After 12 hours of research and through thirteen top rated induction rice cookers we are happy to say that the Cuckoo Electric Induction Heating Rice Pressure Cooker is the best induction rice cooker available online! With its convenient make up, consistent quality whether it be white rice or brown, and extremely fast cook times Cuckoo delivers a great induction rice cooker for all of your beautiful, rice eating needs.
Editor's Pick:
Cooking capacity: 3 cups uncooked
Price: $369.99
Dimensions: 15 x 11 x 10 in
Review Score: 9/10
I don’t know about you, but I enjoy having appliances that are smarter than me. This beautiful rice cooker has a LED lit screen that may feel a little overwhelming at first due to the extensive number of options available, but soon you’ll realize that you can make literally any dish in this little gem.
This beautiful rice cooker will make you feel like the chef at a Michelin star restaurant with its sleek gold exterior and proficiency in three languages! Yes, you read that right – this rice cooker is multilingual! Cuckoo even incorporated an intelligent cooking algorithm to take all the frustrating guesswork out of cooking! You can’t mess up with this one.
Runner Up:
Cooking capacity: 5.5 or 10 cups uncooked (depending on selection)
Price: $472.00
Dimensions: 10 1/8 x 15 3/8 x 8 5/8 in
Review Score: 8/10
Have you ever tried those yummy crispy rice snacks at an Asian grocery store but never seemed to figure out how to make them yourself? Worry no longer, because this rice cooker has a preset feature for crispy, golden scorched rice! Does that sound like music to your ears? Good, because this cooker features interchangeable melodies for you to pick from.
Not only do the quick menu settings of this induction rice cooker feature every kind of rice eaten by mankind, but also features a separate umami setting that is unique to this specific brand. Unknown to the Western palate, umami is a fifth taste in addition to sweet, salty, sour and bitter. It translates to “savory”, meaning in this setting, the rice is soaked for a longer period of time and allows the starchy sugars from the rice to completely be released for a greater depth of flavor.
Best Value:
Cooking capacity: 12 cups uncooked
Price: $79.00
Dimensions: 13.18 x 12.2 x 12.5 in
Review Score: 8/10
If you enjoy cooking for large parties, then this rice cooker will definitely match the demand for large quantities. Even if you don’t enjoy cooking in large batches, this cooker will make the job easier with its maximum capacity. Bigger than the sheer size of this device are the numerous extra features that make this much more than just a rice cooker. Its one-touch controls let you turn this appliance into a pressure cooker, rice cooker, sauté pan, steamer, warmer and even a cake maker!
For those of you who live busy lives and are always on the go, this device features a twenty-four hour delay feature in addition to a ten hour automatically activated keep warm feature. What does this mean? You can whip up dinner even before the day starts and come home to warm, hearty and delicious food that’s ready to be served! Meal prep can become a breeze with the help of this handy assistant.
Other Induction Rice Cookers Tested
Cooking capacity: 6 cups uncooked
Price: $530.34
Dimensions: 14.9 x 10.5 x 10.1 in
Review Score: 8/10
Another beautiful rice cooker by Cuckoo, this version also features voice guidance in English, Korean and Chinese. In addition to these smart features, this rice cooker can hold a larger capacity of uncooked rice to feed a larger crowd. Who wouldn’t want more helping of hearty rice? The shiny gray exterior would look lovely against any smooth, granite countertop. For those of you who enjoy cooking, but don’t enjoy the aftermath of dealing with dirty dishes, then you will love the auto steam cleaning option on this model! No more scraping rice off the bottom of the pot for you.
Cooking capacity: 10 cups uncooked
Price: $250
Dimensions: 15.5 x 11 x 9.5 in
Review Score: 7/10
Another Zojirushi rice cooker featuring its special induction heat cooking technology, this one also contains a triple heater in the build. This means that three separate parts, including the bottom of the cooker and the lid, can induce heat to make sure that the food is thoroughly and evenly cooked. It features three separate cooking options for brown rice to promote a healthy diet, which include regular brown rice, GABA brown rice and germinated brown rice. For those of you who don’t prefer the taste of brown rice, you may enjoy germinated brown rice due to its improved taste and texture. There’s also a separate cooking setting for jasmine white rice, which requires a slightly different preparation than other types of rice. The fun part about this cooker is that you’ll hear a sweet melody when its time to eat your perfectly cooked rice! There’s no disappointment there.
