How to Cook Rice for a Crowd (Baked Method)

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Cooking rice for a crowd is SO easy with this Baked Rice Method! For a potluck, family reunion, or church party, bake it in the oven and have up to 50 servings in less than an hour.

White rice in a large blue tray with a serving spoon.
Featured with this recipe
  1. Ingredients in this Rice Recipe
  2. What Kind of Pans to Use for this Easy Oven Rice
  3. Types of Rice to Use
  4. Seasoning Variations for Baked Rice
  5. Getting the Quantities Right:
  6. Tips for Perfect Baked Rice
  7. How to Store Leftovers
  8. Frequently Asked Questions
  9. More Ideas for Cooking for a Crowd
  10. How to Bake Rice (Making Rice for a Crowd)
  11. Rice for a Crowd (Baked Method) Recipe

Cooking large quantities of rice doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, it is pretty much one of the easiest starches you can make for a crowd! I used this baked rice method when I was serving 50+ people a big dinner at our church’s Girls Camp, and it worked like a charm. It was so much easier than making batches on the stovetop or a rice cooker and it never scorches on the bottom of the pan. Use it for stir fry, fried rice, cilantro lime rice or plain rice. It’s cheaper, too! Why spend $25-$35 (or more) to have rice catered when you can literally make it for a few bucks? You will love this easy recipe!

Ingredients in this Rice Recipe

A basic rice recipe is so easy and only has three ingredients. You can add more seasonings like fresh herbs or lime juice as desired but here’s what to start with:

  • Long grain, white rice – I use a five pound bag of long grain rice for this recipe. I prefer that over short grain or medium grain. That’s about 12 cups of rice or 3 quarts.
  • Water – five quarts or about 20 cups water. This may seem like excessive water to rice ratios, but rice in the oven requires more liquid than the stovetop. You could use vegetable broth, chicken broth or beef broth instead of water.
  • Kosher salt – three tablespoons, or add a teaspoon salt more at a time, to taste.

What Kind of Pans to Use for this Easy Oven Rice

Cooking rice in the oven is so easy and can make a large quantity. Use a 20-3/4″ x 12-3/4″ x 4″ steam table pan. It holds 15 quarts, so plenty of room for rice expansion. You can also use a roasting pan or a large baking dish with a lid. Just make sure that it can hold at least 10 quarts of rice and liquid. I like using the steam pan because it allows the rice to liquid ratio to cook more evenly. It is only 4″ deep, so not too shallow, not too deep. The closer you can get to the dimensions above, the better.

Types of Rice to Use

For this baked rice recipe I used long-grain white rice. You can also use brown rice, basmati rice, wild rice, short-grain rice or jasmine rice. The cooking times should remain the same. No need for rinsing the rice before cooking, either. You can rinse, if you want to, by using a fine mesh strainer, but that step isn’t necessary.

Seasoning Variations for Baked Rice

Once you get the gist of cooking large quantities of rice for a crowd, it is SO easy to make variations and flavors depending on what you are serving. Keep it simple with lemon zest, a little garlic, and garnish with parsley, bell peppers or green onions. Season with some soy sauce or teriyaki sauce. Or try one of these recipes below. They’re super easy and absolutely delicious!

  • Spanish or Mexican Rice for a Crowd: The recipe below calls for 5 quarts of water. For this Spanish Rice, reduce water to 3.5 quarts and then add two 28-ounce cans of Rotel tomatoes, 2 cups of tomato sauce, ⅓ cup of taco seasoning, and more salt to taste (if needed). Continue directions as directed below. This is delicious served with refried or black beans. 
  • Seasoned Rice for a Crowd: Use 2 quarts water and 3 quarts chicken broth. You can also substitute beef broth if you’re serving this with a beef main course. Eliminate salt (or just use a pinch to taste. The chicken broth should have plenty of sodium). Slice four cubes of butter (2 cups) into squares (pats) and evenly place over rice (it doesn’t need to be perfect, this is just so it will melt evenly when the hot water is poured on). In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons EACH of thyme, basil, and paprika and 1 tablespoon turmeric. Sprinkle mixture evenly over rice and butter. Carefully pour water and chicken broth over the top and lightly stir to combine butter and herbs/spices if needed. Bake as directed below. This rice is delicious alongside cooked carrots, green or red peppers, and onions or any other vegetables.

Getting the Quantities Right:

The baking times and methods shouldn’t change depending on the quantity of rice. It may vary slightly but not much. You will just need bigger or smaller pans depending on whether you need more or less rice. The recipe below makes 50 servings but it can easily be doubled to make 100 servings. If doubling, you will definitely want to use 2 separate pans, but they should still be able to fit in 1 oven. If you need closer to 20 servings of rice, you can half the recipe but still use the same-size pan or opt for a smaller pan.

