Mango Sticky Rice (with Regular Rice)

In this recipe I will show you how to easily make classic Thai style mango sticky rice with REGULAR RICE and a RICE COOKER.

Freshly cooked rice soaked in sweet and creamy coconut milk, paired with sweet and juicy mangoes, this dessert-like main dish could be your most refreshing and appetizing summer dish.

What’s Mango Sticky Rice?

Mango sticky rice is a classic Thai dessert-like main dish. Sweet and creamy coconut milk slurry is drizzled on the sticky glutinous rice, and then sprinkled with crunchy yellow mung dal, together with soft and juicy sweet mango pieces, it’s going to blast your taste buds!

This dish is vegan, gluten-free (yes rice is generally gluten-free), and dairy free (coconut milk is dairy free). Plus it’s so delicious and so easy to be make at home, mango sticky rice has become one of the most popular Thai dish in the world.

Ingredients for Mango Sticky Rice

Authentically, we will need glutinous/sticky rice, Thai mangoes (nam dok mai mangoes), pandan leaves, coconut palm sugar, salt, canned coconut milk, rice flour, yellow mung dal, and sometimes even dried butterfly pea flowers to make Thai restaurant style mango sticky rice.

However, it’s very unlikely that you happen to have all these ingredients ready at home. To make this dish easier and less expensive, we can optionally substitute some of these ingredients.

– Glutinous Rice

Glutinous rice tastes much stickier and sweeter than regular rice, that’s why it’s also known as “sticky rice” or “sweet rice”.

Because of its sticky texture and sweet taste, glutinous rice is often used in dessert recipes. We have used glutinous rice to make strawberry sweet rice wine, and used glutinous rice flour to make mochi and dango before.

Nevertheless, glutinous rice is more expensive and harder to find than regular rice.

Therefore, when glutinous rice is not available, we can try our best to make our regular rice sticky and sweet, so that we can substitute glutinous rice with regular rice. (See detailed instructions below. )

– Thai mangoes

 Nam dok mai mango, which is famous for its soft fibreless flesh and rich sweet flavor, is the most popular mango variety in Thailand.

If you can’t find Thai mangoes in your area, Ataulfo mangoes from Mexico could be a great substitute. Mr He got these 6ct. Ataulfo mangoes from Costco. They are golden, juicy, soft, and sweet with a thin seed, which is just perfect for me to make mango sticky rice.

‘Tommy Atkins’ mangoes and green mangoes are healthy to eat, but they could be too hard and sour for this dessert.

Overall, don’t make mango sticky rice, unless you have a perfectly ripe sweet mango.

– Pandan Leaves

Pandan is a tropical plant, whose fragrant leaves are used widely for flavoring in Asian cuisines.

Its taste is described as a grassy vanilla with a hint of coconut. 

Healthline

In Thai restaurants, chefs would steam glutinous rice with fresh pandan leaves, boil the coconut sauce with pandan leaves, or line the serving plate with a piece of pandan leaf.

When pandan leaves is not available in your area, you can use banana leaves, which have a similar fragrance and texture to pandan leaves, as a great substitute.

Or simply skip it, just like what I did😝.

Pandan leaves can boost the fragrance of this dish, but it’s definitely not a must-have.

– Sugar and Salt

Although the main taste of this dish is sweet, adding a pinch of salt to the sauce can bring out the sweetness and enrich the overall flavor. Japanese people add salt to watermelon for a similar reason.

For the most authentic flavor, you should use palm sugar or coconut palm sugar as the sweetener of this dish.

Palm sugar, which is made by reducing the sap of coconut palms, is healthier and less sweet than cane sugar. It also has an unique caramel-like taste, which is perfect for making desserts like mango sticky rice.

However, since palm sugar has a natural brown color, it might dye your coconut sauce into a darker color. If you prefer a pure white coconut sauce, you may want to use cane sugar instead of palm sugar.

– Canned Coconut Milk

Canned coconut milk has more fat and less water than carton coconut milk. Therefore it has a stronger coconut taste and a thicker consistency, which is perfect for making desserts.

You shouldn’t substitute canned coconut milk with carton coconut milk drink in this recipe.

Anyway, if you insist on using carton coconut milk, make sure you thicken it with *cornstarch (I will mention it soon) for a longer time until it reaches a liquid glue like texture.

But still, I don’t recommend using carton coconut milk or any other type of milk to substitute canned coconut milk in this recipe.

– Rice Flour or Cornstarch

Classically, Thai restaurants would mix rice flour and water at a ratio of 1:1 to thicken the coconut sauce.

You can actually substitute the rice flour with the same amount of cornstarch.

Both of them would work perfectly on thickening the coconut milk into a creamy sauce. You won’t be able to taste any difference.

– Yellow Mung Dal

The crunchy yellow mung dal sprinkled on the top of mango sticky rice is made from whole mung beans that have been hulled, split, and roasted. It adds a crunchy texture and bean aroma to our mango sticky rice.

However, yellow mung dal is not often used in Western cuisine. I, as a food content creator, don’t even have it at home. Neither do I want to buy it just for this one dish.

Luckily, we can use roasted sesame seeds as a great substitute. Although, they are not as crunchy as roasted yellow mung dal, they can do a great job decorating your mango sticky rice.

– Dried Butterfly Pea Flowers

Traditional Thai style mango sticky rice is colored into blue with dried butterfly pea flowers.

