Best Ghee Rice Recipe Ever – Recipe For Kerala Style Ghee Rice Kerala Neychoru Recipe – Nei Choru Recipe
Easy & Delicious Ghee Rice Recipe – Kerala Malabar Food Recipes
Step By Step Instructions to Make Ghee Rice Easily
Ghee rice recipe or Kerala style ghee rice known as neychoru or nei choru in Kerala is one of the most delicious Indian rice recipes. In fact this kerala ghee rice is one of the most delicious rice recipes I have ever tried. Making ghee rice from scratch at home is not so easy if you are trying it for the first time, but I will give you step by step instructions on how to make the perfect ghee rice even if you are a beginner. Be sure to read my tip at the end of the recipe, which will help you in case you find an issue with cooking your ghee rice perfectly.
This post on ghee rice recipe is my 100th blog post as well 🙂
The words neychoru recipe or neichoru recipe as used in Kerala means ghee rice recipe as the word ney or nei means ghee and choru means rice in malayalam language as used in Kerala.
Ghee rice tastes delicious and it is one of the main course rice dishes for potlucks or celebrations like weddings in South India especially Northern Kerala. I never thought I could prepare this ghee rice for a potluck, even though I love enjoying it with my family. However, I am so happy that it came out so nicely in my first attempt itself, which I made for a big potluck party. After that first potluck, I have made it again for potlucks and everyone loved it.
As the name suggests, you do not use any oil, but only ghee which is clarified butter.
The other main ingredients after rice and ghee are spices and nuts.
After all, you can’t go wrong with the flavorful combination of rice, ghee and spices!
Just make sure you use the best rice and spices available.
Add the right amount of salt.
Do not overcook the rice, we don’t want it sticky or mushy!
If you take care of the above things I mentioned and then use the right ingredients in the right measurements, you can’t go wrong with this recipe.
As I mentioned above, I prepared this ghee rice for potlucks more than once, and the first time I had to use 1 kg of rice for making the ghee rice. The next time I used 2 cups of rice for a small potluck, and even when I prepare for my family I usually use 2 cups of rice. So here I am entering the recipe based on the guidelines for 2 cups of rice, which will make about 6 servings of ghee rice.
You can easily adjust the amount of ingredients based on the amount of rice you use. If you use more rice, increase the amount of other ingredients accordingly.
Makes 6 Servings
Ingredients for ghee rice recipe – Kerala nei choru recipe
White Rice – 2 Cups ( I used white Basmati rice)
Onions – 2
Ginger Garlic Paste 2 teaspoons
Cinnamon Sticks – 2 to 3 small
Cardamom – 2 to 3
Cloves – 6
Bay Leaves – 2
Ghee – 4 to 5 tablespoons
Water – 4.5 Cups
Salt – As needed ( don’t use too much)
For Garnishing
Onion – 1
Cashew Nuts – 10 t0 12
Raisins – 8 to 10
Ghee – 2 tablespoons
Instructions for ghee rice recipe – Kerala nei choru recipe
- Chop the onions finely and keep aside. You can keep the onions meant for cooking and garnishing separately.
- Take a wide pan, add a tablespoon full of ghee, and then add two chopped onions.
- Add salt and saute the onions with out sticking to the pan. You don’t have to caramelize the onions, but make sure they have started to turn brown. Feel free to add a little more ghee if needed. Keep the sauteed onions aside.
- Wash the rice in 3 to 4 waters and then soak in water for about 15 minutes. This will remove excess starch from the rice so that the stickiness will be reduced. After fifteen minutes, make sure you drain the water from the rice. Keep it aside.
- Meanwhile gather all spices required for making the ghee rice and keep it aside in a bowl or plate, this will make your work easier.
- Heat the rice pan, add 1 tablespoon of ghee and then immediately add all the spices to the ghee. Saute the spices in the ghee for a few seconds.
- Add the rice to the same pan, add the ginger garlic paste and add two more tablespoons of ghee and then stir fry for two minutes. Make sure the rice is not changing color.
- Add the sauteed onions also to the same pan, mix well and lightly fry for a few seconds so the rice, spices and onions will blend nicely with the ghee. Switch off the stove and keep the pan aside away from heat.
- In another vessel, boil the water.
- Add the boiled water to the pan with the rice onion mixture, mix well, and keep it back in the stove. Keep it in high heat till the mixture has started to boil.
- Once the mixture of rice, spices, ghee, onion and water starts boiling, reduce the heat, close the pan and cook in low flame for about 10 to 12 minutes or until the rice is cooked and water is absorbed.
- After the rice is cooked and all the water is absorbed, you can switch off the stove and remove the pan from the stove.
- Stir the cooked ghee rice with a fork so that the rice will be fluffy and won’t stick together.
- It is best to repeat the above step once more after 15 minutes.
- Keep the rice closed in a casserole so that it will remain hot.
You can now go on to garnish the ghee rice.
- Add one tablespoon of ghee to a pan and add chopped onions. Sauté it well, as you need to brown the onion and get it caramelized. If you need more ghee, you can add one more tablespoon. Make sure the onion is browned, but not burnt!
- Keep the caramelized onions aside.
- Add one more tablespoon of ghee to the same pan.
- When the ghee is heated, add cashew nuts and sauté them for few seconds.
- When the cashew nuts start changing the color to golden brown, add the raisins.
- When the raisins are also fried in ghee, you can remove the fried cashew nuts and raisins from the pan and keep them aside.
- Garnish the ghee rice with caramelized onions and fried cashew nuts and raisins on top.
Serve the ghee rice hot!
The rice is delicious and aromatic, you can serve and enjoy it as it is. You can have it with any side dish you like (preferably channa dal masala or vegetable curry or paneer dishes) or just use raitha(salad with yogurt) or plain salads.
Tips: Sometimes due to variations in different kinds of stove, the cooking time may slightly vary, so always check the rice as soon as it is 10 minutes to see if the water is absorbed to avoid burning at the bottom.
In case if you feel the rice needs to be cooked more, but the water is all absorbed (this may happen sometimes due to different factors like difference in stove and heat) I recommend not adding more water but I have a solution for you.
Heat an iron skillet or pan and keep the pan on top of the skillet (pan should be closed with lid) and heat in medium heat for about 5 to 6 minutes or until rice is all cooked. Check in between and stir occasionally, this will help with cooking the rice evenly.
Hope you found this ghee rice recipe – Kerala neychoru recipe helpful!
See my posts on more rice recipes:
Brown rice recipe with green mung beans
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