10 Best Instant Rice Brands, Ranked

Instant rice seems to be a divisive topic in the food world. While some people live off of the pre-cooked, dehydrated rice (because why make your own when you can boil it in a bag?), others — like the family I was raised in — may scoff at the stuff. I grew up always having a rice cooker in my house, so up until now, I never really needed (nor wanted) to try instant rice. But I can't help but appreciate how inexpensive and easy instant rice is, let alone the fact that you can have it ready and on the table in less than 10 minutes, whereas properly cooked rice can take upwards of an hour. 

I put all of the stereotypes about this food product to the side to rank some of the most popular brands of instant rice available at grocery stores near my home in Rhode Island. But since these brands can be found nationwide, you'll likely come across them wherever you purchase food. I examined each brand's flavor and consistency, among other factors, to determine which would be the best one for both eating solo and as an accompaniment to stews, curries, and the like. 

Ben's Original Ready Rice pouches were priced slightly higher than Golden Star, even though it's made with conventionally grown ingredients rather than organic ones. Like other pouches, this one was pretty simple to make; it just instructed me to mush up the rice, heat it in the microwave for 90 seconds, and then dig in. This brand also notes that you could cook it in a skillet with an extra 2 tablespoons of water, but I can't help wondering why anyone would ever want to make something as simple as instant rice any less instant. 

This rice was the only brand that I audibly said, "Well, yep, that's instant rice all right." It was gummy, mushy, and almost like biting into a couch cushion. I could immediately taste the rancid oil inside of this packet, as well as a stale overtone that ruined any hopes that this rice would actually be good. The grains are definitely plump and soft, but the flavor just sent this one tumbling down to the bottom of my list. 

Moreover, I think you might be able to get away with this rice if it was coated in a seasoning, as many of Ben's Original products are. But if the original flavor is just plain bad, the brand might have to go back to the drawing board before it tries anything new. 

Minute rice was the brand I was most familiar with coming into this ranking, as I've eaten many of its products before during my college years (solely out of necessity). The familiar red box was priced nearly a dollar more than the Great Value brand and required a similar cooking time. I needed to cook it in the microwave with equal parts water for about five minutes before letting it stand for another five minutes.

10 minutes total cooking time seems a bit excessive for a product marketed as "Minute rice" — but who am I to say? The first time I made this rice, it flopped. It came out too dry, even though I followed the 1-to-1 ratio. It also managed to get hot enough to crack my favorite glass measuring cup. So, I redid the recipe again to account for human error. The second time around, it turned out slightly more favorable. The kernels were remarkably white, which was seemingly more unsettling than the brown-ish rice products that I sampled. 

Minute rice, in short, is a flavorless bowl of mush. And that says a lot, because rice, in general, is a flavorless bowl of mush. The Minute rice grains had the consistency of cauliflower rice; they're gritty, coarse, and lacked any assemblage of flavor. The only reason this brand didn't place last is because it didn't taste rancid — which was pretty much impossible, because it didn't really taste like anything.

I tasted Seeds of Change toward the end of my review process, when I thought I had already seen (and tasted) the good, the bad, and the ugly of instant rice. This brand's original jasmine rice has a beautiful label touting claims of "organic" and "no preservatives." But it's what's on the inside that counts. And judging by the taste of this packet, I think I've seen enough. 

This rice definitely has jasmine's signature consistency and fluffiness. But it's just plain mushy. The rice all came out of the packet in a single clump, which was the canary in the coal mine when it came to predicting what it was going to taste like. I couldn't really derive any flavor from this rice. It was merely spongy, long-grain rice. The brown color was also a little bit unappetizing. Overall, I think if you were using this rice as a base for a curry or meat dish, you wouldn't really care what it tastes like. But since this roundup is for the best of the best, I can't help but push this one near — but not on — the bottom of this list.

Carolina is a reputable name in the rice world, so I had high hopes for its aromatic long-grain jasmine rice. The instructions on this pouch were similar to the others; cook it for 90 seconds before slicing off the top of the bag and enjoying. I wouldn't classify this rice as "aromatic" — because it just kind of tastes like rice. When I think of "aromatic," I think brimming of spices or something more complex than what every other rice in this roundup smelled like. The grain size itself is on-par with the long-grain descriptor, and I didn't notice any issues with the grains clinging to one another. It was rather fluffy and textured — just as long-grain rice should be. 

The place where I noticed the biggest issues with this brand was the flavor. I could detect some oiliness from this rice, which tasted rancid on my palate. I also thought the grains were slightly underdone, especially when they came out of the package dry and crumbly rather than soft and plush. I wouldn't eat it with other things or use it in a jambalaya, and I sure as heck wouldn't eat it straight from the bag — which earned it a low spot on this list. 

With a name like Success, it has to be good — right? At this point in the ranking, I kind of hoped so. Honestly, this brand tastes exactly like Great Value and follows the same exact cooking instructions; boil in water for 10 minutes before fluffing. But whereas I got a buttery popcorn smell from Great Value's rice, Success' boil-in-bag rice emitted a pungent, burnt popcorn smell; like the one that comes off of an air popping machine. This aroma was also translated into the flavor, which was dry and devoid of anything buttery or welcoming. 

The consistency of this rice was solid and fluffy; the kernels didn't stick together, and each was rather bouncy. But the flavor of this product was lackluster, and it would have the potential to rub off on an otherwise delicious curry recipe. And for that, I had to place it toward the middle of the ranking. It wasn't successful, but it wasn't entirely a flop, either. 

I've had favorable results with Walmart's in-house Great Value products before. I can also appreciate that its products are rather affordable, even if the selection isn't as wide as other brands.