Tips for Perfect Baked Rice

Some of our wonderful readers offered some helpful tips to make this rice perfect every time:

  • Toast the dry rice in the oven for about 30 minutes on 350 degrees, stirring every 10 minutes.
  • Add blended charred tomatoes and onion to the boiling liquid just before pouring it over the rice to be baked.
  • Use boiling water, not cold water. Water temperature will affect how the rice cooks in the oven.
  • Make sure to use enough water and check the volume of water in the recipe. Keep in mind that there is more water in this recipe than cooking on the stove or a rice maker.
  • Double the foil pan due to weight of water for added stability. You can use foil steam table size pans or a large casserole dish.
  • Fluff rice using a fork just before serving.
Seasoned rice in a large tray with a serving spoon.


How to Store Leftovers

Store any leftover rice in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days. Heat again by warming in the oven, if there is a lot to heat up, or microwave single servings. Remove the covering before microwaving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do people bake rice?

It’s the easiest, least messy way to make rice for a crowd. And unlike rice cooked on the stovetop, which is heated just from the bottom, oven-cooked rice gets an even, steady flow of heat from all directions.

How much water do you use to bake rice?

You will need more water when baking rice than you would cooking it on the stovetop. For a five pound bag of rice, you’ll need about 20 cups or five quarts of water.

How much rice do I need for a party of 50?

This recipe will serve 50 people, at about ½ to ¾ cup per person. So you’ll need a five pound bag of long grain rice for a party of 50.

READ MORE: Family Reunion Ideas for Meal Planning

More Ideas for Cooking for a Crowd

Need more ideas for cooking for a crowd? Have a big reunion coming up? Check out our Ultimate Family Reunion Meal Planning Guide! Cheesy Potato Casserole (aka Funeral Potatoes) is always a crowd pleaser, along with this yummy Blueberry Jello Salad. Or try some of these delicious recipes that you can make in bulk:

How to Bake Rice (Making Rice for a Crowd)

Rice for a Crowd (Baked Method)

4.87 from 129 votes
Cooking rice for a crowd is SO easy! For a potluck, family reunion, or church party, bake it in the oven and have up to 50 servings in less than an hour.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Asian
Servings 50

Video

Equipment

  • Conventional Oven

Ingredients

  • 3 quarts long grain, white rice (12 cups or a 5 pound bag)
  • 5 quarts water (20 cups)
  • 3 tablespoons Kosher salt

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
  • Place 3 quarts uncooked rice in large roasting pan (lightly sprayed with cooking spray), spread evenly. Set aside.
  • In a large stock-pot, combine water and salt. Bring to a rolling boil.
  • CAREFULLY pour boiling water over rice and stir so rice is even along the bottom.
  • Immediately cover tightly with aluminum foil. Make sure you have a tight seal around ALL the edges. 
  • Place roasting pan in oven and bake for 40-45 minutes or until rice is tender.
  • Fluff with a large wooden spoon & serve.
  • **Note: If you want to wait to serve, just keep in the oven at 150 degrees or so, or keep warm in an electric warming pan. Add a little water if necessary to keep from drying out.

Nutrition Information

Calories: 207kcalCarbohydrates: 45gProtein: 4gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 426mgPotassium: 65mgFiber: 1gSugar: 1gCalcium: 19mgIron: 1mg

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About the author

Erica Walker

Erica lives in Boise, Idaho with her husband, Jared, an attorney, and her three beautiful girls. Beyond the world of recipes, she loves adventuring with everything from kayaking, to cruising, to snowboarding and taking the family along for the thrill ride.

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Comments

  1. I loved this, I am looking for a recipie to feed 50-60 homeless persons so will need more than 1/2 cup per person. I am used to cooking and adjusting recipes but would really like to use a roasting oven to do the cooking. I can then make the rice in my church kitchen and carry it in the oven (so it stays warm) to the place where we will feed. Do you think I can use the same quantities and do it in my roasting oven???

