Sikhye (Korean Rice Punch) – Instant Pot

Sikhye is a traditional sweet Korean rice punch often served after a meal. This mildly sweet rice drink is made of fermented barley malt and cooked rice. With this easy recipe and the use of an instant pot or rice cooker, you can enjoy the authentic taste of this Korean drink anytime at home.

In Korean cuisine, a sweet drink is often served at the end of a meal as a light dessert. Cinnamon ginger punch (Sujeonggwa) and watermelon punch (Hwachae) are two well-known Korean drink recipes that are served for that purpose.

This Korean rice punch (Sikhye, 식혜) is another traditional sweet beverage that we love. If you enjoy dining at upscale Korean restaurants, you have probably already experienced this rice punch at the end of your meal.

What is sikhye?

Cooked rice and barley malt are fermented together with water at a low temperature for several hours. (Don’t worry, it will not become alcoholic!) The liquid will turn light amber, and the rice will become spongy. Some rice grains will float to the top. The result will be a moderately sweet malt-flavored rice drink.

Traditionally, many Korean home-cooks make sikhye for Korean holidays like New Year’s Day, Lunar New Year’s day, and Chusek (Korean Thanksgiving), along with a Korean sweet rice dessert (Yakbap).

You can, of course, buy canned Korean rice drinks at the store, but they can’t beat the taste of the homemade version. And it is not that difficult to make at home. All you need is an instant pot, rice cooker, or slow cooker.

If you are looking for plain drink to serve with your meal, try Korean barley tea (boricha).

Ingredients for Korean rice punch

• Malted Barely (yeot-gireum, 엿기름): You can find barley malt in any Korean market. It can come crushed, powdered, or in individual pouches. For taste, I recommend either the crushed or pouched kind. Look for white-ish malt barley instead of brown, which contains more malt. If you can’t find barley malt, malt wheat can be substituted but it will alter the taste slightly.
• Rice: Use cooked white rice (no brown rice!): If you don’t have cooked rice handy, use microwavable commercially cooked rice (Hetbahn). That’s perfectly fine!
• Sugar: Sugar is added at the end of the fermentation to sweeten the drink. You can adjust the amount of sugar depending on your preference.
• Additional: Some people like to add a few of slices of ginger to add a hint of spice. It’s optional.
• Clean fabric pouch or a fine strainer: Use a natural fiber kitchen pouch to hold malt barley inside.

Equipments for making Sikhye

Use one of the three below

1. Instant Pot
2. Rice Cooker
3. Slow Cooker

If you don’t have any of the kitchen appliances above, you’ll have to use the very old-fashioned method that Korean great-grandmothers used: a warm floor and blanket! Unfortunately, this method isn’t available to most people outside of Korea.

How to make Sikhye (Korean rice punch)

Prepare malt barley in a pouch

• I like to use a clean fabric pouch, either cotton or linen, to put the malted barley malt in.
• Put barley malt in a pouch and tie up with a string and secure very tightly. Put the pouch in a bowl of warm water.

Don’t have a fabric pouch? No worry! You can soak the barley malt directly in the water, and rub them with both of your hands harshly to extract all the malt from the barley. Make sure you remove all the small barley pieces, then skip to step 3.

• While the pouch is in the water, manually press and squeeze the pouch multiple times to squeeze out the malt powder from the barley so it can mix with the water. Do this for about 1-2 minutes.
• Squeeze out the pouch tightly to get all the good juices out. Discard the malt barley left inside the pouch.

• Let the barley malt water sit for at least 30 minutes. The starch will sink to the bottom.
• Then carefully, without shaking the bowl, pour the malt water into another bowl leaving the sunken starch behind.
  • Be careful not to let the starch fall in. (A little bit going in is okay.) Discard the starch.

Combine rice and barley malt water

• Put cooked rice in the instant pot (or rice cooker) bowl and break up the grain briefly with a rice spatula. You can adjust the amount of rice as you wish.
• Pour the strained malt water over the rice. Cover with a lid and set your instant pot on the Keep Warm setting.
  • The fermenting time can vary from 4-8 hours depending on the heat level of your appliance.
  • An instant pot can take about 4-5 hours; a rice cooker and slow cooker might take longer.

Hint: If you see a few grains of rice floating on top, that’s a good sign that the rice punch is well fermented. If you don’t see any rice floating, wait 1-2 more hours. You do not want to wait more than 8 hours because the rice will spoil.

• Add a desired amount of sugar and ginger slices (if using) and bring the punch to boil and cook for 5 minutes.
• Use the “Saute” setting for an instant pot. If using a rice cooker, you will need to transfer the punch to a pot and boil it on the stove.

• Skim off any debris or foam from the top of punch with a fat skimmer.
• Collect a few scoops of rice from the bottom of the punch and soak them in cold water for later use.

How to Store Korean rice punch

Allow the punch to cool completely. Transfer the punch into plastic or glass containers, and store them in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Shikye also freezes well. Pour the punch into freezer safe bottles or containers and freeze up to 3 months.