This easy baked coconut rice recipe is simple and delicious. No need to babysit a pot of rice, just bake it for perfect rice every time!
Anyone who knows me knows I hate coconut. I don’t like the smell of it and I detest the texture of shredded coconut. But coconut milk is the exception for me. I love the flavour and curries, drinks, and even desserts made with coconut milk are among my favourite things to have! Weird, right?
Coconut rice is up there with my favourites! It’s deliciously creamy and makes a lovely side dish! Perfect with thai curries, barbecued meats, fish and pretty much anything, really!
I used to make coconut rice over the stove which required babysitting to make sure there was enough liquid in the pot. It sometimes came out beautifully, and other times was too mushy for my liking.
For years, I have been baking my regular rice in the oven and so I decided I would give coconut rice a try too and see if it worked out. I am happy to report that it does, and that I will be making it this way from here on out!
Zero babysitting required. I just set it everything in a baking dish, cover it with foil and let the oven do the work. When its done, the coconut cream will have settled on the top of the rice, but a quick fluff with a fork and it is well blended and perfect! No mushy rice here! Just perfect coconut rice!
Why you should be baking your rice
Baked rice is not the typical cooking method for rice. Most people I know cook it stove top and while this may work for many, I personally have always found this method hit and miss. Baking for me is the most consistent method and has the best results for a number of reasons.
- Perfect, consistent results every single time.
- It is hands off. Set the timer and let the oven do the work while you are free to do other things.
- The rice comes out fluffy – no mushiness here.
How to prevent mushy rice
There is nothing worse than mushy rice, in my opinion. That is why I love this baked method. It produces perfect rice that isn’t mushy. There are a few basic things you need to do to ensure the best results:
- well-rinsed rice: First and foremost, before you even begin cooking rice, its important to rinse the rice well and remove all the excess starch form it. I place the rice a sieve and run it under water until the water runs clear. When the water is clear, you know you have moved all the excess starches. This is step 1 in preventing that dreaded mushiness.
- the correct amount of cooking liquid: Next, you need to cook the rice in the correct amount of liquid. The liquid measurements in the recipe card work perfectly for long grain rice, such as basmati or jasmine rice. It will work with most white rice varieties. Don’t add more and stick to the cooking times for best results. If you find that you require more cooking time, this may come down to oven temperature. You can adjust the recipe by adding a bit more liquid and increasing the temperature for the next time.
- let it rest after baking and then fluffing it with a fork: Finally, once the rice bakes, let it stand, covered for a few minutes. Then, fluff it with a fork and you are done!
Together, these result in fluffy rice without any mush!
What ingredients do you need to make coconut rice?
To make coconut rice, you will need:
- long grain rice, rinsed (basmati, jasmine, or similar)
- canned coconut milk
- water
- olive oil
- salt
How to make Baked Coconut Rice
Baking rice really couldn’t be simpler than the few steps required for this recipe! Essentially, it comes down to these simple steps:
- Boil the coconut milk and water: Boil the coconut milk and water and pour it into your baking dish. It’s important that the milk and water are hot or the dish won’t turn out.
- Mix all of the ingredients together: To the baking dish, add the the rice, oil and salt and stir to combine everything.
- Cover it with foil and bake: Cover the baking dish tightly with foil to prevent steam from escaping and bake it in the oven for 25 minutes.
- Fluff with a fork: Remove the rice from oven and let it rest with the foil still on for 5 minutes. Once the foil is removed, fluff the rice with a fork before serving. Season with as much salt as needed.
That’s it!
I hope you enjoy this recipe! Bon appetit!
-Cathy
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Baked Coconut Rice
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup long grain rice (basmati, jasmin or similar) rinsed until water runs clear
- 1 1/2 cups coconut milk (1 can)
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Boil the coconut milk and water and pour it into your baking dish.
- Add the rice, oil and salt to the baking dish and stir to combine everything.
- Cover the baking dish with foil tightly to prevent steam from escaping and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let it rest with the foil on for 5 minutes. Remove the foil and fluff the rice with a fork before serving. (The coconut cream will settled on the top of the rice when it bakes but it will blend in when you fluff the rice with a fork). Season with as much salt as needed.
Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.
This sounds great! Do you have to grease the dish at all? I have a small dutch oven that I want to make it in, instead of using one pot to boil and a dish to bake. Thanks!!
No need to grease the dish! I use a glass or ceramic dish to cook mine and have never had any issues with sticking. 🙂
can i make in double or triple batch for a crowd?
Absolutely! I have doubled this recipe before and it turns out great!
When doubling or tripling the recipe, do you adjust the cooking time as well or keep it to 25 min?
I have doubled it before without adjusting the cooking time. 🙂
Can I use basmati rice for this recipe?
Hi Rachael! Yes, you can. I often use basmati for this recipe.:)
Hmmm….this didn’t work well for me and I’m not certain why. Needed much longer cooking time at that temperature and still some crunchy grains.
I have always had success using long grain rice, particularly basmati which is my favourite for this recipe. We make this a lot in my house! Brown rice requires longer cooking times so perhaps if you were using that, that may be the issue? Oven temperatures vary as well so it could just mean that you need to bake yours for longer. If that is the case, you may want to add a bit more water when you bake your rice. Hope that helps!
Do you drain the water off the coconut milk?
Hi Karen! No, you use all of the contents of a can of coconut milk in the recipe.
This recipe worked great for me and made exactly the type of fluffy rice I was looking for. I sometimes cook for large groups so being able to do this in the oven will be a real space saver. I am at high altitude and did have to cook the rice an extra 10 minutes for a total of 35 minutes.
So happy you enjoy this recipe! It’s my favourite way to make rice 🙂
Made for a dinner party following recipe exactly with basmati rice. Took around 1 hour to cook with far more water required and came out very unevenly cooked and crunchy in parts, so disappointing. I’ve since tried a different recipe that used more liquid and 45 mins cooking time that worked a lot better. Sorry, but wouldn’t recommend at all.
I’m sorry to hear you had difficulty with my recipe. This is one we make frequently in our home and it works out for us as explained in the recipe. It’s possible you ran into issues due to a change in the recipe (e.g. not covering the rice well to prevent water from evaporating, starting with liquid that is not boiling hot- which would affect the cook time, or perhaps your oven runs at a different temperature).
Omg this wowed me I’ve never bake rice I can’t even cook a decent rice unless it’s a boil bag this was awesome it turn out perfect it was flaky not sticky or gummy !!!! Thanks for sharing!!
A few thing I added was a few slice of butter and grinded some sweet shredded coconut 😎
So happy you enjoyed this! It’s on regular rotation in our home.