We Tried 9 Ben's Original Microwave Rice Products And Ranked Them

Rice may be the ultimate pantry staple. As versatile as any food can get, it can act as the base for a hearty dinner or a quick and filling snack, and leftover rice can even be transformed into breakfast food. But if we're being honest, achieving the dream of tender, fluffy rice is an uphill battle. For this reason, many folks reach for instant rice instead.

When it comes to instant rice brands, few are as iconic as Ben's Original (formerly Uncle Ben's). The company is known for its innovative recipes, which make cooking rice a heck of a lot more convenient than it normally is. Ben's Original products come pre-cooked or cook up quickly in a microwave, making them a great option for an emergency food supply or when you're whipping up a rice-based dinner on the fly — no rice cooker or expert skills required.

I got my hands on nine of Ben's Original's most popular rice products to try, then ranked them from worst to best. I judged these products based on flavor, consistency, texture, and convenience to determine which ones deserve a spot in your pantry — and which are better left on the grocery store shelf. So ready the microwave, grab your favorite rice-fluffing fork, wait for it to cool (please), and dig in as I sample some classic (and new) Ben's Original products.

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

Ben's Original Street Food line of products are designed to act as a complete meal, while the instant rice often serves as an accompaniment. The Teriyaki-Style Rice with Chicken Street Food meal sounded promising on paper, with pineapple, bell peppers, carrots, garlic, and ginger. While it was a quintessential teriyaki dish, that's exactly why it was the most disappointing.

The first thing I noticed after taking it out of the microwave was how brown it was. I anticipated pops of color from veggies and strips of tender, juicy chicken nestled among fluffy rice, but that wasn't the case. There was barely any chicken save for some tiny, pinkie nail-sized bits; these added nothing to the meal and did little to distract from its oatmeal-like mushiness and lack of veggies.

I could tell just by looking at this meal that the rice would be incredibly mushy, so that wasn't much of a shock. But what did surprise my senses was the flavor, as there was virtually no salty-sweetness typical of teriyaki. Rather, it was all garlic — just pure, unadulterated garlic that hit me like a smelly, pungent truck. Even if I love garlic, teriyaki is about so much more than that distinctly savory allium. It needs a bright pop of ginger and rich sugary sweetness to balance it out. Although ginger and brown sugar are listed as ingredients, they were completely covered in a blanket of garlicky, mushy rice, so it ranks last.

Jasmine rice is one of the best types of rice to keep stocked, so this jasmine Ready Rice is a great pantry addition — in theory, that is. You'll find this rice in nearly every Thai meal, and its hearty, fluffy texture makes it a great option for curries and stir-fries. But the rice in this Ben's Original bag doesn't do jasmine rice justice, so it ends up near the bottom.

Filled with pre-cooked rice, these bags only take 90 seconds in the microwave to be hot and ready. But despite the convenience, I don't think I would opt for this jasmine rice over raw rice. I broke up the grains by squeezing the bag, per the instructions, before opening the bag to let it vent and microwaving it. I spent a good while — until my fingers were sore, in fact — breaking up the solid block of rice grains. Yet after dumping it out on a plate, I noticed a significant amount of gummy, mushy chunks of rice (it looked more like dried globs of Elmer's glue) that wouldn't have been possible to break up.

This Ready Rice's only saving grace (and what kept it from last place) was its iconic flavor. Jasmine rice is known for its nutty and slightly floral taste, and this Ben's Original product was clearly jasmine rice through and through. It had a buttery flavor, likely from the addition of canola and sunflower oil, that was far from unpleasant.

Few items are more comforting than a steaming bowl of hearty fried rice, and Ben's Original Fried Rice cup is ready to eat after only 3 ½ minutes in the microwave. Just add water to the fill line, nuke it, let it cool a bit and absorb the water fully (this takes about 3 additional minutes after microwaving), then it's done. It has peas, carrots, and seasoning, but that's it, making it lackluster for a fried rice meal (which is usually known for being chock full of various veggies and proteins).

Still, this convenient cup had all the flavors of fried rice from your favorite Chinese take-out spot, keeping it above the two lower-ranked entries. It was garlicky, savory, and had a touch of sweetness in the seasoning.

My qualms with this product really came down to the lack of anything besides, well, rice. The peas were shriveled and minimal, and I wouldn't have known it contained carrots if it didn't explicitly say so on the package. To eat this rice right out of the cup on a lunch break is to be disappointed, but it has promise if used as a base for a dinner. With added chicken, shrimp, snow peas, or whatever else you like in your fried rice, it could be delicious. But that kind of defeats the purpose of its ready-to-eat convenience, so it ranks seventh.

I tried two of Ben's Original Street Food products, and of the two, the Honey BBQ Flavored Rice with Chicken came out on top when compared to the Teriyaki-Style meal — no contest. Although I still had some qualms with the Honey BBQ meal (hence only ranking sixth), it had a lot more going for it in the flavor and ingredient department than the Teriyaki meal did.

This comes with long-grain brown rice, corn, peppers, chicken, onions, tomatoes and beans, all drenched in a sticky BBQ sauce and a smokey seasoning. BBQ sauce is an underrated player when it comes to the best sauces to serve with rice, and the combo certainly works in this Ben's Original meal. There were bigger chunks of chicken in the Honey BBQ bowl compared to the Teriyaki-Style meal, and a lot more going on in general.

It had plenty of beans and chunks of hearty veggies, while the sauce was a balanced mix of smoky, sweet, salty (but not too salty), and savory. Still, the rice was exceptionally mushy and gummy, which really distracted from the generally decent flavor of the dish.