This long-grain enriched white rice required an impressive amount of effort for a pre-cooked product. While the other brands were easy as pie to tear and place into the microwave, the Great Value brand called for each bag of rice (which contains two servings) to be submerged in a quart of water and cooked for 10 minutes in the microwave. I don't know about you, but I would say that this rice really teeters precariously on the title of being an "instant rice." The only factor that really put it in the running was that it was pre-cooked and didn't require the same amount of time as a normal batch of rice. Granted, this brand does offer an instant white rice that is cooked in half the time, but I wanted to include Great Value's boil-in-bag option for the sake of comparison and diversity. 

And if I was going to wait 10 minutes for this rice, it better be spectacular. But alas, it was just rice. I did notice a buttery popcorn smell emulating from this rice, but I couldn't taste any sort of seasoning on it. The grains were fluffy and well-cooked, though "long-grain" seems to be a stretch for this product. In short, it wasn't worth the 10 minutes of my time. 

Bibigo was the most premium brand of instant rice that I reviewed for this ranking (which seems like an oxymoron). This Korean sticky rice comes in four individual containers that can be heated up in the microwave for about 90 seconds before they're ready to be served. Bring on the bibimbap!

It's important to note here that this product is not the same rice that other brands offer. This type of rice is notoriously difficult to make at home. It requires a long period of steaming, as well as a special rice variety — glutinous rice — to create that spongy and (for lack of a better word) sticky rice. So, if a brand could pack this textural experience into a plastic container and require about 90 seconds of cooking, then by all means, all the more power to it. 

I don't entirely know if I can call this rice "sticky rice." It's sticky because there's too much water in the container, not sticky because the grains are actually glutinous rice (the label didn't confirm what type of rice it was made with). Moreover, I think it would appear flat-out insulting if you served it with a few slices of mango and called it mango sticky rice. I also noticed that the grains had a somewhat old and stale flavor to them that made this product wholly unpleasant to eat. It's a medium-grain rice — but calling it a "sticky rice" seems too big of a jump. 

Nature's Promise is Stop & Shop's in-house natural foods brand. While its products are slightly more expensive than the Stop & Shop store brand itself, I've had favorable results with it in the past (mainly, in the store-bought garlic bread category). This packet, which was priced almost as high as an entire multi-serving box of Minute rice, required a 90-second cook time, in addition to a quick fluff with a fork, before it was ready to serve. 

I don't really know if I was going to classify this rice as "long" grain. It's more-so a medium variety, cosplaying in a long-grain package. Besides the complaint that size matters here, I also couldn't help but notice that this rice dried out rather quickly after it came out of the microwave. The grains were plump, but the actual coating on the outside of each grain was rather parched and dry. It was almost like this rice had the consistency of yesterday's leftover takeout. While this seemingly leftover rice may be a great option for adding to fried rice, it makes for a lackluster addition to your meal. 

The Royal basmati rice packet was the first one that I sampled out of the bunch. Like many of the other packages, it required a cooking time of about 90 seconds. As it was cooking, I could immediately sense how fragrant this rice was; it filled my kitchen with wafts of the basmati smell that I remember from when my parents would cook this type of rice when I was a kid.  

The grains on this rice were definitely long and slender, so I could immediately tell that it was basmati rice. The color of this rice was sand-like — and frankly, it didn't look very appetizing. Moreover, although basmati rice is supposed to be somewhat soft, I found that Royal's product really squished underneath my molars more than I was comfortable with. The rice itself wasn't sticky, which was on-par with the basmati style, but the gumminess of the grains pushed it back slightly in my ranking. You probably wouldn't be able to decipher this if the rice was underneath a bed of sauce or meat, but eating it straight from the bag was not a pleasant experience. However, since it was one of the few brands that stayed true to its grain classification, I have to give credit where credit is due. 

Golden Star was definitely a more premium product than the other brands, like Minute and Great Value, as referenced by its significantly higher per-ounce cost. Right off the bat, it's not the product that I would select to feed a family of five, considering that it comes in small pouches, but it may be a convenient option for folks who are looking for a one-off accompaniment for a ready-to-eat pack of curry. The benefit to the pouch is that you don't need to add any extra liquid to it; just vent it open and microwave on high for about a minute and a half. 

I didn't rank this product higher than the others merely because of its organic status, but rather because it stuck out as was one of the only options for organic instant rice in any of the grocery stores that I visited. However, I do give it high marks for its buttery flavor — which isn't something that I found was true with the other brands. I sense that this stems from the inclusion of salt and canola and sunflower oil on the ingredients list. While some consumers might be alarmed, the truth is that these ingredients really make this rice a pleasure to eat, both as an accompaniment to curry or solo. 

The grains were fluffy, jasmine-like, and right on the money when it comes to instant rice. All of which rightfully earned Golden Star's product the top spot. 

I chose brands that were widely available at grocery stores like Walmart and Stop & Shop for this review. There are several different factors that I considered as I prepared and ate each one of these instant rice products. The first was the ease of preparing. Instant rice is supposed to be just that — instant — so I ranked products lower that had a lot of preparation steps or took far too long to make. I also examined if each rice product was reflective of the style and type it was advertising, whether sticky rice or basmati. Then, I assessed the flavor and consistency of each one. I was looking for a rice that was perfectly hydrated, with plump grains and a mild, pleasant flavor that could be enjoyed both as a side dish and as a base for curries, soups, and more.  

Of course, instant rice can be elevated with flavorful ingredients like cheese (anything from a classic shredded cheddar to Parmesan or even gorgonzola would do the trick), spices, herbs, or merely a pat of butter. But for the purpose of this ranking, each product was simply prepared according to the package directions, and then taste tested while hot.