Crockpot Wild Rice

We don't eat a lot of wild rice in our house. My mom gave me 2 small bags a while back when I complained that it was difficult to find here. I've still only used half of the first bag. A little goes a long way. Rice usually doubles in volume when you cook it. Wild rice quadruples when you cook it! This is probably because wild rice isn't technically a rice, it's actually a grass.

If the wild rice is cooked properly, it will split and the whitish gray interior will poof out like tiny skinny popcorn. That's the kicker though...if you cook it properly. I have tried in the past to cook it over the stove and I just can't get the kernels to burst. It's supposed to take around 30 minutes. Last time I gave up at 45 minutes and said we were going to eat it extra crunchy. I don't recommend doing this. It's not the tastiest thing.

Back in October I checked a book out from the library called Slow Cooker Cooking by Laura Brody. In it was this awesome recipe for cooking wild rice in your crockpot. I will never go back to preparing wild rice on the stove again!

I did have a moment of panic when I first made this. I had cooked everything for the suggested time and the rice had only just begun to split. I turned the slow cooker off and decided to lay down for a bit while Blockette was taking a nap...I mean having "quiet time". After an hour and a half, I peeked in on the wild rice. Tada! Poof city. It was perfect.

I'll write later about what I made with this rice so stay tuned!

Wild rice in your crockpot
1c wild rice
3 c chicken, beef or veg broth/stock (I used half water and half veg stock)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 T butter

Put the rice in a strainer and rinse off the rice. Place the rice, broth, salt, pepper and butter in the crock pot. Cover and cook on high for 2-3 hours until the rice is slightly crunchy and half the kernels have opened. Drain off any excess liquid before serving. Yields 4 cups.