You're probably cooking rice wrong, and chefs reveal the simple mistake to avoid

Rice may be a kitchen staple, but cooking it well at home can be trickier than it seems.

Experts say the trick to tender rice with distinct grains that stay separate instead of clumping together may begin before you even turn on the stove, with a step many home cooks skip.

"I generally rinse before cooking when I want a light, fluffy result," Dennis Littley, a New Jersey-based classically trained chef and founder of Ask Chef Dennis, told Fox News Digital.

FOUR FOODS YOU SHOULD NEVER STORE IN THE FREEZER — AND WHERE TO KEEP THEM INSTEAD He recommends rinsing l ong-grain white rice, basmati and jasmine rice until the water goes from very cloudy to mostly clear.

It doesn't need to be perfectly transparent, he said.

The rinse removes some of the loose surface starch that can make rice gummy or clumpy, Littley said.

Then, drain it well so the water-to-rice ratio is not thrown off.

But chefs also note that not every type of rice should be treated the same.

CELEBRITY CHEF SAYS IF YOU CAN DRIVE TO MCDONALD'S, YOU CAN COOK HEALTHY MEALS AT HOME "The important thing is to adjust your technique for the type of rice you're using rather than applying one method to every variety," Littley said.

Christine Pittman, the Florida-based founder and CEO of COOKtheStory, TheCookful and COOKforTWO, said she reserves the rinse for short-grain rice and for when she is cooking rice in a pressure cooker.

Littley and Pittman both suggest skipping the rinse for risotto, noting that the starch helps make the dish creamy .

THE BEST CHEESE FOR A BURGER, ACCORDING TO AN EXPERT — AND WHY SOME POPULAR PICKS FALL FLAT A recent side-by-side test by Food & Wine found that rinsed and soaked basmati and jasmine rice were lighter and fluffier than unwashed rice, which clumped together.

The test combined rinsing and soaking, not rinsing alone.

"I especially like soaking basmati rice for about 20 to 30 minutes before cooking," Littley said.