Rice Cooker Risotto

In One and Done, senior test kitchen editor Jesse Szewczyk uses one pan—like a Dutch oven, sheet pan, or cast-iron skillet—to make meals you’ll come back to again and again. Click here for even more one-pan meals.

Risotto—the famously fussy yet oh-so-creamy debutante of rice dishes—is anything but weeknight-friendly. It’s a dish that demands your full attention. Look away for just five minutes and things can go south quickly. But this version, made entirely in a rice cooker, yields a just-as-satisfying result with a fraction of the work: You just add everything into your rice cooker, let it cook, and stir in some additional stock, butter, and cheese right before serving (if you don't have a rice cooker, check out our best rice cooker picks here). Just note that even this carefully calibrated set-it-and-forget-it risotto requires a bit of feeling; you might need to adjust the final texture with a splash of additional vegetable stock to loosen it up. The texture should be firm enough to stay on a plate when tilted yet loose enough to comfortably settle back into place when spooned into. Start slow and add about a tablespoon of stock at a time as needed.