Glutinous rice is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store it, what to substitute, and 7 recipes to get you started.

What is glutinous rice?

Glutinous rice is a short-grain Asian rice that turns intensely sticky when cooked, which is why it is also sold as sticky rice or sweet rice. Despite the name, it contains no gluten and is safe for a gluten-free diet.

The "glutinous" refers to its glue-like, sticky texture, not the wheat protein.

What makes it stick is its starch. Ordinary rice carries both amylose and amylopectin, but glutinous rice is almost pure amylopectin, the starch that swells and clings. Raw grains look chalky and opaque rather than translucent.

Cooked, it goes soft and chewy, sticky enough that the grains fuse into a mass you can pick up and mold by hand.

How to Cook Sticky Rice

The standard method is soak, then steam. Cover the rice with water and let it sit several hours or overnight, then steam it over boiling water, often in a bamboo basket lined with cloth, for around 25 to 30 minutes until translucent and tender.

Steaming, not boiling, is the key for Thai-style sticky rice. Soaking lets the grains hydrate evenly so steam can finish them without a pot of water turning them to porridge.

There are exceptions. When you want a soft, soupy result, you boil it instead, as in Jook, Chinese Thick Rice Soup, where the grains are meant to break down into a thick congee.

For sweet dishes the steamed rice gets dressed after cooking. Glutinous Rice with Mangoes pairs it with sweetened coconut milk and ripe fruit, and Glutinous Rice & Bananas wraps it around banana to steam.

Sweet and Savory Uses

This rice swings both ways. On the sweet side it is the base for Thai mango sticky rice, for the steamed and baked Baked Chinese New Year's Pudding, and for countless coconut-milk desserts.

On the savory side it shows up in dim sum lotus-leaf parcels, in zongzi (the leaf-wrapped bundles eaten at Dragon Boat Festival), and in dishes like Glutinous Rice with Ham & Dried Shrimp, where the sticky grains carry bold, salty bits throughout.

Ground into flour, the same rice becomes the dough for mochi and for chewy dumplings. It also makes Pearl Balls, where soaked grains coat meatballs and turn pearly and glistening as they steam.

The mistake to avoid is skipping the soak. Unsoaked grains steam unevenly, leaving you with a mix of hard centers and overcooked, mushy edges.

Substitutes

There is no clean substitute, because nothing else gets this sticky. If a recipe depends on the rice holding a shape or being eaten by hand, you really need glutinous rice.

Sushi rice and other short-grain japonica rices are the nearest in spirit, since they are sticky too. They will hold together loosely, but they stay distinct and springy where glutinous rice fuses into a soft, uniform mass, so a true sticky-rice dish will come out wrong.

For desserts thickened by the rice itself, like puddings, a short-grain rice can stand in passably. For molded or hand-eaten dishes, it cannot.

Buying and Storing

Look for bags labeled glutinous, sticky, or sweet rice, often Thai or Chinese in origin. The raw grains should look bright white and opaque, with none of the glassy translucence of regular rice.

Thai sticky rice tends to be long and slim, while Chinese and Japanese types are shorter and rounder.

Store the uncooked grains in an airtight container in a cool, dark cupboard, where they keep for a year or more like any dry rice.

Cooked sticky rice firms up fast as it cools, since the amylopectin retrogrades. Keep it warm in its steamer if serving soon. To revive cooled leftovers, steam them briefly again and they soften right back up.

Quick facts

In Chinese

糯米

British (UK) term

Glutinous rice

en français

riz gluant

en español

arroz glutinoso

Recipes using glutinous rice

There are 7 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 7 recipes