10 Best Rice Cookers In 2023 With Intelligent Cooking, Chic Designs & More
From smart rice cookers with customisable settings to sleek designs that look good on the countertop
A must-have kitchen appliance for every Singaporean household, the process of cooking rice is simplified with the help of a rice cooker since it is as easy as filling the pot with rice and water.
However, for beginners, you will need to consider its capacity and learn about the amount of rice and water required to serve the number of people in your family. It's no uncommon for newbies to encounter mushy and almost porridge consistency, as well as hardened and burnt rice.
How to choose a rice cooker
Don't make a common mistake – thinking that you can't go wrong with a large capacity (1.8 litres) rice cooker. Well, the size is subjective since it correlates to how many people are in your household, what are your cooking habits like, and if you are all for keeping leftover rice for the next meal.
It can also work as a multicooker, where it has cooking functions like steaming, baking, and cooking up dishes like soup, meat and vegetables. You should take these into consideration before purchasing a rice cooker.
A small cooker may be better
For context, a rice cooker with a 1.8 litres capacity is able to feed up to 8 pax, and it is also not sound nor energy efficient to heat up a large pot with just a quarter of rice filled. Having a large rice cooker sitting on our kitchen countertop, which is only used once a month, does not make sense to me.
If you are looking to get the right-sized appliance, here's a curated list of rice cookers that look stylish and function perfectly to whip up fluffy white rice. It also includes various sizes from small 0.8L to large 5L capacities for larger three-gen households. Uncle Roger will approve.
My mother used to have something like this for her rice cooker, with a distinct rounded body with aluminium inner pot. This rice cooker works and it is definitely easy to operate with the one and only auto switch button just like this one from PowerPac, since I was also tasked to cook rice at the tender age of ten years old for my mother.
In addition, this rice cooker also comes with an additional steam tray that you can opt to have your dishes steamed and cooked all together with your rice for optimal multi tasking. The durable and sturdy aluminium inner pot holds up to 1.8 litres of rice that serves up to 8 pax, and it has a non-stick coating that helps with the washing and cleaning up after.
PowerPac 1.8L rice cooker with steamer and aluminium inner pot PPRC8 is on sale at $39.90 from PowerPac.
For smaller households, you can consider a rice cooker with an appropriate capacity of 1 litre that fills up to 5 cups of uncooked rice. The rice cooker design by Iona is also unlike traditional rice cookers that we may be used to.
The chic Iona digital rice cooker offers two colour choices of beige and a good pop of red. With the minimal and clean design, the rice cooker may be mistaken for rice storage instead, as the digital display and buttons are all located on the top. Above, you will find 6 quick cooking menu buttons with 4 control buttons to set the timer up to a 24-hour delay timer.
Iona 1.0L digital rice cooker with steamer is retailing at $54 from Shopee.
Short on time and want to whip up a full meal with rice all at once? With a 3-litre capacity in the Bear multi-function rice cooker, you will also be getting the functions of a steamer and slow cooker in one, to prepare soup and healthy steamed food for your little ones.
As it is equipped with a built-in micro-computer chip, the rice cooker comes with intelligent cooking capabilities with smart temperature control, 24-hour time preset functions, and pre-programmed settings for temperature and cooking duration. The Bear rice cooker is available in 2 sizes, 2 and 3 litres which will be suitable for families with children.
Bear 3L rice cooker digital multi-function DFB-B30R1 is on sale at $58.90 from PowerPac.
If you care deeply about how a rice cooker should look on your kitchen countertop, then you can consider going for the fashionable and home brand, Bruno as they are known for their minimal yet charming coloured appeal in kitchen appliances.
The compact rice cooker by Bruno is petite and smaller than a regular kettle, with the rice capacity being able to serve up to 2 people. Unlike the standard rice cooker, the Bruno rice cooker comes with a clear glass lid with a touch of gold for its handle. Comes in delightful colour choices of ivory and light blue rice cooker too!