Cooking capacity: 10 cups uncooked
Price: $166.49
Dimensions: 11.12 x 15 x 9.87 in
Review Score: 7/10
This unassuming rice cooker is nothing but versatile in its ability to cook a wide variety of rice types to perfection! It can also double as a steamer with the included steam basket and steamer setting. The cooker also features a separate cake setting to make deliciously fluffy pastries! This rice cooker also features microcomputer technology that automatically senses the type of rice being cooked that day to make minor adjustments to temperature and produce perfectly fluffy rice, regardless of the type. This is especially important for both novices and avid rice eaters who want a dependable rice cooker.
Cooking capacity: 4 cups uncooked
Price: $166.49
Dimensions: 10 x 11 x 11 in
Review Score: 7/10
This compact induction rice cooker stores and travels easily for small families, students and those who are always on the go but can’t live without a healthy serving of rice! This one is also the most affordable rice cooker on the list. Don’t be fooled by the size of this pressure cooker because it has the capability of doing seven different things, including making yogurt! Even for those who are new to cooking, the preset options will take care of any issues. Simply throw in all the necessary ingredients and push a button to get started! With a time setting of up to a twenty-four hour delay, you can leave for work in the morning and come back to a nutritious, warm dinner. If you hate cleaning, all the accessories of this rice cooker dissemble to be dishwasher safe.
The nice thing about this device is that it primarily cooks by locking the steam inside and relying on the induced pressure to speed up cooking time. This means that only a minimal amount of the nutrients are lost from the meal during the cooking process, ensuring that you’re eating a healthy and wholesome diet!
Cooking capacity: 6 cups uncooked
Price: $99.99
Dimensions: 11.2 x 14.8 x 9.5 in
Review Score: 6/10
This white induction rice cooker comes in a no frills, compact and reliable design that will snugly fit into a corner on the countertop. The unique part about this particular rice cooker is that it comes with a ceramic inner pot, which is much healthier to eat from compared to the basic nonstick pots that tend to come with most basic rice cookers. This not only makes the pot stovetop safe should a transfer ever be necessary, but also pH balanced to promote good health.
For those of us guilty of being clumsy in the kitchen, the exterior of this cooker features a cool-touch surface, protecting us from burns! There’s also a convenient handle to move the rice cooker with, preventing butter fingers from letting the cooker slip. The settings on this device are perfect for a novice chef, with options preset for various types of rice, porridge, grains, reheat feature, soup, steam, slow cook and even yogurt! Who knew rice cookers could replace microwaves at their jobs?
Cooking capacity: 5.5 cups uncooked
Price: $316.34
Dimensions: 10 x 14 x 8 in
Review Score: 6/10
This induction rice cooker is one that shouldn’t be judged by its cover. Although the chic gray, stainless steel exterior and simple digital display exude an aura of minimalism, the patented induction heating system preaches the art of perfectly cooked rice. This technology fine-tunes the internal temperature of the cooker throughout the duration of the cooking process. Whether you prefer white rice, brown rice, jasmine rice, sushi rice or enjoy mixing things up, you can experience perfectly cooked rice with each serving!
Cooking capacity: 5.5 cups uncooked
Price: $342.55
Dimensions: 13.9 x 10.2 x 8.4 in
Review Score: 6/10
If you enjoy multi-tasking, then you will love this gem! This appliance not only features an adorable tiger logo, the company’s namesake, but also features patented synchro-cook technology with the detachable Tacook plate. Although there’s a whole lot of science involved behind the heat distribution and convection current that makes this possible, all you have to know is that you can have the side dishes and rice prepped, cooked and served all at the same time! Is this lazy or smart? Both, obviously!
Cooking capacity: 3 cups uncooked
Price: $218.00
Dimensions: 9.12 x 11.87 x 7.5 in
Review Score: 6/10
If you enjoy multi-tasking, then you will love this gem! This appliance not only features an adorable tiger logo, the company’s namesake, but also features patented synchro-cook technology with the detachable Tacook plate. Although there’s a whole lot of science involved behind the heat distribution and convection current that makes this possible, all you have to know is that you can have the side dishes and rice prepped, cooked and served all at the same time! Is this lazy or smart? Both, obviously!
