Instant Pot Jasmine Rice

Jasmine rice is a sweetly scented, slightly sticky rice – perfect when paired with spicy creamy Thai curries! I love basmati rice with Indian food, but I’d never dream of serving it with Thai food. Gosh, do I sound like a rice snob? Probably. But when it comes to Thai cuisine, there is no substitute for jasmine rice. Jasmine rice is a long grain rice like basmati, but it’s a little chubbier and certainly stickier. I remember one of the first times we ordered food from our neighborhood Thai restaurant (our now favorite), we ordered these “stir-fry” dishes that actually have quite a bit of sauce to them. But they didn’t come with a side of rice! We sort of just assumed that all Thai food came with a side of jasmine rice. Anyway, by the time we realized, we were already back at home with a movie ready to watch and Thai food ready to eat. But no rice. And can you even eat Thai food without rice? What a dilemma, right? It was entirely too late to walk allll the way down the street back to the restaurant (read: lazy) so I decided to make some jasmine rice in my instant pot instead. We chilled on the couch and started our movie and soon enough the rice was done. Dinner saved. I was definitely a hero that night.

The Key to Perfect Jasmine Rice:

I know there are a lot of jasmine rice recipes out there in the world, but I think my instant pot method is pretty great. I heat up oil and swirl it around the bottom of the pot, then I add rice, water and salt. So simple but so good.