Much to my surprise, the jasmine rice in the quick-cook cup was vastly different in flavor and texture than the jasmine Ready Rice. It took a little longer for the rice to absorb all of the water after the 3 ½ minute cook time compared to the other rice quick-cook cups, but once I let it stand for about five minutes? The water had been absorbed and the rice looked light and fluffy — nothing like the chunky, gummy mess that was the jasmine Ready Rice.

Now, there wasn't much to anticipate with this rice cup. Although it can be eaten right from the cup, it doesn't have any seasonings or additions to make it meal (or even snack) worthy. These cups of jasmine rice are best suited for those who often make meals for one, then, in which breaking out the stock pot or rice cooker is too much of a hassle for a single serving of rice.

This had the same buttery, floral flavor that the jasmine Ready Rice had, but the grains were more defined and not clumpy whatsoever. The grains were very small, though, making the rice look a bit like quinoa. A lot of recipes require long-grain rice, which makes this jasmine rice cup not very versatile, so it comes in fifth place.

Even though you can take some shortcuts when making Spanish rice, having Spanish-style rice ready to go in less than four minutes is like a blessing from the food gods. Ben's Original makes this possible with its rice cups — just add water, heat, and eat (or add to a recipe). This Spanish-style rice has just tomatoes and peppers, so it could use some sprucing up to be dinner-ready. 

Now, this didn't provide the punch of zesty, tomatoey flavor that Spanish rice should, and it could have had a little more spice and complexity. The tomato taste was shallow and mild, as well, but it did have a bright, herbaceous flavor that could work well in a variety of dishes (like paella) without compromising other flavors in the meal. As a standalone dish or a side, though, it's just not flavorful enough.

Of course, at this point in the rankings, I've come to learn that the texture of the quick-cooked rice cups is far better than that of the Ready Rice pouches and the Street Food meals. Since this Spanish rice was light and fluffy, with just the right amount of sticky, it earns fourth place. The grains of rice were much longer than those in the jasmine rice cup, so they felt satisfying to munch on, as opposed to disappointingly dissolving in my mouth.

The Spanish Style Ready Rice pouch could not have been more different than the Spanish style rice in the quick-cook cup. I expected to enjoy the cup of Spanish rice more than the parboiled pouch, since the texture of the food in the cups was much more satisfying overall. That was the case for the Spanish rice; this Ready Rice pouch yielded a mushy and gummy final product, albeit less so than the jasmine rice pouch. But the reason the Spanish rice in the pouch lands a bit higher on this list than the cup option is thanks to its vivid flavor.

Just by looking at the rice, I could see it would be much more of a flavor explosion than the mild cup of Spanish rice. It has a rich, dark red color with visible flakes of seasoning throughout. It's lightly salted with plenty of tart tomato, fresh-tasting herbs, garlic, and a hint of sweetness. With a little extra added veggies and maybe some protein, the seasoning in this Ready Rice could easily carry the bulk of the flavor in a meal — if you can look past the mushiness, at least — so it cracks the top three.

When you're tired of whipping up meals with plain rice, lemon and herbs can give rice a boost of bright flavor, while keeping it versatile enough for use in plenty of meals. Interestingly, the flavor of the Lemon & Herb Ready Rice from Ben's Original surprised me in a good way — more than any other product on this list. It was significantly less salty than I thought it would be, and the lemon flavor wasn't what I expected.

This had a creamy quality — almost like a lemony dessert — but paired with bright, slightly tangy dill and peppery parsley, it was plenty savory. Still, despite its excellent flavor, like the other Ready Rice products? This rice was a bit too gummy to land in the top spot on this list (even though it wasn't as chunky and mushy as the jasmine rice pouch).

To put this Ben's Original product's excellent flavor to use while masking the mush, this rice could work well in a quick and easy Greek avgolemono soup. Or you could try mixing it with some ground meat and bread crumbs, and creating a stuffing for peppers or zucchini. If you don't mind the too-soft texture, this rice is dying to act as a side dish with a salmon dinner, preferably with some asparagus.

After an epic showdown of rice — grain against grain, mushy versus tender – we come to the champion of Ben's Original products. The roasted chicken flavored rice quick-cook cup came out on top thanks to an ideal texture and flavor that was unique yet familiar.

Let's start with its texture. Like the other quick-cook cups, this rice leaned more soft than firm, but it wasn't nearly as clumpy as the Ready Rice pouches. It was firm enough to hold up in a stir fry, but soft enough to use as stuffing for vegetables or making rice patties. Although there weren't any actual chunks of chicken in the roasted chicken flavored rice, it still had plenty of savory poultry flavor, complemented by bright herbs and sweet veggies. This rice actually gave me a hearty dose of nostalgia with its likeness to chicken noodle soup, as well.

Like the iconic soup, the slightly complex flavors here are comforting, and would be made even more cozy with some added chicken stock to create an instant soup from the rice cup. Additionally, the right amount of salt was balanced by an equal dose of umami and sweetness for a microwave meal that's perfectly delicious on its own. But it could be made into a memorable, elaborate dinner, too, with a little added protein and more veggies. The flavors are versatile enough that you can add just about any ingredients to bulk it up, further cementing its first place spot.

To rank these microwave-friendly products from Ben's Original, I prepared each one according to package directions. For the Ready Rice pouches, I chose to heat them in the microwave to test out their most convenient preparation method.

I based my ranking primarily on the flavor and texture of each product, factoring both aspects in equal measure. Normally, flavor trumps other aspects when I'm ranking a product, but when it comes to rice, texture is arguably the most significant factor to consider. I also compared similar products (like the Street Food meals and the two versions of Spanish and jasmine rice) to one another to determine which was better and more deserving of a higher spot in the ranking (and a spot in your pantry).

In addition to flavor and texture, I based my judgements on each product's ability to act as a standalone meal — sans any add-ins or upgrades. I also factored in, albeit slightly, the convenience of each rice product, favoring those that were quicker and easier to prepare.