How To Salvage Burnt Rice

How to reclaim your dinner and sanity

Cooking stovetop rice sounds easy enough, but there are plenty of ways for it to go wrong: the pot of water boils and overflows, it comes out too mushy or undercooked, or the worst of all outcomes, it burns. Then not only did you waste perfectly good grains of rice, but now you have to start the cooking process all over again.

Though there is no magical way to bring burnt rice back to life, you can salvage what's left by scooping it into a new pan.

Usually, the unburnt rice sitting on top is still good and can be saved by transferring it to a new pan.

Depending on the stage of the cooking process, you might have to add a little more liquid to the pan so the rice can finish cooking. (Of course, if you look down in your pot and the rice is burnt to a crisp, you're better off starting over.)

Now you have an action plan the next time this happens to you. (But, hopefully, there isn't a next time.)