How To Use Your Rice Cooker To Make Breakfast For A Crowd

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Sometimes, you have to find unconventional ways to make breakfast for a crowd. Whether you're hosting brunch for a big group of friends or cooking a buffet at a community hall, there are times when you have to use all available methods and tools to get enough food on the table. And when you're reaching for your skillet, griddle, and anything else you can find, make sure to grab a rice cooker as well. With that little appliance, you'll be able to double down on delicious breakfast dishes for all your guests.

A rice cooker isn't limited to making rice; there are many other foods you can make in a rice cooker. This versatile appliance can be used to whip up, say, a great batch of apple cinnamon oatmeal or porridge. But there are other breakfast foods a rice cooker can make that are a little more unexpected, including things like sweet bakes and savory casseroles. While you're flipping flapjacks on your griddle, you can also have a full-blown frittata going in the rice cooker. It's an easy hack that'll help ensure an assortment of food ends up on the table at around the same time. It'll also make you look like you know a thing or two about catering for large groups.

A basic rice cooker, like this digital 4-cup model from AROMA, will cook just about anything that fits inside. You can theoretically even cook a steak in a rice cooker, though it will look much different than a steak seared on a cast iron pan (and take a long time!). Rice cookers heat food through a steady steaming process that results in evenly cooked hard-boiled eggs and fluffy omelets and frittatas of any sort, from spinach and ham to pumpkin and leek. Your breakfast casseroles will come out silky and fluffy when they're steamed in a rice cooker, too, whether you're whipping up a sausage, egg, and grits casserole, or a spicier Cajun-style casserole with rice, cabbage, and meat.

Rice cookers can make sweet breakfast foods, too. Banana bread is just one of the many ways to treat a crowd to some easy yet tasty baking. Use a rice cooker to make a giant cinnamon roll for the center of the table (or baby ones for finger foods!), a fluffy muffin cake, or a decadent, crumbly apple cobbler to round out the offerings for your morning gathering. And of course, don't forget to buy champagne and orange juice to serve mimosas alongside your rice cooker breakfast feast!