Reddit reviews Zojirushi NS-LGC05XB Micom Rice Cooker & Warmer, 3-Cups (uncooked), Stainless Black

Stash an oh-shit roll of toilet paper. Separate it from the normal stash, so you're forced to go get it when you ran out and forgot to buy more. It'll remind you to buy more. :-P
Get a plunger.
Get a 1/4" allen wrench and tape it to your garbage disposal.
Get a first aid kit. Put it somewhere obvious like a drawer or medicine cabinet in the bathroom.
Get renter's insurance. It's cheap and it protects for a lot of things you wouldn't expect, like personal liability stuff.
Can opener.
A colander or strainer.
A cheese grater.
At least a couple spatulas.
Some sort of large serving spoon, like for soup. Doesn't have to be a ladle.
A cheap 4-piece set of cutlery.
A small knife, and a large knife.
A Leatherman or Gerber tool is handy to have around. I leave mine in my car.
One pot and one saucepan, both with lids. Good enough to cook most anything.
A toaster. You won't go through a loaf of bread in time (probably), so you'll freeze it. Toasting frozen bread works great.
A cookie sheet. Not for cookies, just for a way to put stuff in the oven like leftover pizza, etc.
Aluminum foil. Put it on your cookie sheet so you don't have to actually clean it after use.
Some non-perishable foods for your pantry (boxes of Mac N Cheese, Rice a Roni, whatever.) Preferably, stuff that doesn't require ingrients you might not have (meat or milk, for instance)
Freezer safe containers
Ziploc bags
At least two trash cans (one for bathroom, one for kitchen)
TRASH BAGS!
AA batteries. Just buy a pack and store them.
A few lightbulbs.
Probably a couple cheap floor lamps.

This is less of an everybody thing, but buy a slow cooker. Cooking for yourself sucks, but it sucks a lot less if you're making 5-10 meals at a time and freezing them.

On a similar note, a small rice cooker is handy. I went all out and got a Zojirushi. You want a small one because big ones tend to make small amounts of rice shitty.

A bottle of bleach, some dishwashing detergent, and washing machine detergent stuff (assuming you have access to these appliances)

At some point in the future, you might find yourself wanting a blender. When that happens, don't go cheap.

Sugar and salt.

Buy spices as you need them, but garlic powder will almost always be one of those spices.

A measuring cup.

If it's somewhere cold, two snow shovels -- one for car and one for house. Also a change of warm clothes in the car.

If it's somewhere hot, store some water in the car.

If you don't already have one, a decent computer chair. Ikea makes a great chair for the price called the Markus

Plastic cups, paper plates.

EDIT: a stepladder, 3 steps preferably.

A vacuum cleaner, but that one is probably obvious.

CHICKEN STOCK

Well for one thing, make stock. I don't know how you get your chicken but if they have bones on them, save them (freeze them). Cooked or not. Or you can cut to the chase and go buy two whole chickens. You may need a stock pot. There's a good Cuisinart one for about $40, which is about $30 cheaper than when I bought mine about a year ago. So snatch it in case the price goes way back up.

Fill with the chicken (remove the gizzards and such if you bought them whole and raw) and about a gallon of water. Simmer for 3 hours. take a few carrots, a few stalks of celery, and an onion or two. Rough chop them. Into the pot. Continue to cook for another 3 hours. This isn't rocket science. It's dissolving food in water.

If you have some whole peppercorns, parsley, and garlic cloves, either toss them in and strain them later or make into a bouquet garni (essentially tie them up in a bit of cheesecloth so they don't get loose) and toss them in. After another 30 or 60 minutes (stock doesn't require precision) you're finished. And if you don't have any of these items, don't sweat it. It's still gonna taste good.

Ideally, strain through a mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth. I bough a pack of the kinds of plastic containers you get when you order soup from Chinese Takeout from Amazon and you can partition out the stock for easier use.

Put them in the fridge and let them cool down. The fat will rise and form a protective barrier. As long as the fat is there, the stock will keep longer in the fridge. Just skim the fat before you use the stock. Fat in your stock when you use it is generally a bad idea. Don't feel bad about freezing whatever you can't use in the first two weeks.

Now you have liquid gold. You're 15 minutes away from chicken soup. (Just chop up everything, dump in the stock and cook until you wanna eat it.) You now can have flavorful rice. Or better yet, step up your starch game and make risotto. You can add it to other dishes like ground turkey with taco seasoning to make turkey taste about 1000x better. Hell, you can straight up drink it.

CHICKEN FAJITAS

As a side note, olive oil does wonders for chicken. Grab the chicken tenderloins, scrape out the ligament and cook in a little olive oil. Toss in some bell pepper and onion (and fajita seasoning if you have it, else salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste) and you've got yourself fajitas. You can decide whether you want a taco shell or not.

CHICKEN & BROCCOLI (or Beef & Broccoli)

Here's a recipe for beef & broccoli (but works for chicken & broccoli too). Considering it's essentially protein, broccoli, and rice with the barest of flavorings, I consider this clean eating.

The only thing you need to know is that the Chinese have a technique to make protein have a more velvet mouthfeel. It's called "velveting". That's what the marinade is about.

Marinade: (For the protein)

• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
  
• 1 teaspoon mirin
  
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil (I leave this out but if you like sesame oil, add it)
  
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  
• dash of pepper
  
  Mix together and rub into the protein with your hands. It's easiest that way. Wait at least 15 minutes. After you do this a few times you'll realize the proportions here don't really matter all that much. I just eyeball it now and make it a little wetter than you'll find this to be. Either way there's not much difference in the final product. In other words, as long as you're reasonably close to this part of the recipe, it'll turn out fine.
  
