The Best Rice Cookers (Review) in 2020

One of the most popular rice cookers on the market this year, the Aroma 8-Cup Digital Cool Touch Rice Cooker not only comes at a reasonable price, but with a bunch of useful features that make rice cooking a piece of cake. A great multipurpose large capacity cooker, the Aroma cooks up to 4 cups of rice (8 cups cooked) or other grains, while steaming meat and veggies at the same time in the steamer. The Unique Sensor Logic tech enables the cooker to ‘think’ for itself and optimize cooking temperature to enhance flavor and texture.

 Easy to use and program, the cooker offers the presets for white and brown rice, slow cooking and steaming. There is also a 15-hour Delay Timer that enables flexible meal planning, and a Keep-Warm setting that turns on immediately after the food’s been cooked, so there’s no need for monitoring at all. And that’s not all – the cooker also has a Quick Rice option, which slashes cooking time by a whopping 50%. Finally, the cooker comes with a few useful accessories, including a steam tray, measuring cup, serving spatula and recipes.

If you’re looking for a large capacity rice cooker that is super affordable and easy to clean, you’ve found it – it’s the Black+Decker RC516 cooker. This appliance can hold up to 16 cups of cooked rice, or 8 cups of raw rice, which makes it perfect for making large meals. There is an automatic Keep Warm feature, which takes over the minute the rice has been cooked, so you can say goodbye to cold, tasteless rice forever. Of course, this handy cooker also comes with a steaming basket, which makes preparing veggies, meat and fish easy and quick. Plus, you can always use it for preparing soups, stews and other grains, including oatmeal.

Importantly, the Black+Decker cooker’s nonstick bowl is completely removable and dishwasher safe, which means once you’re done using it, you can just throw it in the dishwasher. As a bonus, the cooker comes with a few accessories, including the steaming basket, a cup, and a spoon.

A high-quality, large capacity, the ultra-multipurpose cooker that works with fuzzy-logic? The Zojirushi NS-TSC10 checks all the boxes and then some. This versatile device is guaranteed to cook delicious white and brown rice every time, steam your meat and veggies to perfection, and even bake tasty cakes. It holds 5-1/2-cups of unboiled rice or 10 cups of boiled rice, which makes it perfect for a bit larger meals. And with a variety of cooking functions, including mixed rice, white rice and sushi, porridge, steaming, quick-cooking, and even sweet and cake, you’ll simplify all your cooking endeavors, and save time and effort.

The Zojirushi NS-TSC10 cooker uses a micro-computerized fuzzy-logic tech, which, it’s safe to say, does the thinking for you. It fine-tunes cooking temperature and time according to the type of the food you’re preparing, as well as the timing of pre-soaking of the grains and the ‘wait’ period during steaming. There are also the ever-useful features such as the automatic Keep warm, Extended keep warm, and Reheating cycles. And of course, besides for cooking rice, this cooker can also be used for steaming fish, meat and veggies, preparing porridge, and even baking cakes.

As a bonus, it comes with a spatula, rice cup, and a spatula holder. All in all, a perfect, albeit a bit expensive, multipurpose rice cooker.

If you need a true multipurpose cooker that easily replaces several common kitchen appliances, check out the Instant Pot Duo Mini. This little gizmo is a pressure, slow and rice cooker in one, that can also steam and saute your food and even make yogurt. With advanced microprocessor technology and incredible 11 Smart programmable digital controls, the Instant Pot Duo Mini quickly and perfectly cooks various foods, reducing cooking time by up to 70%. Besides cooking rice, this pressure cooker can also make soup, broth, porridge, meat, veggies, and even yogurt. Basically, it’s perfect not only for home but for traveling and camping as well.

The capacity of this cooker is 6 cups of unboiled rice or 12 cups of boiled rice. As for the handy features, there is the Keep warm feature that keeps food warm up to 10 hours, a 24-hour delay start and smart detection of a leaky lid. The Instant Pot Duo Mini comes with several handy tools, including the rice paddle, soup spoon, a stainless steel steam rack, and a recipe booklet.

Affordable and multi-purposeful, the Hamilton Beach Digital Rice Cooker quickly cooks rice, whole grains and cereal, and steams veggies, seafood and meat. With an 8 cup of cooked rice capacity, it’s easy to prepare quick, nutritious meals in one cooking cycle. In the mood for rice and salmon? You can easily cook white rice while you steam seafood or veggies in the steam basket.

The Hamilton Beach Rice & Hot Cereal cooker has 4 pre-programmed settings, including white rice, whole grains, hot cereal and steam. A convenient countdown timer tells you the remaining cook time, while automatic Keep Warm function makes sure your food is kept warm long after the cook cycle is completed. There are also a few useful accessories, including a measuring cup, serving paddle and the 2-in-1 steam basked that doubles as a rice rinser. As for washing, it’s easy with a nonstick, dishwasher-safe pot.

Square, small and multi-functional, the Cuisinart rice cooker can perfectly cook up to 4 cups of raw rice, or 7 cups of cooked rice, as well as steam meat, fish and veggies in one go. With a Keep Warm function, this cooker automatically keeps the food warm after it’s been cooked, while the traditional lever control with warm and cook settings make the whole cooking process a piece of cake. Besides rice, this little cooker also cooks oatmeal, polenta, couscous, and shrimp, boils eggs and so much more.

To make cooking even easier, the Cuisinart cooker has a steam vent that helps prevent splattering, while the always cold-to-the-touch chrome handles make things safer. The pot itself is nonstick and dishwasher safe, just like all the other removable parts. As for the accessories, when ordering the Cuisinart rice cooker, you also get a cup, rice spoon, and a recipe booklet.

Compact, super-affordable and efficient, the Aroma 6-cup rice cooker is perfect for preparing smaller and healthy meals. If you’re in the mood for some well-cooked, fluffy rice, and veggies and meat, you can easily cook it all at the same time with this rice cooker. And if you can’t eat immediately after the food’s done? No worries, the Keep Warm feature will keep your food warm and delicious long after it’s been cooked.

Besides for rice, the Aroma 6-cup cooker can also be used for cooking whole grains, including oatmeal, amaranth, quinoa and barley. And that’s not even all – if you’re craving some homemade soup, use this little cooker to prepare it, as well as stews, broths, chili and so much more. As for the washing process, it’s made easy with the inner pot and steam tray being dishwasher safe. Of course, a few useful accessories are also included: a tray, measuring cup and spatula.

Another compact and affordable rice cooker, this one by Oster is highly versatile and incredibly easy to use. With a capacity up to 6 cups of cooked, or 3 cups of uncooked rice, and a 1-liter vegetable steamer, the Oster cooker is perfect for preparing smaller meals frequently. It can be used for cooking white rice, whole grains such as barley and quinoa, soups, stews, fondues and more, while the vegetable steamer allows for healthy steaming of all kinds of veggies, meat and fish.

The cooker has an automatic Keep Warm feature that can keep your rice hot long after it’s been cooked, and an Auto-shutoff feature that ensures no food is ever burnt. Of course, with the cooker, you also get a couple of handy tools, including a measuring cup and a non-scratch ice paddle spoon.