Cooking capacity: 5.5 or 10 cups uncooked (depending on selection)
Price: $202.99
Dimensions: 13.9 x 10.2 x 8.4 in
Review Score: 6/10
For those of you who are extremely picky about the texture of your rice (you know who you are), this is the perfect rice cooker for you. This particular version of the timeless appliance from Tiger features three separate cooking settings for short-grain white rice: plain, ultra and quick. The plain setting speaks for itself, being the most vanilla method of cooking rice. The ultra setting brings out the savory, sticky texture of the starch content in white rice as well as a sweet undertone to the flavor. The quick setting works well for those who forgot about the rice or for those who can’t handle hunger pains, like me!
Cooking capacity: 5.5 or 10 cups uncooked (depending on selection)
Price: $169.00
Dimensions: 10.1 x 13.7 x 8.2 in
Review Score: 6/10
Yet another Tiger rice cooker that features the innovative Tacook plate, you can cook the main dish, side dishes and the rice at once with nothing more than some prep time. The dish prepared on the Tacook plate will slowly cook with the steam produced by the cooking rice, leading to a healthier and more nutritious final product. No unhealthy oils will have to be added to the cooking process! You won’t have to worry about the flavors of the two dishes merging due to Tiger’s innovative design. To help you get started, this rice cooker also comes with a Tacook Cook Book, which will be your expert guide to all the possible one pot meals in this little device.
In addition to that unique capability, this rice cooker comes with ten cooking presets with two separate delay timers and an automatic keep warm setting that works for up to 12 hours. It can also double as a slow cooker depending on your needs.
Why an induction rice cooker?
In all honesty, this isn’t a question you will truly be forced to make when looking at rice cookers nowadays. The vast majority of rice cookers are induction, I don’t think that i’ve seen a non induction rice cooker since my janky old one I took to college with me. The benefits of induction are perfect for cooking rice as you are ensured even, measured temperature increases as well as an overall safer product on your counter top. However, if you are still on the fence check out my previous thoughts on why you should be getting a rice cooker in general below.
There’s something incessantly infuriating about cooking rice. Late into my time in culinary school our chefs would still be pleasantly surprised when a bowl of perfectly cooked rice was placed in front of them. Cooking rice is so simple, why is it a surprise when someone cooks it right? To me that’s where rice’s enigmatic nature lies, all we’re trying to do is steam these tiny grains, force water inside to transform the little rocks into light, fluffy pearls of goodness. But when getting that perfect texture between half cooked garbage and a soupy mess can be determined by a minute too few or too many, an inch of water too low or too high, it becomes a surprisingly delicate process for your average home cook. Some people eschew the headache and just resign themselves to burning the bottom half inch of rice and dealing with the clean up later, I personally prefer the blanket method that my Ukrainian neighbor taught me years ago. Essentially, prep the rice as you normally would (wash the grains in a pot), pour water to about a centimeter above the rice, place on heat covered. As soon as the lid starts doing a little dance (aka the water’s boiling) take the pot off the heat and wrap in one or two blankets and let steam for about 45 minutes. You will have perfect rice, no burnt edges, no issues with doneness, fluffy grains of goodness every time.
I digress, most people that came over gave me some perturbed looks when I got out the pot of rice to eat, and honestly your blankets will smell like rice; I didn’t mind the warmed up blanket though for my post meal nap :). Plus, I’m not very confident that the steam + blankets would be enough to get through brown rice’s superior casing. All of this is to say… if you eat rice on the reg, get yourself a rice cooker. The peace of mind that pressing a switch and knowing your rice will be cooked perfectly, the convenience of being able to leave the leftovers in the pot and have it warm and ready when you want to go back for more, the reassurance that you are not alone in this vast swirling void of a universe (some rice cookers talk to you!) are all more than enough reason to join the Rice Cooker World.
My cousin’s wife told me once that the only chore she and her sister were responsible for was to make sure that there was always some cooked rice waiting in the rice cooker (this was when they were about six or seven). The only time their father yelled at them was when he came home from work and found an empty pot sans rice. Forget the socio-cultural history (if that’s not a word you heard it here first), forget the versatility (it’s not just for rice!), forget the K-Drama reenactments (… right?), whether it be white, brown, basmati, jasmine, short grain, whatever, a rice cooker deserves a spot on your counter. Don’t tell me about how little counter space you got.
