Garlic Butter Rice
A simple and delicious rice recipe that can be made in just 25 minutes! Our Garlic Butter Rice is so fluffy and flavor-packed, that you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to make!
It’s one of our new favorite rice recipes! Our Garlic Butter Rice is one of the simplest and easiest rice recipes you can make, but one that won’t taste like it’s simple and easy! Fluffy and flavorful (I mean how can you ever go wrong with butter and garlic together?), this rice is sure to go with any of your favorite dishes, and with our expert rice-making tips, you’ll have delicious and perfectly cooked rice every time. My family has requested this to be on our regular dinner rotation, and with how easy it is to make, it will be a weeknight staple side dish!
Ingredients Needed
- Rice – We love a long grain Jasmine rice, but you can use your favorite white rice. This recipe is specifically written for white rice, brown rice has a significantly longer cooking time.
- Garlic – Fresh and powdered for this recipe.
- Butter – Just enough so that this rice has a wonderful butter flavor, but not too much so that it’s overpowering.
- Complimentary spices – Onion powder, salt, and pepper.
- Parsley – Dried and fresh to finish with.
- Stock – Chicken is our favorite, but to keep this vegetarian-friendly, vegetable stock is delicious, too!
Rinsing Rice: While not completely necessary, giving your rice a quick rinse before cooking is generally a good practice to yield the best results. It only takes a couple of extra minutes and is super simple to do. It’s important because it removes the extra starch on the outside of the rice, which ultimately helps prevent it from getting mushy or sticking and clumping. Just add it to a strainer and run cold water over it, gently moving it with your hands. You’ll see the cloudy (starch-filled) water drain. Just 15-30 seconds of this is plenty and then let drain or shake off the excess water. No need for it to be completely dry before cooking.
Easy to Make
We love to use our favorite cast iron skillet for this recipe, but you can use any skillet with a lid that will hold at least 3 cups of cooked rice. Making this rice is very similar to how we make our Homemade Rice Pilaf, just with butter and more garlic!
The first step is to melt some of the butter to give the garlic a quick saute, very quickly because you don’t want to burn it, then more butter to toast the rice in, some herbs and spices for complimentary flavors to the butter and garlic. Because this recipe comes together so quickly, it’s important to have everything mise en place, or set up so that it’s all ready to go.
Expert Tip: Toasting the rice is a very important to not only building flavor but also coating it in butter will help prevent it from clumping.
Finally, add the stock (chicken or vegetable, totally up to you), then cover it cook! Very important though – be sure that your stock is at least room temperature when adding it to the rice. If you add it cold, it will take longer for it to come up to temperature.
Once done, give that Garlic Butter Rice a fluff with a fork and a finish with some fresh parsley and you have a wonderfully flavorful rice that’ll be delicious with anything you want to serve it with!
Recipe Tips
This is the French term for getting everything the recipe needs in place and ready. Because it all cooks so fast, and garlic can burn quickly, it’s important that you have all of the ingredients that you need prepped and ready to go.
While not 100% necessary, this will help prevent clumping and mushiness and that alone is worth the added couple of minutes!
It’s really important to use a stock that’s come up to room temperature or has been warmed because adding a cold stock straight from the fridge is going to increase the time it will take for it all to come to a boil.
This is one of the most important tips for rice making. Once you cover that lid to let the rice cook in the stock, do not lift the lid until the time is complete. By lifting the lid, you’ll let steam out which will mess with the perfect balance of liquid to rice! Unless you smell something badly burning (which would usually mean the liquid-to-rice ratio was off from the start), leave that lid on!
Another important tip for the best texture when making rice, take it off the heat and give it a couple of minutes, covered, to collect a little more of that steam into the rice. This is what will help it become nice and fluffy.
So fluffy. So buttery. So garlicky and (the best part) so easy to make! While we keep the flavors simple for this Garlic Butter Rice, you can also customize it with some other complimentary herbs and spices like oregano, onion powder, rosemary, or thyme.
You Also Might Like
- Easy Homemade Rice Pilaf
- Easy Homemade Mexican Rice
- Coconut Jasmine Rice
- 15 Minute Garlic Butter Chicken
- Butter Garlic Mushrooms
- One Pot Cheesy Kielbasa Broccoli and Rice
Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
If you want to see more, be sure to sign up for my 5 Easy Ways to Start Cooking From Scratch!
Garlic Butter Rice
Equipment
- 12" cast iron skillet with lid
- or another skillet with a lid at least 2 qt
- Sieve optional
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups jasmine rice 307 g
- 4 tablespoons salted butter
- 6 cloves fresh garlic minced, about 1/8 cup
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 3/4 teaspoon fine ground salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 cups stock vegetable or chicken, room temperature
- 1/3 cup fresh parsley chopped
Instructions
- Rinse Rice and Prep Ingredients: Add rice to a fine sieve and rinse with cold water until the water runs clear. Set aside and gather the rest of the ingredients and place them next to stovetop. If using stock that is stored in the fridge, take it out and pour it into a glass pyrex measuring cup, or other easily pourable microwave safe dish, and heat it in the microwave.
- Cook Butter and Garlic: Add 2 tablespoons of butter to the skillet. Melt the butter on medium heat. Once the butter is melted, lower the heat to medium -low and add garlic. Stir and cook for only 30 seconds to avoid burning. Add the other 2 tablespoons of butter, and stir with a wooden spoon to melt and stir garlic to prevent it from burning.
- Toast Rice: Add the rice to the butter and garlic and stir to coat in butter and toast the rice. Add powdered onion and garlic, dried parsley, and salt and pepper and stir. Toast it all for 2 minutes.
- Add Stock: Add the warmed or room temperature stock to the rice and turn up the heat to high to bring it to a boil.
- Cover and Simmer: Once the stock is brought up to a boil, turn the heat down to low to a low simmer, and cover. Let simmer for 15 minutes. Do not open the lid!
- Rest: After 15 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and let rest for another 3 minutes. Don't lift the lid!
- Fluff: After the 3 minutes, remove the lid and use a fork to gently fluff the rice. Add fresh parsley.
- Serve and Enjoy!
Looks absolutely delicious, The combination of buttery richness with fragrant garlic makes for a simple yet incredibly flavorful side dish. I love that it’s easy to make with pantry staples but still feels indulgent. A great addition might be some tips on how to get the perfect fluffy texture or variations with herbs and spices. Overall, a must-try recipe for anyone who loves garlic and buttery goodness.
I love this recipe. It’s simple yet delicious!
So glad you enjoyed it – thanks so much for sharing and taking the time to leave a review!