    1. Yes, you should be able to do it in your roasting oven, you will just want to make sure you can get the same temperatures as mentioned in this recipe. How cool you are making this for the homeless. That is an incredible service. Thank you for your selflessness 🙂

  2. 5 stars
    Hi. Just found this in time😊 Cooking for chrch lunch on Sunday. I like rice soft not a crunch. Do I need to add more water for it to come out that way? If so how much? Thank you. I think you saved me a LOT of time. ⌛

    1. I work in a school cafeteria and am just learning to be the side dish cook. We are feeding around 1000 kids a day. Friday we had seasoned jasmine rice. I had about 2 1/2 hours to make 60 lbs (uncooked)of rice. My recipe said to cook 4 lbs. at a time in 4-inch steam table pan for about 20 minutes in a steamer uncovered. Then it said to cover, I think, and let the liquid finish absorbing. I don’t know our large steamer well enough to trust it and we only have one baby steamer which was being used. So I doubled the recipes and put into 6-inch steam table pans, covered with metal lids (not foil), and put 4 pans into one restaurant convection oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. I then checked them and they were still not done. So I increased the temp to 400 degrees (panic time) and cooked 30 minutes more. They got done. But all in all, I needed to cook 10 large pans altogether, or 20 small pans. All the while I also had to cook 480 eggrolls and 48 lbs. of stir fry blend vegetables. Whew! Anyway, the rice got stickier as it sat and had to keep adding water to serve. Should I have not cooked so long and then let it sit and absorb the water as the recipe called for? I have only cooked parboiled rice before. Is jasmine rice a different animal? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

      1. Hi Julie- Typically with Jasmine rice, you don’t need as much water. Especially if you are rinsing the rice first. Have you tried the recipe as directed in our recipe? It works really well for large crowds and it is so easy to do. If your rice is getting sticky and clumpy, try adding a little butter instead of water. I think the water will make it more mushy. Hope this helps!

  3. I need to fix rice for 200 – can I put 4 pans in oven at one time? Would it need to have longer baking time?

    1. Yes, you will need a large oven and you will have to cook them longer.. I can’t tell you exactly how long. I would say just keep an eye on them and rotate the pans halfway through. Hope this helps!

  4. Wish me luck. I’m so grateful this feed is available. Gonna made rice for 40+… freaking out because I’m Korean and grew up on rice with a rice maker. It’s taboo otherwise. Thanks for the confidence and sharing success stories. Means so much. It’s hosting a nonprofit meal to feed middle school kids to raise funds to send them to Costa Rica. You are amazing for sharing this info and experience. Thanks. I’ll let you know how it goes!

    1. Good luck with your meal! What a great cause! This recipe works like a charm every time, so I’m sure it will be a success for you.

  5. 5 stars
    Thanks for this recipe! I made it in smaller disposable lasagna pans with heavy foil lids that crimp onto the sides (just keeping the same ratio of 3 cups rice to 5 cups water plus a little salt). I used basmati rice, didn’t even watch the timing that carefully, and it came out fluffy perfection filling each pan. I stacked the pans into a thermal tote, took them to feed my daughter’s marching band, and was a hero. Each pan came out fresh and hot onto the table (and was devoured)! This method is my new best friend for serving a crowd.

    1. Yay! This is amazing! So glad this recipe worked out so well for you. It is a very “non-fussy” recipe, which is why we love it so much too. Thank you so much for the 5-stars Ashley!

    1. You will need a little more than 5 lbs of rice. 5 lbs of rice measures out to approximately 10 cups, you will need 12 cups of rice with the 20 cups of liquid. I added cup measurements to the recipe. Thank you for asking!

    1. You will want to add more water and increase the cooking time by at least 20-30 minutes. Hope this helps!

  6. What is the serving size per person? 1/2 cup? 1 cup? measured after it is cooked? I am cooking for 200+ people. I want to put the size scoop into the pan the correct size. And one recipe this week they need more of a serving size than later this week. Thanks!

  7. 5 stars
    Just FYI for people wanting scale the recipe down to serve only 10 or so people. I use a disposable 8×10 pan. 4 cups rice and coat rice while inside the pan with some olive oil (eye ball it), 6 cups water and a generous T kosher salt. I still cook for 45 minutes and turns out great.

    1. 5 stars
      Sorry. I just looked at my pan size. It doesn’t actually say the size of the pan. It’s just the heavy duty half size steam table pans from Reynolds bakeware. Says holds up to 10 pounds. Those are the best pans to make the rice in.

  8. 5 stars
    Hey! I’ve been trying everywhere to find out how to do mexican rice on a large scale and I stumbled across this recipe.
    I’m in NZ so quarts and ounces was quite confusing but I tried to get all the measurements converted.
    I halved this recipe because I wanted to try it and baked in a big deep ceramic pie dish.
    I put it on fan bake and after fourty minutes the rice was cooked but slightly chewy and gluggy.
    How do you get this nice and fluffy? I used medium grain rice and rinsed it, would that make a difference?
    Id love some help on this. Im going to try and make about 30 litres of rice sometime in the future.

    Thanks!!

