Cooking a Full Day’s Meals in a Rice Cooker

by Barry Lewis

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

Rice Cooker Pancakes (fried!)

125g plain flour

1 egg

150ml milk

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp butter or oil (for greasing)

Optional: chocolate chips, blueberries, or cinnamon

Rice Cooker Ramen

1 pack instant ramen noodles

300ml water

1 egg

1 spring onion (sliced for garnish)

1 clove garlic (minced, optional)

1 tsp soy sauce

½ tsp sesame oil

½ tsp chilli flakes (optional, for spice)

Optional add-ons: frozen sweetcorn, shredded chicken, mushrooms

One-Pot Chicken & Rice

150g white rice (jasmine, basmati, or standard long-grain)

600ml chicken stock (or 1 stock cube + water)

2 chicken breasts (or thighs for more flavour)

½ tsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp paprika (optional, for colour & flavour)

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp butter or oil

½ small onion (finely chopped, optional but adds flavour)

1 clove garlic (minced, optional for extra taste)

50g frozen peas & carrots (or other mixed frozen veg)

Optional garnish: fresh parsley, lemon wedge

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Cooking a Full Day’s Meals in a Rice Cooker – Can It Be Done?

We all know rice cookers are great for making rice, but can they do more? What if they could handle cooking a full day’s meals in a rice cooker, from breakfast to dinner? No hob, no oven, no microwave—just one pot and a bit of creativity.

This was the challenge I set myself, and let’s just say the results were… mixed. Some things worked brilliantly, others? Not so much.

Breakfast – Cooking Pancakes in a Rice Cooker (Two Ways, One Fail)

Starting the day with pancakes seemed like a fantastic idea. Who doesn’t love a stack of fluffy, golden pancakes? But when you’re making them in a rice cooker, things can go one of two ways—either perfectly or terribly wrong.

Attempt 1: The Steamed Pancake (AKA: The Disaster)

For the first attempt, I thought I’d be clever and use the steamer basket, lining it with baking parchment and pouring the pancake batter in, expecting a beautifully risen, delicate pancake.

What actually happened? The blueberries exploded, the batter turned into a rubbery, chewy mess, and it was not good.

Lesson learned: steaming pancakes in a rice cooker is not the way forward.

Attempt 2: The Fried Pancake (The Winner)

For round two, I went with a more traditional approach: butter-fried pancakes, cooked directly in the rice cooker’s pot.

Steps

  1. Greased the base of the rice cooker with butter.
  2. Poured in the pancake batter and closed the lid.
  3. Set the rice cooker to “Cook” mode and let it sit for 10-15 minutes.
  4. Checked after 10 minutes—once it was golden on the bottom, flipped it over to cook the other side for 2 more minutes.
  5. Removed from the pot and served up!

The result? A golden, crispy-edged, fluffy pancake—almost like an American diner pancake but thicker.

If you try this, skip the steamer basket and go for the butter-fried method instead.

Lunch – Cooking a Full Meal in a Rice Cooker: Upgraded Ramen

Next up: lunch, and let’s be honest, if you’re using a rice cooker, ramen is an obvious choice. But I didn’t want just basic instant noodles. Could I turn them into something restaurant-worthy?

Steps

  1. Added water, noodles & flavour sachet to the rice cooker.
  2. Pressed “Cook” mode and let the noodles soften. Poured in frozen vegetables & spring onion.
  3. Cracked in eggs, letting them poach gently in the hot broth.
  4. Stirred in soy sauce, sesame oil, and a pinch of chilli flakes for extra flavour.
  5. Served in a bowl once the eggs are cooked, stonkin’

The result? A simple but seriously tasty ramen hack. The egg poached beautifully, and the added seasonings made it taste way better than your standard instant noodles.

If you’ve got a rice cooker and haven’t tried this yet, do it.

Dinner – Cooking a Full Day’s Meals in a Rice Cooker: One-Pot Chicken & Rice

For the final meal of the day, I wanted to push the rice cooker to its limit—could it cook a full dinner? Something that felt like a proper meal, not just snacks or quick fixes.

I went for a classic one-pot chicken and rice, but rather than just dumping everything in, I took an extra step to build flavour first.

Steps

  1. Placed butter in the rice cooker pot and set it to “Cook” mode.
  2. Added seasoned diced chicken breasts and fried them in the base of the pot for 10 minutes, stirring often.
  3. Once the chicken had some colour, added chopped onion and garlic, frying for another 2-3 minutes to brown the edges and enhance the flavour.
  4. Added rinsed rice, stock, soy sauce, and frozen vegetables.
  5. Stirred everything together ensuring the chicken got nice and randomised.
  6. Closed the lid and set it to “Cook” mode” for about 30 minutes.
  7. Once the cycle finished, let it rest for 5 minutes, then fluffed the rice and served up!

The result? Juicy, flavourful chicken and perfectly cooked rice. The rice cooker handled the job brilliantly, and the extra step of frying the chicken first made a huge difference.

For a meal that required zero stirring and almost no effort, this was a massive win.

Final Verdict – Can a Rice Cooker Handle a Full Day of Cooking?

✅ Breakfast: One fail, one success. Steamed pancakes? No. Butter-fried? Yes.
✅ Lunch: Ramen upgrade? Massive win.
✅ Dinner: A proper one-pot meal that actually worked? Success.

So, can you cook a full day’s worth of meals in a rice cooker? Yes. Would I recommend it? Also yes. But maybe avoid the steamer basket for pancakes.

If you’re curious about different rice cooker functions, check out this guide on how rice cookers work.

Have you ever tried cooking something unusual in a rice cooker? Let me know in the comments! And if you’ve got any other random kitchen gadgets you reckon I should test, hit me up with suggestions.

For more cooking gadget experiments, take a look at this post on upgrading a microwave cheeseburger.

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