  Sauce:
  
  
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
  
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil (I also leave this out)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
  
• 4 tablespoons water
  
  How to Cook Everything:
  
  

1. Do you have a rice cooker? If yes, make rice. If no, make rice. It's just more finicky without it. But seriously, consider a rice cooker. I like jasmine rice. They make a brown jasmine rice too. If you have a smart rice cooker, try that. Otherwise, stick with the white stuff. (Unless you like/prefer brown rice, then go crazy.)
   
2. After the meat has been in the marinade for at least 15 minutes, cook in a little vegetable oil, preferably in a wok. You may want to work in 2 batches so you can get better browning on the meat. After the meat is cooked, remove to a plate.
   
3. Chop up some broccoli and microwave it for 4-5 minutes until tender. Too much and it'll get limp and dumb. Too little and it'll be too crunchy. I usually microwave my broccoli with a little water in the container and with a lid. That way it steams up nice. If you don't have a microwave, steam on the stove top.
   
4. If you haven't burned anything to the bottom of the wok/pan when cooking your protein, go ahead and add a little more oil, a few minced cloves of garlic, some grated or finely chopped ginger (I recommend using one of these), and red pepper flakes (or break open some dried bird eye chilis if you have them). Adjust to your heat preference. I like mine with a fair amount of heat in it. (If you did burn something, wash the wok/pan out first and start clean.) Add all three to the oil and cook for 30ish seconds until fragrant. Add the protein back to the pan. Add the cooked broccoli. Add the sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil. Serve over rice. Note: There won't be a lot of sauce. It'll coat everything but there won't be a lot of extra. That's because the dish isn't meant to be saucy.
   
   Anyway, try that. It's phenomenal. Personally, I buy sirloin and slice it to make beef and broccoli. But chicken works really well too.
   
   I can keep going but that's at least 3 things you can do with chicken.
   
   Edit: Thanks for the GOLD!

If you can get your hands on one, a Zojirushi or Tiger is your best option. I have a Tiger and use it regularly. It takes abuse and just keeps going. But the Zojirushi may be more common to where you are.

If you're single, get the smaller 3 cup model as /u/appskicker said.

Mine

Zojirushi with Timer

Zojirushi 3-cup without Timer

This one should be good, I have a zojirushi at similar size and it serves 4-6 people pretty well

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EVHWNVG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_IMJEzb0BFG3JV

I have had this one (or, maybe a previous version of this model?) for about ten years and it's still going strong. I use it about once a week and make both white and brown rice in it. The timer feature is very helpful, as you set it for the time you want to eat, and the rice maker figures it out starting time from there based on weight and type of rice.

I have this $120 model (discounted from $150 on Amazon) but which is a micom model. I’m very happy with it and use it twice daily: rice for dinner (and then lunch the following day) and then steel-cut oats overnight on the porridge setting to be ready when I wake up in the morning.

I think you have to think about your use case and frequency of use. For me, I’d never replace my rice cooker with an Instant Pot because I use the rice cooker so often and would often need to be using them simultaneously — when I’m braising or stewing something, which for me would be the most common Instant Pot use, I almost always need to make some rice at the same time as well.

However, Zojirushi machines are definitely expensive. While I certainly think they perform better than cheaper rice cookers, it’s not worth it for everyone. (I for example have a cheap ass microwave and don’t even own a toaster, because I only use my microwave to reheat leftovers and I basically never eat toast at home. You just have to prioritize according to your culinary lifestyle.)

Hello OP, there's actually this model on sale for $84 right now: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EVHWNVG

It's def a good place to get started, and it normally costs $150

I can't speak to the Instant Pot. But I do own a Zojirushi rice maker. Before I bought it I ate rice once or twice a month. Now I eat rice 4-5 times per week. I was able to make an ok batch of rice before but to get it really nice in a pot you have to watch it or at least come back very close to on time. Zojirushi is set-and-forget and the perfect rice comes out every time.

The other thing is brown rice, which is a bit more tricky to cook than white rice, really benefits from the Zojirushi. Main drawback is the 98min cooktime - but it comes out so good it is worth it for me. My near-daily routine after work is I wash the rice and start the cooker, sit a rest for about 1 hour, then finish cooking the rest of the meal in the last 30 min.

I also use it most weekends to make steel-cut oats. I don't think I use any kitchen appliance even half as often as the rice cooker.

For reference I have https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EVHWNVG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 which is the 3 cup version of the one you are considering.

Two things have helped me, well maybe 3. I always add a little dashi or stock. I have learned that some rice is better than others and I really like Sukoyaka Genmai, and after years and years of no rice cooker and crappy rice cookers I got a good one and it changed my life - I like the Zojirushi ones with the fuzzy logic like this one. Now brown rice is an absolute treat, and since it takes longer to cook I can program the rice cooker to have it done when I need it after work.

Not unless you're really, picky about your rice. Just make sure you get a non-stick one. (Most of them are.)

You can get fancy, high-end, Japanese options, but you're paying 5-10x the price for rice that's only about 10-20% better. Unless you're really serious about rice, these things are probably overkill.

Does it make rice as well as a good rice maker?

2nd the Zojirushis. For me, I like the 3-cup models as the minimum amount to cook is 0.5 rice cups. I had a crappy rice cooker before which the minimum was 2 cups and it was just way too much rice.

I have this one, but got mine for $90 years ago: https://www.amazon.com/Zojirushi-NS-LGC05XB-Cooker-uncooked-Stainless/dp/B01EVHWNVG

Get a Zojirushi rice cooker. Perfect rice every time.