Introducing the new KitchenAid Grain & Rice Cooker

The KitchenAid Grain & Rice Cooker does something you won’t find in other cookers. Using an integrated scale, it weighs whatever grains, rice or beans you pour into the pot. Then, it automatically dispenses the exact amount of water needed for what you're cooking. 

No measuring cups or watching the stove. 

You choose what you're making from 21 presets on the touchscreen, add your ingredients, and the cooker handles the rest – from water ratio to cook time to keeping it warm until you're ready to eat.

You set, forget, and get ready to savour.

Explore the Grain & Rice Cooker

How it works

The process is incredibly simple.

1. Fill the removable water tank and click it into place. 

2. Select what you're cooking on the touchscreen, say, basmati rice. 

3. Pour your rice into the ceramic pot. The scale weighs it as you pour, and the screen confirms the amount. 

4. Close the lid, press start, and the water tank dispenses the precise amount of water for that weight of that grain. 

The cooker takes over from there, adjusting the time and temperature and even displaying an estimated finish time (so you can plan around it).

When it's done, it switches to keep warm automatically. It’ll keep warm for two hours by default, or up to six if you need it.

When adding your rice or grains into the pot, you can usually just pour in as much or as little as you have. Half a bag of basmati left in the pantry? That's fine. The cooker calculates the water ratio based on whatever you've added. You’ll find a full list of minimum (and maximum) amounts in your user manual. 

Want to cook your farro in stock instead of water? The auto-dispense uses water, but you can add other liquids manually instead (while the touchscreen guides you).  And if you want to add extra flavour, let the water dispense first, then open the lid and stir in a stock cube, seasonings or a drizzle of oil.

"I just pour in whatever rice I have left and it sorts out the water. One less thing for me to think about when I’m already juggling a lot." 

– In-House Maker, Bel

A grain cooker, not just a rice cooker

If you already own a dedicated rice cooker with induction heating and you only cook plain white rice, those machines are built to do that one job brilliantly. This does a different job.

The KitchenAid Grain & Rice Cooker is designed for people who cook across the full spectrum of grains and rice. Rice one night, quinoa the next, a batch of dried chickpeas on the weekend, steel-cut oats on Monday morning. 

It cooks eight types of rice (short grain white, long grain white, basmati, jasmine, sushi, wild, short grain brown and long grain brown), plus grains like farro, barley, couscous and oats, and legumes including lentils, black beans, kidney beans and chickpeas. All from one machine, all without measuring.

There's a built-in soak mode for beans and grains that benefit from soaking before they cook, so you don't need to plan a separate overnight soak and then transfer everything to a different pot. When you add your grains, the touchscreen asks whether they're dry or pre-soaked, then the machine will adjust the water ratio to account for the difference. 

"I've been using dried chickpeas instead of opening tins. It's so easy once you've set it up, and you can cook without the added extras from a tin. It’s cheaper to use dried chick peas too."

– In-house maker, Bel 

If you're not sure which grains to try first, our guide to 15 types of grains looks at what each one brings to your cooking, from the earthy chew of farro to the quick versatility of couscous. 

What else does it do?

Beyond the presets, the cooker has a few practical features that support the way many of us actually cook during the week.

Delayed cooking

Delayed cook lets you add your ingredients ahead of time and schedule cooking to start up to 24 hours later. Set it up before work, come home to freshly cooked rice. 

Steamer basket on top

You can use the included basket to steam vegetables, eggs or fish above whatever's cooking in the pot below, so you can get a grain and a side done in one go. You can also use the steam mode by itself.

Self-clean descaling cycle

A self-clean cycle handles descaling the internal water system every couple of months. Just run it with water and vinegar and your machine does the rest.

Save custom cycles

If you use a combination the presets don't cover—your own liquid ratio for a particular grain, say—you can save it as a custom cycle and reuse it next time.

Built for your kitchen and your bench

The inner pot is ceramic nonstick, not stainless steel. If you've been reading about rice cookers, you'll know some brands lead with stainless steel inner pots. We chose ceramic nonstick because it's easy to clean, PFAS-free, gentle on grains that tend to stick, and dishwasher safe.

At around 34cm wide, this is larger than a standard rice cooker – closer in footprint to a slow cooker or a multicooker. That reflects what it does. It's a benchtop appliance designed to stay out, not a gadget you store between uses. 

It comes in two colours, Black Matte and Porcelain, with an easy-to-use touchscreen and rounded edges that sit cleanly on the counter.

Is it right for you?

Think about what you cook week to week. Is that rice, grains, beans or legumes more than a couple of times a week? 

If you'd rather not measure water ratios every time, this auto-sensing smart cooker will earn its place on your bench very quickly. People who cook a lot of grains and rice know that measuring the water is one of those small tasks with a big impact. Automate it? Yes, please. 

It's sized for couples, small families and meal preppers: the 8-cup pot holds up to 3.6 cups of dry rice per batch, which is enough for a weeknight dinner or a solid meal-prep session, but it's not built for bulk-cooking large quantities in a single go.

And it scales down just as well. You can cook small amounts, and the machine adjusts the water ratio accordingly. So it works whether you're cooking for one or prepping a few meals ahead. 

At RRP $499 AUD, it's a premium appliance. If you only cook plain white rice a few times a month, a simpler, cheaper cooker will do that job well. But if you're cooking varied grains and legumes regularly, and you want one machine that removes the guesswork (or the measuring) from all of them, this is what it's built for.

It comes with a full 2-year warranty. Register your product at kitchenaid.com.au to activate your warranty and stay updated. 

Explore the Grain & Rice Cooker

Just pour in what you want to cook. Then let the machine handle the rest before you sit down to savour it.