    1. You problem may be in the rice, try a long-grain white rice or you can use Jasmine rice– also if you rinse the rice you will want to cut back on the water portions. Hope this helps!

    2. 5 stars
      Because it’s so much faster, I like to cook metric even though I’m in the US. If 1 cup white rice is 180 grams, then you need 1260 grams of rice. Since 1 quart is 946.35 ml, then you need 4.732 liters of water.

  9. You have said that this will make up to 50 servings. I need to feed 60 people. Do you think I could adjust the recipe to 4 quarts dry rice/6.67 quarts water and still have it fit in the pan of the same dimensions?

    1. I haven’t done it that way before but I don’t see why that wouldn’t work. You will probably be just fine– you may just need to increase baking time a little bit. I would say just to keep an eye on it and you will probably be ok! Hope this helps!

  10. I am trying to do Cilantro lime Rice for 100 for a wedding. Do you have any idea what the lime and Cilantro amounts would be for your recipe above? I had thought that I should use 1/2 chicken broth h1/2 water instead of all water and omit the salt. ( I realize these portions are for 50 people, so I would need to double.)
    I really appreciate your kind response to everyone. Thank you for your help to us non- caterers that ended up catering.

    1. You bet! Ok here is what I would do. Yes, I would do half water, half chicken broth. Then I would add about 10 cloves of garlic and the juice from about 2 limes. Cook it up and then combine juice from 3 limes, 2 Tbsp. sugar, and 1-2 bunches of cilantro finely chopped..mix all those together and add it a little at a time when fluffing up the rice with a fork. Hope this helps!

      1. Would this be for the 50 servings in the one pan or were you thinking this amount for 100(double the recipe) I’m also doing this lime rice for a wedding dinner! Thanks

  11. Hi. We are going to be in RVs at the Frio for a week. Each family takes a night to cook. Would this recipe reheat well in electric roasters? I plan on making it ahead of time. Thanks.

    1. We haven’t Re-heated using electric roasters before but I don’t see why not. You probably just need to add more water as it heats up because it will probably get dry.

  12. Good Evening I was wondering if I would be able to add black beans to this recipe without adjusting the water (for the Spanish/Mexican rice?
    thank you
    Susan

    1. Yes, you should be able to add beans without adding any extra water. You will just want them drained and rinsed. Hope this helps!

    1. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work, I am sure it would be delicious! If it can be done in a rice cooker, it can be done in the oven 🙂

  13. 5 stars
    Question
    I am making the rice in the church kitchen, which has ovens but not stove tops. Am I able to make this starting with cold water and cooking longer?

    Other Considerations:
    I do have access to a coffee urn, which I could use to heat water, but my concerns are that (1) the water does not reach boiling temperature in the urn, and (2) my rice might taste like coffee. I don’t think the electric kettle reaches boiling point either, and I could only heat 1.5 quarts of water at a time in the electric kettle. I want to make this hot and fresh on the spot, rather than making it at home and reheating, if possible.

    1. If you try cooking from cold water, it would have to cook much much longer. It’s good to get that hot water on it right off the bat. Is there any way you could boil water and bring it in one of those big insulated water coolers? It may not be boiling any more by the time you pour it on but it would still be REALLY hot. Just be careful when pouring (maybe even use the spout to pour while measuring to prevent getting burned). Hope this helps!

      1. without a stovetop, you could use a portable Salton top. they are handy even in your own kitchen. i picked one up at a second hand store for about 7$. it takes a large pot, quite sturdy

    1. 1 quart = 4 cups. So for this recipe you would use 12 cups. We used a gallon-sized pitcher that had measuring marks on it and filled it to the 3-quart mark. That is how we came up with that measurement. Hope this helps!

  14. So excited to run across your recipe today! I will be making for approximately 325 people, curious on making ahead – do you know if freezing would work or how long it would work refrigerated? I have chafing dishes for day of but hoping to make a week ahead of time..

    1. Oh man, this is a good question. I have never frozen bulk rice before so I don’t know what to tell you here. If it were me and I HAD to make it ahead of time I would probably refrigerate no more than 2 days ahead of time, then sprinkle with water when re-heating in the oven to keep it from drying out. Honestly by the time you thaw and re-heat it– it would be just as easy just to cook it that same day. It would take about the same amount of time. Hope this helps!

  15. Can I use this to make southern style greasy rice? For a normal use I boil chicken for the broth with celery and onion and once done I shred the chicken, remove the celery and onion and add the rice until done but I’m not sure how to do this for 50 people.

    1. We haven’t tried it that way before but it sounds like it would probably work just fine! Let us know how it turns out for you if you try it!