Baked Brown Rice

Brown Rice ready to be covered and put into the oven

Tonight for dinner I made Alton Brown's Baked Brown Rice recipe, one of my favorite foods in the world.  If I didn't have to serve it for dinner, I would probably sit and eat the entire 9 x 9 inch pan in one sitting.  It could not be easier to make brown rice, I always feared brown rice a bit knowing it took twice as long as white rice to cook on the stove.  We cook a lot of white rice in our little half Asian/gluten free household, so some days we like a break from it.  Tim and I are huge fans of anything Alton Brown, I'm pretty sure the man could film a show about how to use a can opener and I would watch it.  We saw this episode where he baked brown rice, and it was unreal!  It took a while before I got around to downloading and printing the recipe, but once I did it found a permanent home on the refrigerator.  Right now the fridge is overtaken with small character magnets, and crayon drawings, so the 1/4 of a scrap of paper with the recipe found a new home in the recipe box.  Today I realized I wanted it back out as a simple side for a simple dinner, rotisserie chicken, spinach salad, and brown rice, what's not to love??

Finished version, DELICIOUS!!

The brown rice comes out perfect every time and there is no stirring or babysitting the pot.  It's fluffy, tender, sweet, and has that tiny crunch that brown rice should have.  It goes with absolutely everything, I just realized this whole time we could have been throwing fresh herbs in at the end right as the rice comes out of the oven, maybe I will try that next time.  Maybe you will try it with some herbs or other twists and let me know what you come up with.  Enjoy!  I hope you love this as much as we do!

Alton Brown's Baked Brown Rice

• 1 1/2 cups brown rice, medium or short grain
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Place the rice, water, butter and salt into an 8-inch square glass baking dish.
Cover the dish tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 1 hour.  After 1 hour, remove cover and fluff the rice with a fork. Serve immediately.