You can’t beat a portion of rice to go alongside a delicious homemade curry or chilli for dinner. Fluffy, warming and comforting, rice is a true staple in many dishes, and you’ve probably got some in the cupboard at home.

However, cooking rice from scratch rather than using the microwave or boil-in-the-bag alternatives is not always simple. The wrong technique makes your rice go soggy or mushy while in the pot, resulting in a stodgy, unappetising mess. Thankfully, one woman has shared her own foolproof method—and it’s so easy to do.

Yinrun Huang, who you might recognise as being one of the stars of Big Brother 2023, says you can cook rice perfectly on the hob – eliminating the need for a rice cooker.

She recently took to Instagram to explain exactly how to do it, highlighting the importance of one simple additional step that’ll make your rice taste so much more fluffy and delicious.

And it starts with a vital task – washing your rice several times and massaging it with your hand until the water runs clear. This will remove any surface starch, helping you to avoid that gummy texture that can ruin your serving.

A good rule of thumb to follow is to use equal parts water and rice when it comes to cooking. Because Yinrun added two cups of rice to her pot, she then added two cups of water.

Then, she placed the pan over a high heat on the hob, and allowed it to heat up until it started to bubble slightly. At this point, give it a stir, but continue to keep an eye on it – and don’t put the pot lid on.

When you start to see larger bubbles that disappear into the rice, put the lid on the pan, and turn the heat right down.

Let it cook for a further five minutes, then turn the heat off but keep the lid on – the ‘most important step’ according to Yinrun. She said: “Let the rice sit for 10 more minutes. Let’s give time for the magic to happen.”

The end result is ‘cloudy and fluffy’ rice that looks as good as you’d get from the takeaway. Tasting it, Yinrun declared it ‘perfect’, and people in the comments certainly seemed to agree.

One person wrote: “Thank you for posting this! My rice is always a disaster so I’m looking forward to making the perfect rice next time.”

And another raved: “Saved this, will definitely be trying this method next time.”