Which Rice to Buy for Korean Cooking

Korean rice is short-grain and slightly sticky, and this is not a preference — a lot of Korean eating depends on rice that holds together. Chopsticks, kimbap, and pressing rice into a dolsot all assume it.

Long-grain rice — basmati, jasmine — cooks into separate grains and will not do any of that.

What to buy

Look for short-grain or medium-grain rice, often labelled for Korean or Japanese cooking. Common Korean varieties on export shelves include Chuchung and Shindongjin, but any Korean or Japanese short-grain will serve.

Japanese sushi rice is a fine substitute. It is the same grain type; sushi rice is simply seasoned after cooking, and unseasoned it behaves identically. Calrose is the widely available US medium-grain equivalent and works well.

Glutinous rice is a different thing

Chapssal (찹쌀), glutinous or sweet rice, is opaque white when raw and much stickier when cooked. It is not everyday rice.

Use it where a recipe names it — yaksik, tteok, patjuk dumplings — and not otherwise. A pot of plain glutinous rice is unpleasantly heavy as a meal.

Many households add a small proportion of chapssal to regular rice for a slightly stickier, glossier pot.

Rinse until the water runs clear

Korean rice is rinsed more thoroughly than most cooks expect — typically three to five changes of water, swirled with the hand, until the water is only faintly cloudy.

This removes surface starch that would otherwise make the rice gummy. The first rinse water is traditionally kept: ssalddeumul, cloudy rice water, is used as the base for doenjang jjigae, where it adds body.

Soak before cooking

Thirty minutes of soaking gives noticeably better rice — more even cooking and a softer grain — and is standard practice. Rice cookers with a soak cycle are doing this automatically.

After soaking, use slightly less water than the packet says, since the grains are already carrying some.