Top 10 GABA Rice Cookers
for December 2023

This Cuckoo 6-Cup Rice Cooker has it all: easily programmable controls, a preset timer, and an auto-clean function, and Fuzzy Logic technology automatically adjusts pressure and temperature for perfectly cooked rice every time. Its safety features include a steam release that prevents overcooking and alerts you if the cooker's temperature or pressure gets too high, and an overheating alarm that will alert you if the cooker's temperature or pressure gets too high. The cooker's menu options range from pressure cook to GABA rice to brown rice to white rice to porridge to nurung ji, and while its reheat function is optimal for leftovers, the cooker's temperature is still too high for those dishes. Its display has 12 menu options, but the menu is a tad confusing, and it's hard to change menu settings. And, while Cuckoo's cookers are inexpensive, they are made in Korea, which means they're also a little pricier than cookers made in China.

The CUCKOO CRP-PK1001S is one of a few budget pressure rice cookers on the market, and it's the best we tested based on performance, features, and price. It's easy to use, has a useful voice guidance menu, and can quickly cook rice, porridge, quinoa, and other grains. Its slow-cook feature makes it easier to prepare larger quantities of food, and its reheat function works well for leftovers. The cooker's compact size and nonstick cooking surface makes it easy to clean and makes cleanup less of a chore. The cooker's programmable settings are easy to use and include 12 options, including GABA rice, brown rice, and white rice. The cooker has an auto-clean feature, which automatically turns off the cooker after 30 minutes of cooking. The cooker's Fuzzy Logic technology makes cooking rice more intuitive by automatically adjusting its temperature and pressure based on which type of rice you're cooking. The cooker's digital display features 12 menu options, including pressure cook, GABA rice, brown rice, white rice, porridge, scorched rice, and more. The cooker comes with a convenient measuring cup, rice paddle, and rice scoop, all of which are dishwasher safe.

The Zojirushi NP-HCC10 is a well-made, well-designed rice cooker that is perfect for rice. It produces excellent rice, including fluffy white and chewy brown varieties, and it does so quickly. It heats very evenly, and uses pressure cooking methods that are far superior to boiling, which produces mushy rice. The NP-HCC10 comes with 4 pressure levels, which make it easy to perfect the texture of your rice, and it comes with 3 different measuring cups, so you can easily switch from white to brown or from regular to jasmine rice. Zojirushi makes an excellent rice cooker, and this model is no exception.

The Cuckoo CRP-P1009SW 10 Cup Electric Heating Pressure Cooker & Warmer is an excellent choice for anyone who loves to cook but has limited kitchen space. It's a small, easy-to-store appliance, and it taps in to an electric pressure cooker's versatility. You can cook rice, porridge, or mixed rice (with meat and veggies) in as little as 15 minutes, and it uses Fuzzy Logic technology to adjust to the cooking conditions, so these meals come out perfectly every single time. The cooker includes 12 preset programs, but it's smart enough that you can reprogram it to store your favorite cooking conditions. It has an easy-to-read LED display, and it uses electric heating rather than pressured steam, so it's quiet and easy to use. Its nonstick inner pot is easy to remove and wash, and the cooker's lid is dishwasher safe. The cooker's automatic safety feature releases pressure quietly and softly, so you won't have to worry about a popping or hissing sound during cooking. The cooker's interior cup measures 1.8 liters, so you can make 10 cups of cooked rice or porridge, and the cooker's 1.6-liter inner pot is the perfect size for making GABA or brown (glutinous) rice. The cooker's reheat function allows you to quickly and easily cook leftover rice.

This rice cooker and warmer from Zojirushi is one of the best rice cookers and warmers we've tested, and it has the best user interface of any we tested at this price point. The warmer has 10 different settings for cooking rice and 12 settings for warming and boiling soup, allowing you to make a variety of soups, congees, and porridges. The rice-maker has 10 different settings for cooking white rice, sushi rice, brown rice, porridge, congee, GABA brown, and quick white, as well as settings for cooking mixed rice and dessert rice. The rice cooker's Fuzzy Logic technology uses digital control logic to automatically control timing and temperature, so you don't need to fiddle with complicated buttons. The rice cooker's steamer has 10 different settings for steaming vegetables, fish, and meat, and it also has a dedicated setting for steaming rice. The warmer's steamer has six settings for steaming soup and congee, and it also has a dedicated setting for making porridge. The warmer's brown rice setting cooks brown rice much faster than conventional rice cookers, and the rice maker's brown rice setting makes sushi rice much more easily and quickly and with less hassle than our old favorite rice cooker, the Panasonic RS-GX260. The warmer's warm-and-boil setting is great for making soups and curries. The rice cooker's warm-and-serve setting makes great porridges, and it also has a keep warm setting that keeps rice warm for 30 minutes. The warmer's warmer setting keeps the soup at an ideal serving temperature for 30 minutes. The warmer has an integrated ceramic warming plate that keeps the soup warm. The warmer has a slow-cook setting that cooks soups and other meals at low temperatures for 18 hours. The warmer's keep warm setting is ideal for keeping soup warm for 30 minutes. The warmer's keep warm setting keeps soup warm for 6 hours. The warmer's keep warm setting keeps soup warm for 12 hours. In slow cooker mode, the warmer automatically switches to warm-and-serve after 18 hours. The warmer's keep warm setting automatically switches to warm-and-serve after 6 hours. The warmer's keep warm setting automatically switches to warm-and-serve after 12 hours. The warmer's keep warm setting automatically switches to warm-and-serve after 18 hours.

