*—not staged, not over-edited, just how it should after cooking. If the rice looks sad, we fix it or scrap it.
- 5We answer the question you didn’t ask
Every recipe includes a ‘common mistake’ section. Because we’ve all been there: burning the garlic, overcooking the rice, or wondering why the dish tastes ‘off.’ We call it out up front.
When we break a rule, it’s usually because the recipe demands it. Like the time we let jasmine rice sit in the broth overnight for a Thai curry—against every ‘don’t soak rice’ rule we’ve ever read. The result?
A dish that would’ve been dry and separate if we’d followed the book. Sometimes, the rule is the problem.
This will not be right for everyone
If you want recipes that skip steps, ignore techniques, or treat rice like a filler instead of the main event, this isn’t the place. We’re not here to dumb things down—we’re here to teach you how to do it *right*, even if that means more work.
Close this page now if you’re looking for ‘5-minute microwave rice’ or dishes where the rice is an afterthought. But if you’re willing to put in the effort to cook rice like it matters, stay. The results will.
You could just be told what you want to hear
We’d rather tell you the truth, even if it’s inconvenient. Like how some rice dishes *do* require a pressure cooker, or that certain techniques take practice. We won’t sugarcoat it—and we won’t pretend every recipe is a ‘life hack.’
Worth telling us
- The one technique you’ve always messed up (we’ve all been there).
- What you’d change about a recipe if you could (we’ll test it).
- The dish you’ve tried to make but failed—and why (we’ll diagnose it).
Got something else to say? The contact page is open.
The recipes are grouped by category: Appetizers, Beverages, Breakfast & Brunch, Desserts, Main Courses and Salads.