The best rice cookers deliver restaurant-style fluffy rice, regardless of what variety you’re cooking. Simply add rice and water, and a quality rice cooker will give you delectable basmati, white, or brown rice - whichever takes your fancy, and fluffy enough to be the envy of all your neighbors.
When it comes to rice cookers, you want a trustworthy appliance, as there’s nothing worse than soggy rice. So, we have sifted through some of the best rice cookers on the market right now, from brands including Aroma and Zojirushi, assessing some of the most convenient settings including reheat functions, auto shut-off, and non-stick interior cooking pots, so you won’t waste precious time scraping burnt rice from the bottom.
For a feelgood rice cooking experience all round, premium picks have ‘fuzzy logic’, which helps you cook different types of rice to perfection, while others have built-in steam baskets, so you can steam veggies and fish at the same time and produce a well-rounded, hassle-free meal.
While perfect rice is the goal, some rice cookers also double up as a risotto maker or soup maker, too, giving you the ultimate value for money. Whether you’re looking to cultivate your culinary skills or simply want perfectly fluffy rice, these are the best rice cookers to shorten cooking times, fight sticking, and facilitate reheating for whenever you feel peckish. If these don’t quite fit the bill, we also have a look at the best Instant Pots for multi-cooking, and the best slow cookers, for hearty, one-pot meals.
1. Zojirushi NS-TSC10 Rice Cooker: Best overall rice cooker
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The Zojirushi NS-TSC10 Rice Cooker is renowned for its great quality and range of features. This rice cooker is the only one we reviewed that has fuzzy logic technology that can correct human error and create delicious rice each time.
The Zojirushi NS-TSC10 Rice Cooker’s capacity is for five and a half cups of uncooked rice which then doubles once cooked. Clever features on the Zojirushi NS-TSC10 Rice Cooker include the function to select what kind of texture you’d like the rice to have, as well as a reheating function and delayed timer.
The in-built steam basket allows you to cook your vegetables at the same time and this rice cooker can even be used to cook alternative dishes such as cakes.
Because the Zojirushi NS-TSC10 Rice Cooker offers premium features, you can expect to pay a little more for it too. It’s the most expensive rice cooker in our buying guide and it will take up quite a bit of counter space, but if you’re serious about rice cooking, this is the machine for you.
2. Aroma 6-Cup Pot-Style ARC-743-1NG Rice Cooker: Best cheap rice cooker
If you need a rice cooker that won’t break the bank but cooks rice with ease, then the Aroma 6-Cup Pot-Style ARC-743-1NG Rice Cooker is the one for you. Available in three different colors, this rice cooker is very easy to use. You simply add your rice and water and switch the machine on.
While it is fairly basic, this rice cooker does have a keep warm function which automatically switches on once the rice is fully cooked. The steam basket will allow you to prepare the accompaniments for your rice at the same time and the inner cooking pot is non-stick so that you won’t have to spend ages scraping rice off the bottom.
3. Oster 20-Cup Digital 003071: Best large rice cooker
The Oster 20-Cup Digital 003071 rice cooker is brilliant at creating large amounts of rice with little effort on your behalf. Creating 20 cups of rice in one go, this is the largest capacity rice cooker we reviewed, and it’s great value for money too.
Like many good rice cookers, the inner-pot has a non-stick coating and this machine also benefits from five cooking functions which span, white rice, soup, brown rice, breakfast, and steam.
Because of the size of it, this rice cooker is pretty heavy and will take up a lot of room on your counters, which is something to consider if you’re short on space.
- Read our Oster 20-Cup Digital 003071 review
4. Aroma ARC-616SB Sensor Logic rice cooker: Best value rice cooker
The Aroma ARC-616SB Sensor Logic rice cooker is a great all-rounder. It isn’t quite as high-spec as the Zojirushi, but for less than $60, you do get a lot for your money.
This rice cooker creates 12 cups of fluffy rice after you add six raw cups into its inner-pot. Complete with a helpful handle, this rice cooker can be used as a food steamer, slow cooker, and a risotto maker too.
Multiple setting choices mean you can also use this rice cooker to create soups and cake. What we liked about the Aroma ARC-616SB Sensor Logic rice cooker is its delay timer so that you can set your machine to come on later in the day.
5. Oster 6-Cup CKSTRCMS65 Rice Cooker: Best small rice cooker
The Oster 6-Cup CKSTRCMS65 Rice Cooker is available at under $30 and while it’s not the snazziest rice cooker money can buy, it’s perfectly functional for anyone who lives alone or a couple.
This rice cooker is super easy to use as it literally requires a flick of a switch to get it working. Because it is cheaper and more basic, the Oster 6-Cup CKSTRCMS65 Rice Cooker does lack a delay timer and the functionality to select which type of rice you are cooking.
What we did like about the Oster 6-Cup CKSTRCMS65 Rice Cooker though is its inner-pot which is made entirely of metal, rather than containing any plastic. For a rice cooker in this price range, this is fairly uncommon.