This CUCKOO rice cooker is everything you want in a rice cooker and more. It cooks rice quickly (white rice in about 20 minutes), is easy to operate, and is versatile enough to also cook other foods, such as quinoa and brown rice, as well as liquids, such as soup. The CUCKOO CRP-HS0657FW comes with 11 menu options, including a keep-warm option and a multicook function, and it automatically cleans itself after cooking, so it's virtually maintenance-free. It has a wide range of settings, including pressure cook, rice, sushi rice, nurung ji, and multi-cook, and it's easy to use and clean. It has a 6-cup capacity, and comes with a rice spatula, a rice measuring cup, and a product manual. The controls are intuitive, and the LCD screen provides detailed cooking instructions. The cooker's induction heating completely surrounds the inner pot, making it more effective than traditional heating methods. And although it uses more energy than microwaved or steamed rice, it uses far less energy than stovetop cooking, so it's more efficient overall. The only drawback we found is that its automatic keep-warm feature shuts off after 2 hours, so if you're cooking a large batch, you may have to reheat specific foods in the oven, which is a workaround that irks us. Otherwise, the CUCKOO CRP-HS0657FW is high-quality, versatile, and easy to use, and we highly recommend it.

The Zojirushi NS-YAC18 is a sleek, attractive cooker, and it's an excellent value for its small, compact size, powerful cooking performance, and programmable keep-warm feature. The NS-YAC18 is simple to operate, and it has a user-friendly control panel. Its nonstick surfaces are easy to clean, and the cooker has a cool-touch exterior. The NS-YAC18 is relatively small, and it's restricted to cooking meals for 2 or 3 people. However, it's an amazing value for the price, and it's one the best choices in this roundup if you are looking for something to cook on a single burner. Our only complaint is about the keep-warm feature: While the NS-YAC18's keep-warm setting keeps rice warm for up to 6 hours, the keep-warm feature will not continue cooking rice once it's removed from the cooker. This might not be a problem if you cook rice before you go to bed, but if you plan to cook rice in the morning, you'll need to cook the rice in advance, or reheat the rice in a microwave oven.

The Zojirushi NS-TSC10 is a sturdy, well-made machine, with a powerful 1.0-liter capacity (larger than some 2-cup models) and a generous 19-cup nonstick cooking bowl that makes it easy to cook larger amounts. Its autowarm feature is also very useful, as is its ability to switch from the nonstick cooking bowl to an enameled steel cooking bowl (not included). The nonstick coating on the cooking bowl is easy to clean, and the 10-cup cooking bowl is large enough to batch cook several meals at once. The NS-TSC10 also has a handy retractable power cord, and it comes with two nonstick cooking bowls and two sets of seasoning packets (rice and soup), plus a measuring cup and spatula. One drawback: The NS-TSC10 only has two heating elements, which limits its temperature range to between 140 and 220 degrees. Bigger models, like the Zojirushi NS-TSC30A, have three heating elements, so they have more flexibility.

The Zojirushi NS-ZCC20 Fuzzy Logic Rice Cooker is our favorite rice cooker, and it's easy to see why: it's easy to use, cooks consistently well, and it's sturdy enough that it won't fit into a kitchen cabinet too easily. The Fuzzy Logic technology is also a big plus, as it cooks rice using a unique formula that analyzes and adjusts cooking times based on various conditions. For example, if the rice is too cold, it will take longer to cook, and if it is too hot, it will cook faster. This works well, and the rice comes out perfectly cooked every time. The NS-ZCC20 is also programmable, so you can set a specific time and temperature for cooking (including a keep-warm setting), and the timer will turn off automatically when the rice is done. The rice comes out fluffy, and it's smooth enough to eat with a spoon. Two large, detachable nonstick inner pots make it easy to wash, and the pots come apart for easy storage. The display is easy to read, and the timer feature is very helpful. The Zojirushi NS-ZCC20 Fuzzy Logic Rice Cooker is a good choice for anyone who is looking for a programmable rice cooker.

The Zojirushi NS-LHC05 Micom Rice Cooker & Warmer has one of the best sets of features at this price. Its rice cooking capabilities are outstanding, with perfectly cooked rice every time, and the rice warmer is a standout, too. A removable inner lid makes it easy to clean, and the detachable power cord and retractable cord make it convenient to store. The control panel can be confusing at first, but it's simple to get the hang of. The timer doesn't start until you press the power button, so you can't accidentally start cooking rice before it's ready. The rice warmer's controls are a little more confusing, but we found them to be intuitive. The warmer's controls are intuitive, but the rice cooking controls can be confusing at first. The menu settings are disappointing, though. The warm setting only lasts 60 minutes, and the porridge setting has no settings at all. The beep and melody settings are nice, but they aren't adjustable. The only manual settings are the cooking time and temperature, so you can't control how soft the rice is after it's cooked. The rice is cooked evenly, and it's delicious. The warmer is convenient, but it's a bit heavy and bulky.