But I personally think the white rice paired with golden mangoes actually looks prettier than blue rice.

Therefore I’ve never bothered to color my mango sticky rice with any food coloring.

Feel free to add some natural food coloring to your rice before you boil it in the rice cooker if you prefer your mango sticky rice to be colorful.

How to Make Mango Sticky Rice with Regular Rice?

Although the best choice of rice for this dish is sticky and sweet glutinous rice. It is more expensive and harder to find than regular rice. Here is how I used regular rice to mimic glutinous rice:

1. Choose the right rice

The best rice to substitute glutinous rice is short grain rice, such as sushi rice, which has a higher starch content with a chewier and stickier consistency.

Longer grain rice, such as Basmati rice or Jasmine rice, will be too dry and hard to be serve as a dessert.

2. How to make regular rice stickier

– Soak the rice

Soaking the regular rice in warm water (about 60 °C/140 °F) for 30 minutes to 1 hour can soften the rice and make it stickier after cooked.

– Do not wash the rice

When you cook regular rice, it’s usually suggested to wash the rice for a couple of times until the water turns clear.

However, in this recipe, we will need to leave some starch on the surface of the rice to make it stickier after cooked. Therefore, you cam simply drain the water after the rice has been soaked and skip the rice washing step.

– Cook the rice with coconut milk and other seasonings

Traditionally, Thai chefs would steam the sticky rice first, then mix in some coconut milk to flavor the rice.

However, I found it much easier to directly cook the rice with coconut milk using a rice cooker.

Simply add some coconut milk with sugar and salt into the soaked rice, then run the “rice cooking function” of your rice cooker to cook the rice.

The specific cooking time might be vary with different brands of rice cookers. But it doesn’t really matter. Just let it run its regular rice cooking process.

Once the rice is cooked, allow it to rest in the rice cooker for about 10 minutes before opening the lid. This step will allow the rice to “lock” more flavor from the coconut milk.

– Blend in creamy slurry

Our short grain rice should already taste sweet and sticky after being soaked in warm water and cooked in coconut milk.

To make it taste more authentic, you can mix some creamy coconut slurry into the cooked rice. Keep stirring until all the coconut slurry has been absorbed into the rice grains.

To make the coconut slurry, simply add canned coconut milk, sugar, and salt to a small saucepot. Cook over medium heat until simmering. Then pour the rice flour/ cornstarch slurry (dissolve 1 tbsp of cornstarch with 1 tbsp of water) into the saucepot to thicken the sauce until it reaches a liquid-glue-like texture.

3. Shape the Rice

Foods always tastes better when they look prettier. We can simply shape the rice with a small round bowl.

Line the bowl with plastic food wrap, fill it up with cooked coconut flavor rice, press firmly so that it won’t fall apart.

Cover the bowl with a serving plate, flip the bowl and the serving plate together so that the bowl is on the top of the plate.

Gently lift the bowl, the rice should have been shaped into a hemisphere. Drizzle some coconut slurry on the rice, and allow it to naturally flow down a bit. It’s going to look great!

How to Cut a Mango for Mango Sticky Rice

Peel the mango with a peeler. Use a fruit knife if the mango is too soft to be peel with a peeler.

Make 5 to 6 parallel horizontal cuts on each sides of the mango.

Then cut off the mango flesh along the seed. Be careful with the knife when you hold the mango.

In this way you easily can cut a mango into strips that’s perfect for mango sticky rice.

INGREDIENT LIST  

Coconut flavor rice

• ¾ cup uncooked short grain rice (You can for sure use glutinous/sticky rice)
• 1 cup warm water (For soaking the rice)
• ½ cup cold water (For cooking the rice)
• ½ cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 2 tbsp sugar (Cane sugar or coconut palm sugar)
• ¼ tsp salt

Coconut slurry

• 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 2 tbsp sugar (Cane sugar or coconut palm sugar)
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp rice starch or cornstarch
• 1 tbsp water

Toppings

• 2 mangoes
• 1 tsp sesame seeds (optional)
• mint leaves (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS 

• Soak ¾ cup of short grain rice/glutinous rice in warm water (about 60°C) for 1 hour.
• Drain the water. Do not wash the rice if you’re using short grain rice. Wash the rice if you’re using glutinous/sticky rice. (See content above for reasons.)
• Add ½ cup of cold water, ½ cup of unsweetened coconut milk, 2 tbsps of sugar, and ¼ tsp of salt to soaked rice, stir to mix well.
• Cook the mixture in a rice cooker. Once the cooking process is finished, allow the rice to rest in the rice cooker for 10 minutes before removing the lid.
• Dissolve 1 tbsp of cornstarch or rice starch with 1 tbsp of cold water, set aside.
• Add 1 cup of unsweetened coconut milk, 2 tbsps of sugar, and ¼ tsp of salt to a small saucepot. Cook over medium heat until simmering.
• Pour cornstarch slurry to the saucepot, stir quickly to prevent lumps. Keep stirring until the slurry is thickened into liquid glue like texture. Remove from heat.
• Pour half of the coconut slurry into the cooked rice, stir until all the liquid has been absorbed into the rice.
• Line a small round bowl with food wrap. Transfer half of the rice to the bowl. Press firmly.
• Flip the bowl on a serving plate to unmold the rice.
• Peel a sweet mango, cut into slices, put them around the rice.
• Drizzle the rice with coconut slurry and roasted sesame seeds. Decorate with mint leaves. Serve or enjoy.

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