Ridiculously Good Mango Sticky Rice (Khao Niao Mamuang) - Cooking Therapy (2024)

Mango Sticky Rice is probably my favorite Thai dessert. Sweet, coconut-y sticky rice is served with fresh mango and a thick coconut sauce for the ultimate dessert you can have all year round. In this blog post, learn how to make this classic Thai dessert recipe with a steamer pot instead of a Thai bamboo steamer.

I have been obsessed with Thai cuisine recently. This is definitely the LA influence and its amazing Thai town. Every chance I get I drive over there to try a new dish, and I feel like my eyes have been open to all that Thai cuisine has to offer whether that be a classic dish like pad kra pao or a new to me dish like Esan sausage. It’s all so inspiring. Given I am on a bit of a mango kick recently (see mango sorbet for evidence lol), I thought I would create my own version of one of Thailand’s most famous desserts mango sticky rice. It is unbelievably easy to make and refreshing to eat.

What is mango sticky rice?

Mango Sticky Rice (or Khao Niao Mamuang in Thai) is a traditional Thai dessert that includes glutinous rice flavored with sweetened coconut milk and served with fresh mango. Optional toppings include roasted sesame seeds and roasted mung beans. There are a few variations of this dish throughout Thailand because of the availability of fresh coconut. In Central Thailand where fresh coconut milk is prevalent, the combination of sticky rice and coconut is common, but in the North where fresh coconut milk is not as common, sticky rice is eaten by itself.

How I developed my mango sticky rice recipe

This dessert is incredibly easy to make because the only cooking required is the preparation of the sticky rice and coconut sauce. Traditionally, glutinous rice is soaked and then steamed in a Thai sticky rice steamer before being flavored with sweetened coconut milk. When developing this recipe, I chose to use a steamer pot because that is what I had on hand. I lined the bottom of the steamer insert with cheese cloth to prevent rice from falling through the holes and found this method worked well. For the coconut sauce, I adapted the coconut sauce from my che ba mau recipe, adjusting for sweetness and consistency to fit what I experienced at Thai restaurants.

Ingredients, Substitution & Adjustments

• Mango – I used champagne mangos for my recipe, but traditionally, nam dok mai mangos are used to make this dish. I would highly recommend using a variety of sweet yellow mango to make this dish because it provides you with the most authentic flavor. If you can’t find yellow mangos, red and orange mangos are sufficient.
• Glutinous rice – Glutinous rice is a sticky sweet rice typically used for desserts. I used Three Rings sweet rice for my recipe.
• Coconut milk – I would highly recommend using Thai unsweetened coconut milk for this recipe. I’ve tested coconut milks found in Western grocery stores like Trader Joe’s coconut milk or Kroger’s coconut milk, and the flavor and consistency are not the same. I found some Western coconut milks far more watery than Thai coconut milk
• Granulated sugar – Adds sweetness to the dish. A good substitute for white sugar is palm sugar, a sugar that is commonly used in Thai cuisine.
• Salt – Brings out the flavors of all the other ingredients
• Corn starch – Helps thicken the coconut sauce drizzled over the dessert. Good substitutes are rice flour or tapioca flour.

How to make homemade mango sticky rice

First, rinse 1 cup of sweet rice until the water runs clear. Soak in water for 4 hours or overnight. The next day, drain the rice. Prep your steamer by bringing water to a simmer and adding the steamer insert. Place 2 pieces of overlapping cheese cloth on the steamer insert and spoon your sticky rice on top. Fold the ends of the cheese cloth over the rice and steam until soft (~40 minutes).

While rice is steaming, mix 1/2 cup of coconut milk, 1/2 tsp of salt, and 1/4 cup of granulated sugar in a sauce pan until the sugar dissolves. Set aside. Once the sticky rice is done, mix the sweetened coconut milk and rice together. Cover and let the rice sit for 10 minutes.

Finally, make the coconut sauce. Combine 1/4 cup of coconut milk, 1/4 tsp of salt, 3/4 tsp of corn starch, and 1 tbsp of granulated sugar in a sauce pan over medium high heat. Stir and cook until the sugar melts. Now it’s time to put together your plate! Put a few scoops of rice onto a plate. Slice half a mango and plate it next to the sticky rice. Drizzle some of the coconut sauce from step 5 on top and serve! Repeat this process on a second plate with the rest of the ingredients.

Why do you need to soak and rinse the rice?

Soaking and rinsing the rice softens and cleans the rice, so you get the best flavor and texture. Rinsing the rice gets rid of excess starch which causes the rice to become sticky and gummy. Soaking the rice softens the rice, allowing the rice grains to cook thoroughly.

Can I use a rice cooker for this mango sticky rice recipe?

You CAN but that doesn’t mean you should. I find that using a rice cooker makes the results inconsistent. Every rice cooker is different, so it’s hard to know how much water to add without testing it. This means your rice will either be too mushy or too dry. I have seen a lot of mushy sticky rice made using a rice cooker. Using a steamer yields more consistent results.

If you want to use a rice cooker, I would recommend using a rice cooker with a steamer basket and steaming the rice in the steamer basket. Another thing you could do is test the sticky rice a few times in your rice cooker, so you know the exact ratio of rice to water. There are also nicer rice cookers with a sticky rice/sweet rice option in their settings which means it can cook sticky rice accurately. I would generally recommend a 1:1 ratio to start for sticky rice cooked in a rice cooker. Test out a batch and adjust accordingly. Add more water if the rice seems too dry or less if it seems too mushy.

Tips on how make the best mango sticky rice

Adjusting the sweetness level to your tastes

Feel free to reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe to make it less sweet or increase it to add more sweetness.

Serve right away for the best flavor

This dish is best served as soon as it is made because the consistency of the rice changes over time. Refer to the directions below for storage instructions if you have to make it ahead of time.

Optional colors and flavors for the sticky rice

I have seen a variety of colors and flavors for the sticky rice portion of this dish. Most mango sticky rice dishes include white rice that is flavored with only coconut, but I have also seen blue sticky rice that has been colored using butterfly pea flowers. Another popular option is pandan sticky rice that has been flavored with pandan leaves and pandan extract.

How do you store mango sticky rice?

If you want to make this dish ahead of time, I would store the sweetened coconut milk, coconut sauce, and sticky rice separately. Once you’re ready to serve, heat each component separately in the microwave (~30 seconds – 1 minute each), and then combine them. Each component can be stored in the fridge in airtight containers for up to 3 days.

Did you make this dish?

If you made this dish, I would love to see!

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