This Indian restaurant style rice cooker pilau rice recipe delivers perfect results every time!
Pilau rice is a colourful Indian restaurant side dish, made with aromatic spices. Fragrant and delicious, it’s easy to infuse the spices and rice together in advance and transfer it to a rice cooker to cook to perfection. This also leaves time to organise your favourite curry dishes to eat alongside your cooked rice.
Ingredients For Pilau Rice
- Basmati Rice: I like Biona Himalayan Basmati Rice.
- Spices: Cumin, Turmeric, Cloves, Cardamom, Bay Leaf, Cinnamon Stick
- Other Ingredients: Vegetable Oil, Onion, Water
How To Make Rice Cooker Pilau Rice
One of the most important steps in cooking perfect pilau rice is making sure the rice is rinsed of any excess starch. With the rice properly rinsed it’s sure to come out fluffy and delicious, so it’s worth taking the time to do this.
Step 1: Rinse
Wash 1 cup basmati rice rice two or three times in cold water until water runs clear. Drain thoroughly and set aside. In a small bowl, add 1/4 teaspoon cumin powder, 1 teaspoon turmeric, Pinch sea salt, 2 whole cloves, 1 green cardamom pod, 1 tej patta bay leaf and 1/4 cinnamon stick. Set aside.
Step 2: Fry
Heat 2 teaspoons vegetable oil in a pot over a medium heat. Fry 1 small onion, finely chopped for 3 minutes. Then add prepared spices and stir-fry for 1 minute. Finally, add washed and drained rice and stir well until rice is evenly coated with oil and spices.
Step 3: Cook
Transfer ingredients from the frying pan to the inner pot of rice cooker and add water to 1 cup measuring mark in the pot. Cook rice on ‘white / long grain’ mode. When rice is cooked, mix well with a rice spoon, remove whole spices and leave on ‘keep warm’ mode for 10 minutes. Mix well once more to fluff up rice and serve.
I hope you’ll try this Indian restaurant style rice cooker pilau rice recipe. If you do, let me know in the comments how it went!

Pilau Rice (rice cooker method)
Ingredients
- 1 cup basmati rice (rice cooker cup)
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- Pinch sea salt
- 2 whole cloves
- 1 green cardamom pod crushed
- 1 tej patta bay leaf
- 1/4 cinnamon stick
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
Instructions
- Wash 1 cup basmati rice rice two or three times in cold water until water runs clear. Drain thoroughly and set aside. In a small bowl, add 1/4 teaspoon cumin powder, 1 teaspoon turmeric, Pinch sea salt, 2 whole cloves, 1 green cardamom pod, 1 tej patta bay leaf and 1/4 cinnamon stick. Set aside.
- Heat 2 teaspoons vegetable oil in a pot over a medium heat. Fry 1 small onion, finely chopped for 3 minutes. Then add prepared spices and stir-fry for 1 minute. Finally, add washed and drained rice and stir well until rice is evenly coated with oil and spices.
- Transfer ingredients from the frying pan to the inner pot of rice cooker and add water to 1 cup measuring mark in the pot. Cook rice on 'white / long grain' mode. When rice is cooked, mix well with a rice spoon, remove whole spices and leave on 'keep warm' mode for 10 minutes. Mix well once more to fluff up rice and serve.
Notes
Do you like this pilau rice recipe? If so, buying a copy of my book might appeal to you! In The Indian Takeaway Secret you can find a host of restaurant style recipes that you can make at home. You’ll learn how to make vegetable pakora, chicken tikka, paneer cheese and more! You can buy The Indian Takeaway Secret in paperback or kindle form here.
- McGovern, Kenny (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 256 Pages – 05/06/2021 (Publication Date) – Robinson (Publisher)