Bruno 1.2 compact rice cooker is available at $79 from HipVan.
Decked in a contemporary Scandinavian white and wood style, the Mimica digital rice cooker by Mistral. The 0.5L capacity is perfect for individuals or small households as it is small but mighty, equipped with fuzzy logic technology and a microprocessor ensuring perfectly cooked food over 9 cooking functions, beyond just rice.
It is safe to operate, with a removable non-stick pot, washable steam vent, and detachable inner aluminum lid making cleaning fuss-free and simple. Available in both white and black to fit into most kitchen interiors.
Mistral 0.5L mimica digital rice cooker MRC16C is retailing at $79 from Harvey Norman.
A user-friendly control panel featuring easy-to-use buttons and a clear digital display in this Tefal rice cooker allows you to select from various cooking modes and adjust settings in a breeze. Despite its simple design, the rice cooker is built with smart fuzzy logic technology for precision and automatic settings adjustments.
This innovative rice cooker of 8 cooking programmes with a capacity of 1.8 litres is great for everyday use, especially for families with children to promote eating healthy homecooked food.
Tefal easy fuzzy logic 1.8L rice cooker RK7321 is available at $89 from Harvey Norman.
Known for its state-of-the-art technology and affordability, the Xiaomi rice cooker is no exception with its smart app connectivity to its world of Mi home ecosystem. Why would you need a rice cooker to be smart, you may ask. Rather than having all the cooking functions as buttons, the sleek and smart rice cooker uses NFC technology that allows you to select the cooking functions via the official app, keeping the design clean and minimal.
The downside to the Xiaomi smart rice cooker is that everything from the buttons, to the guide book, is in its native Chinese language, making it less friendly for non-Chinese users. That aside, you can easily get a Xiaomi smart rice cooker in various series and sizes up to 5 litres for different cooking requirements.
Xiaomi Mijia 5L smart rice cooker retails at $99.36 from Shopee.
Here is one of the latest and most interesting features of a rice cooker – the low-carb rice cooker with up to 30% reduction in carbohydrates for better health benefits overall. On top of the inner pot, there is an additional low-carb stainless steel pot in this Toyomi rice cooker to drain out any excess sugar and impurities. You get the touch buttons on the lid of the rice cooker to select how hard or soft you want your low-carb rice to be.
Furthermore, this Toyomi rice cooker also has an instant heat function that you can use to do simple stir-frying with the ceramic pot accessory included, along with an up to 72-hour delay timer too. Sleek and stylish looks with the black and white colour options, the 0.8-litre capacity enables you to cook for up to 5 pax.
Toshiba 0.8L smartdiet micro-com rice cooker RC 2080LC is retailing at $108 from MegaFurniture.
If you are kiasu and want every function possible in your rice cooker, then you can go for this pressure cooker and rice cooker duo by Toyomi. What makes it a pressure cooker is its ability to combine the benefits of steam and pressure to lock in the flavours and speed up cooking by 40%.
The versatility of this 2-in-1 cooker enables you to save space to fit multiple appliances on your limited countertop space, as both stainless steel pot and ceramic pot will be included to maximise its use. You get to choose between classic black with red accents or matte white with black accents for your efficient and multi-functional cooker from Toyomi.
Toyomi 2L micro-com pressure cooker & rice cooker with duo pot PC 2001 is available at $122 from Toyomi.
Meet the award-winning induction Philips rice cooker, which is recognised for its good and user-friendly design by the iF Design Award in 2022. Induction heating, or IH in short, uses electromagnetic induction to optimise three-dimensional heating rather than the usual heating element that heats from the bottom.
Intelligent cooking allows you to customise the taste and texture of your rice from fluffy rice to crispy fried rice with a 5-level taste selection. Choose from up to 18 programs to optimise the perfect rice dish to your liking.
Philips 4L induction digital rice cooker HD4539/62 retails at $165 from Harvey Norman.
Text: Jyn Teo/Home & Decor