10 Best Rice Cooker With Stainless Steel Pot

I have been wanting a good appropriate size Rice Cooker for our RV, especially since we purchased a cheap one that is way to tiny and also after my wife said the cheap one I bought was junk. It was time for me to study and redeem myself.

After some research on Rice Cookers I came upon the Yum Asia Panda. I read some reviews from the Amazon UK site and thought it sounded like just the right size and the reviews were all positive as well.

So I ordered it.

Now my wife is more a skeptic than I am, she basically said “ok it cooks rice how hard is that”. So it was up to me to convince her I made a good purchase and that it would exceed her simple expectations and she would like it more than a standard rice cooker.

The Panda is excellent so far for my medium-grain white rice. I use the SHORT-GRAIN setting. If anyone uses the long-grain setting for medium-grain to even better effect, please let me know, but I have no complaints!

There’s a learning curve for STEAMing eggs. Using only large eggs so far, I’ve had to remove the inner lid because the Panda steamer insert is too shallow otherwise. My egg sweet spot is around the 5-minute mark (orange, mostly jammy but not-runny yolks with no chalky yellow color), once the STEAM setting starts counting down from 10 mins. A workaround might be a modified silicone steamer insert. Btw, I watched a YT vid (not Panda-specific) on steaming eggs before I experimented.

Chickpeas were trickier. They weren’t done by the end of the high-temp phase of the SLOW COOKER setting and were taking too long after it to get the chickpeas soft for hummus (not mush but easily crushed). I always soak overnight, and my stovetop has chickpeas soft enough way under an hour on a good simmer. I need to try another setting.

The (very well written!) manual’s recipe for brownies works great on the CAKE setting (of *course* I had to try it 😁). But if you only enjoy chewy brownies, use your oven and use the CAKE setting on the Panda for bona fide cakes. But I found it charming to be able to make such a thing in a small rice cooker.

SUMMARY: Since I’m thrilled to be able to use the Panda for things other than rice, I sort of wish I’d gotten a 5-6-cup model. No big regret; it’d just be nice to have a slightly larger and hopefully deeper steamer insert. But here’s the thing: I don’t regularly make a lot of rice at a time, and the Panda size is perfect for me and one other person. And IT COOKS RICE VERY, VERY WELL. Besides that, my favorite feature of any rice cooker is the walk-away factor. Being able to steam eggs and cook legumes without having to babysit the whole process is a huge plus.

ETA: I also used the PORRIDGE setting for steel-cut oats, which worked wonderfully.

I am IN LOVE with my Panda rice cooker. The only thing I do not like about it, is it doesn’t give a count down or show a timer. Otherwise, it is super easy to clean, easy to use, and I love that I can turn this on walk away and it doesn’t burn, stick, over cook/under cook my rice. I’ve not yet used it to make anything but rice and steamed dumplings. I want to make the brownie recipe that is included in the manual. I use this a few times a week and IF you have ever gone to a Chinese restaurant and asked for extra rice and was turned down, this is your answered prayer. Now you can make sticky rice in about 20 mins (I think b/c there isn’t a timer).