KitchenAid Just Announced Its Newest Appliance and It's Genius

My household of two blows through bags of rice so quickly that I long ago stopped buying this pantry staple at the regular supermarket. I now heft 25-pound sacks of jasmine rice from my local H Mart, storing them in a five-gallon bucket in my garage.

With a rice habit this serious I've learned, after much trial and error, how to cook it perfectly on the stovetop. However, as a food editor, I know that rice brings up a lot of anxiety for many home cooks. The wrong ratio of water to grain to heat can cause pots of rice to turn gummy or undercooked and crunchy. Either result is disappointing, especially at the end of a long day when you just want to sit down and eat dinner.

What if you could skip this trial and error and get to perfect, fluffy bowls of rice every single time? That's the appeal of the new appliance KitchenAid just launched today: Grain and Rice Cooker. This smart appliance promises to "perfectly cook grains, rice, and beans without the guesswork of measuring and monitoring."

The best part? You don't need to measure or time anything—just add grains, fill the water reservoir, and select one of 21 presets. The cooker will sense the amount of grains you added and dispense the right amount of water to cook it—this genius appliance thinks for you.

While the cooker can make all kinds of rice, from basmati to brown to wild rice, it can also handle other grains like oats, farro, and quinoa, and even beans like pintos, chickpeas, and lentils. It's a kitchen hero for those of us who rely heavily on these pantry staples.

KitchenAid is best known for its iconic and beloved stand mixers and the brand also sells small kitchen appliances like hand mixers, food processors, and blenders. I’ve relied on my seven-quart KitchenAid stand mixer for countless recipe tests and baking projects over the past 12 years, and it has never failed me. Simply Recipes editors are also big fans of this reliable brand, frequently recommending its products, like choppers, ice cream makers, immersion blenders, and more.

With this latest addition to its lineup of kitchen appliance superheroes, KitchenAid is leaning into what it does best: helping you get dinner on the table with greater ease and less room for error (or mushy rice).

BUY IT NOW: KitchenAid Grain and Rice Cooker ($299.99)