Mandu Rice (Dumpling Rice in Rice Cooker)

Mandu rice is a delicious, 1-pot recipe that’s perfect for busy weeknights. Just put all ingredients in your rice cooker, cook and enjoy. It’s customizable too so you can work with whatever you have in your kitchen.

(Love Korean cuisine? Try Korean garlic bread. Wonderfully sweet and salty!)

Mandu (or mandoo) are Korean-style dumplings.

We buy them frozen (our favorite brand is the beef bulgogi mandu potstickers from Bibigo) but you can certainly use whatever brand you like, or even make them from scratch if have a favorite mandu recipe. 

Mandu can be steamed, fried or boiled but our favorite way of eating them is combining them with rice.

And even better, cooking mandu rice in a rice cooker. 

It’s so easy even someone like me who doesn’t know how to cook can do it.

Let’s make dinner.

Why you’ll love this easy dumpling rice recipe

• Perfect for non-cooks. Can’t cook? Me neither. But lemme tell you…I can make delicious meals using our rice cooker and I’m so proud of that! Red and my parents are astounded too lol. (Check out my recipe for Hainanese chicken in rice cooker.)

• Easy weeknight meal. This is also perfect for busy weeknights or those days when you just don’t have the energy to cook. Just put everything in your rice cooker and you’re done! Delicious 1-pot dish.

• Customize however you like. It’s very easy to customize, too. Ran out of mandu? Use siomai or whatever dumpling you have on hand. You can also add other vegetables sitting in your fridge.

(Love one pot dishes? Try one pot pasta curry – it’s loaded with vegetables in a light and delicious sauce.)

How to make

Making dumpling rice is easy.

Ingredients

You’ll need kitchen staples like soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, green onions, salt and pepper. Things to keep in mind:

• Rice — we eat basmati rice at home so that’s what I use in this recipe. If you have Jasmine or long grain rice, those will work too. Don’t use sticky rice.

• Corn kernels — I like using canned corn kernels because it complements the dumplings so well but you can also use corn, peas and carrots, edamame, or skip the vegetables altogether.

• Mandu — we love beef mandu and it’s what we often use. Other kinds of Korean dumplings or potstickers will work too (you can even make homemade vegetable gyoza). We’ve also used Chinese dumplings for delicious siomai rice.

Tools

We have a Tiger rice cooker that has different settings. When making mandu rice, we select “plain” then press start.

If you have a simpler rice cooker, all you need to do is flip the switch to cook.

You can also make this recipe without a rice cooker. 

Simply follow the recipe as written then just check for doneness yourself (allow for roughly the same amount of time that it usually takes your rice to cook).

Step-by-step photos

1-pot cooking with your rice cooker

Easy, right? Here are some things to remember when making rice cooker dishes:

• Know your rice cooker. If you have a simple rice cooker, all you need to do is flip the switch and cook the rice. If you have a more feature-rich one, you’ll need to be familiar with all the settings available to you. For our rice cooker, it specifies that we use the “plain” setting.

• Rinse your rice properly. It’s also important to rinse your rice properly. And depending on the rice you’re using, you may also need to soak it in water before cooking.

• Use the cup that came with your machine. In all my rice cooker recipes, when I say a “cup” I mean the cup that came with your rice cooker and not your usual baking cups.

Recipe FAQs

We love making mandu rice. It’s simple, so easy to make, and so good! Serve with Asian salad or a side of tempura shrimp to complete your meal.

We hope you enjoy having a dumpling rice bowl too and add this recipe to your weekly meal prep.

Happy cooking!

Did you make this mandu rice recipe? I’d love to hear all about it! Leave a comment or a star rating below. You can also tag me on Instagram or Facebook. I’d love to see your creations!

You can also find me on Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube.