Glutinous Rice Flour substitute

Best substitute

Tapioca starch (tapioca flour)

1 cup for 1 cup

Best for mochi-style dumplings

Different taste

There is no clean one-for-one swap when chew is the point, because that stretch comes from a starch no other flour has in the same proportion. The closest workaround is tapioca starch, either straight at 1:1 for something even chewier and stickier, or the standard fix of 3 parts plain rice flour to 1 part tapioca starch. For thickening or dusting jobs, tapioca or potato starch swap in 1:1 with no trouble at all.

Other glutinous rice flour substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Plain rice flour plus tapioca starch, 3 to 1
Close match
For 1 cup glutinous rice flour use three quarters of a cup rice flour plus a quarter cup tapioca starch
The standard blended fix, and the best all-round substitute.
What changes
Best for
Thai steamed and boiled desserts, tangyuan and filled dumplings, chewy cakes and cookies, the closest overall result
The rice flour supplies the flavour and the tapioca supplies the stretch, and together they land genuinely close. It will be slightly less elastic and a touch more crumbly than the real thing, so handle it gently and do not roll it thin. Rice flour drinks more liquid than glutinous rice flour, so add a tablespoon or two extra water and go by feel, aiming for a soft dough like play dough.
3Potato starch
Different texture
1 for 1, for thickening and coating only
A very fine, silky starch that gels at a low temperature.
What changes
Best for
thickening sauces and soups, light crisp coatings for frying, dusting a sticky dough
Excellent in the jobs where glutinous rice flour is acting purely as a starch, and it produces a clear, silky, slightly squeaky gel. In a dough it does not work: it goes soft and pasty rather than chewy, and it has no elasticity, so mochi made with it slumps. Use it for the technical jobs, not the textural ones.
4Steamed glutinous rice, pounded
Close match
About 1 cup of dry glutinous rice for 1 cup of flour, adjusting liquid by feel
The same ingredient in its whole form, cooked and mashed into a dough.
What changes
Best for
mochi and Thai steamed desserts, when you have sticky rice but not the flour, the best flavour of any option here
This is how mochi was made long before flour was sold in bags, and the flavour is better than any flour version: milkier and sweeter, with a more interesting chew. It is also a lot more work. Soak the rice at least four hours, steam it 25 minutes, then pound it hot in a sturdy bowl until the grains disappear into a smooth elastic mass. Wet your hands and the pestle constantly.
5Cornstarch blended with rice flour, half and half
Taste and texture differ
For 1 cup glutinous rice flour use half a cup rice flour plus half a cup cornstarch
A pantry blend that produces a soft, snappy-tender dough.
What changes
Best for
crystal dumpling style wrappers, soft chewy sweets, when tapioca starch is not available
The result is tender and slightly snappy rather than stretchy, closer to a Chinese crystal skin than to mochi, and it will never pull into long strands. It is a reasonable rescue and it will not be mistaken for the real thing. Cornstarch alone is fine for thickening at 1:1 but useless in any dough that needs to hold together.
6Plain rice flour on its own
Different texture
1 for 1, and only where chew does not matter
The obvious-looking swap, and the one that causes most of the failures.
What changes
Best for
dusting and dredging, thickening, batters for frying
Worth stating plainly: plain rice flour is not glutinous rice flour and will not behave like it. It contains far more amylose, so it sets short and grainy instead of stretchy, and dumplings made with it crack, crumble and fall apart in the water. If it is genuinely all you have, add tapioca starch or cornstarch as above, or pick a different dessert.

What is Glutinous Rice Flour?

Glutinous Rice Flour is Glutinous rice flour, sold as sweet rice flour, sticky rice flour, mochiko or paeng khao niao, is milled from short-grain sticky rice and contains no gluten at all; its almost pure amylopectin starch is what makes mochi, tangyuan and Thai khanom stretchy and chewy instead of crumbly.

Cooking tips

Glutinous rice flour needs both heat and moisture to develop its chew. Steam the dough, or microwave it covered in short 30 second bursts and stir hard between each one, until it changes from opaque and pasty to glossy and stretchy. Undercooked dough tastes chalky and raw.
Read the bag rather than the name. Mochiko, sweet rice flour and glutinous rice flour are the same thing, and the Thai Erawan brand green label is glutinous while the red and white labels are plain rice flour. That colour is the most common source of ruined mochi.
Doughs made with tapioca-heavy substitutes are much stickier than the real thing. Keep a bowl of cornstarch or toasted glutinous rice flour on the bench for dusting your hands, the board and the finished pieces.
As a thickener it is excellent and underused: about 1 tablespoon per cup of liquid, it thickens at a lower temperature than wheat flour, never tastes floury, and stays smooth when reheated.
Mochi and other glutinous doughs go hard in the fridge and soften again with a few seconds of steam or a brief covered microwave. Store them at room temperature, well wrapped, and eat them the day they are made if you can.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use regular rice flour instead of glutinous rice flour?

Not where chew matters, which is most of the time. Plain rice flour has much more amylose, so it sets short and sandy and cracks instead of stretching, and mochi or tangyuan made with it will fall apart. The workable fix is three parts rice flour to one part tapioca starch, plus a little extra water. For dusting, batters and thickening, plain rice flour is fine.

Is glutinous rice flour gluten-free?

Yes, entirely. The word glutinous describes the glue-like stickiness of the cooked starch and has nothing to do with gluten, which only occurs in wheat, barley and rye. If you are cooking for coeliac disease, check the packet for shared-facility warnings, since some mills also handle wheat.

Can I just leave the glutinous rice flour out?

No, it is the structure of whatever you are making, not a seasoning. In a mochi, dumpling or khanom recipe it is the only thing holding the dough together and providing the chew, so there is nothing to omit. If you cannot get it or make a substitute blend work, choose a different recipe rather than trying to bake around it.

Is mochiko the same as glutinous rice flour?

Yes. Mochiko is the Japanese name and the best known brand is Koda Farms. It is milled finer and slightly drier than most Thai and Chinese glutinous rice flours, so if a recipe was written for a Thai brand, add a teaspoon or two of extra liquid. Otherwise they are interchangeable.

Can I make glutinous rice flour at home?

Yes, if you have the rice. Soak glutinous rice for several hours, drain it thoroughly, dry it completely, then grind it in a high-powered blender or spice grinder and sift out the coarse bits, regrinding them. Home-milled flour is grittier than commercial, so expect a slightly rougher texture and let the dough rest longer to hydrate.

Related substitutes

More baking substitutes

Glutinous Rice Flour substitute

Other glutinous rice flour substitutes

2Plain rice flour plus tapioca starch, 3 to 1

3Potato starch

4Steamed glutinous rice, pounded

5Cornstarch blended with rice flour, half and half

6Plain rice flour on its own