Have You ever read the directions for cooking rice and thought “woah, super easy!” then it came out soggy, mushy, and bleh? Maybe rice wasn’t as simple as you thought, but don’t ditch and head straight back to pasta – there’s a food hack that can give you perfect rice every time. You already have it, it’s already in your kitchen (but please, use a clean one). By using a kitchen towel, it does a nifty little trick — it absorbs the condensation that comes off the simmering water, instead of it trickling off the pot lid and back down into the rice, which typically can make it soggy.

So, how does this hack work? First, rinse the rice with cold water into a fine strainer – up to 3x. You’ll even see the starch come off of the rice. Then, put the rinsed rice and measured water into your pot, stirring once (and that’s it! Once! Don’t even think about stirring it again!). Set the burner to medium until it comes to a boil (don’t be an impatient jerk and set it to high, you’ll ruin the whole hack). Once it comes to a boil, start keeping an eye on it until you see the water line hit just below the surface of rice. Then place a kitchen towel over the pot, then the pot lid on top of the towel, sealing as tightly as you can (make sure you put the towel edges up and over the pot lid, so you don’t burn the house down…because then you’ll have bigger problems than mushy rice). Set the timer to 15 minutes and leave it alone. Once the timer goes off, remove from heat, and set the timer again for another 10 minutes. When that timer goes off, remove the pot lid and towel, and fluff with a fork. This hack works perfectly on long grain white rice, basmati, and jasmine.