What makes a good induction rice cooker?
It would seem unfair in my eyes to judge or evaluate an induction rice cooker from a non induction rice cooker (also given the overlap it wouldn’t make much sense either). We’ll be looking at induction rice cookers with the same eyes and criteria as we have our entire lives :).
My favorite rice cooker I have ever owned was a small, janky, little thing with no features, bells, or whistles. We would put in some rice, set it in the middle of my dorm room floor, and my friends and I would crowd around it eating straight out of the pot. Paired with some microwaved spam or some other randomness we scrounged up an you got yourself a great late night snack. That’s what we’re starting off with here: small rice cookers meant for small apartments, college dorms, feeding a family of one or two as opposed to five or six. Our maximum capacity cutoff is three cups (uncooked)/six cups (cooked) rice, which should be plenty for two with some leftovers.
The main elements we’ll be looking at are pretty simple:
Efficacy: none of this matters if the rice doesn't get cooked. I'm assuming off the bat that this will be an easy win for most rice cookers, even the most basic ones should be able to produce well cooked rice... right? We'll get as granular as we can here so we get some variation but the down and dirty of it is how well does this product cook rice.
Convenience: There would be no point to getting a rice cooker unless it beats a normal pot. This will encapsulate overall maintenance, cleaning, and whether it has any features that make your dinner plans just a little easier (warming features, pressure cooking for faster cook times, etc).
Versatility: This is not exactly a deal breaker to me, just being able to cook your standard white rice is good enough for my needs. However, it is nice to have some options in life, whether it be brown rice, other grains/starches (quinoa, lentils, barley, etc), a steamer tray for some simultaneous cooking, or even whether it can function as a standard pressure cooker.
Durability: Nobody likes buying something and having that slow realization that you got a lemon... unless you're actually buying lemons. I can't imagine ever moving the rice cooker off of the counter, but you'll probably have to move it around a little bit within its lifetime and you don't want it to fall apart whenever you do. Regardless of the workload you should be confident in the hardware you've purchased.
So that's what we'll be boiling each down to... I'm not big on puns, promise. I'll provide as much technical characteristics as possible but they won't tie into the overall evaluation of the product.
Why trust us?
In the same vein as our Korean BBQ Grill post this flies somewhat in the face of our conventional methodology. As we don’t have the capacity to go out and test all of these rice cookers ourselves we opted to do the next best thing. We applied similar methods as we have for our Best Restaurants post: relying on the power of the customer base, researching with integrity (we do not have any ties to the companies making these rice cookers), and being self aware enough to know that we are not smart enough to put forward our own opinion. We are simply relaying all of our research in as consumable of a format as we can; hopefully in the near future I can fulfill my lifelong dream of having a hundred rice cookers in my place, all singing their songs of warmth, happiness, and the cooked rice way.
How we chose what to test?
We decided to make this as easy as possible. We wanted to look at induction rice cookers that everyone in the US would have access to buy and that had a good amount of data that we could peruse through. We chose Amazon for its near ubiquitous use for online shopping, went straight for “best induction rice cookers”, sorted by customer ratings, and went down the list looking for anything that came up (minus paid promotions or advertisements).
What to look forward to
When it comes to microwave rice cookers, the Maxi-Aids microwave rice cooker is one of the best values. It is great for making small servings of rice and rice-based meals in just 18 minutes. It comes with flip-down lid locks for safe cooking, a cover, a measuring cup, and a rice spatula. Recipes and instructions are included too.
Wrapping it up
It was great seeing how many rice cookers there are out on the market that do a great job of what they’re supposed to do… cook rice. But like any piece of hardware durability seems to be a consistent and major issue for these babies. Also, I know I harped on this a bunch in our Korean BBQ Grill post, but these companies really need to come out with some palatable names for their babies. Writing about something that is a jumbled bunch of letters and numbers drives me up the wall. Regardless, it’s reassuring to know that the well being of our rice eating brethren lie in good hands. May your rice be always hot, fluffy, and perfect.
