Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Mango Sticky Rice
Warm coconut-sweetened glutinous rice with ripe mango and a salty-sweet coconut sauce, Thailand's favorite dessert.
Thai · easy · serves 4
prep 30 min · cook 25 min
~776 cal · 11g protein · 128g carbs · 26g fat · 6g fiber · 42g sugars · 20g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Khao niao mamuang, mango sticky rice, is the most beloved of all Thai desserts, at its peak in the hot season when the country's fragrant mangoes ripen. Simple and sublime, it turns three ingredients into something greater than their sum.
Glutinous rice is steamed, then folded through warm sweetened with palm sugar and touched with salt until glossy and rich. It is served alongside slices of perfectly ripe mango, with an extra drizzle of salted and often a scatter of toasted mung beans or sesame. The contrast of warm, savoury-sweet rice and cool, fragrant fruit is unforgettable.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
2 cups glutinous (sticky) rice
1 1/2 cups
1/2 cup palm sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 ripe mangoes
2 tbsp toasted mung beans or sesame (optional)
Instructions
1
Soak the glutinous rice in cold water for at least four hours and preferably overnight, then steam it in a cloth-lined basket for 20 to 25 minutes until tender and translucent.
✎ Chef’s note
The soak is not a shortcut you can skip. Glutinous rice that has not soaked steams unevenly and each grain stays hard in the middle. Nothing else will do for this dish either: jasmine, long grain and sushi rice all cook up fluffy or wet rather than sticky and chewy.
2
Warm most of the coconut milk with the palm sugar and salt until dissolved, then fold into the hot rice and let it absorb.
✎ Chef’s note
Pour the warm coconut sauce over the hot rice and let it rest, covered, to drink it in. Rushing leaves the rice dry rather than glossy.
3
Cover the rice and let it rest 15 minutes to take the coconut milk up fully, while you warm the rest of the coconut milk with extra salt into a pouring sauce.
✎ Chef’s note
The salt in both the rice and the sauce is structural, not seasoning. It is what stops the sweetness going flat and makes the mango taste more like itself.
4
Serve at room temperature, with sliced mango, the salted coconut sauce poured over the rice, and a scatter of toasted beans or sesame.
✎ Chef’s note
Not hot and not straight from the fridge. And the mango has to be properly ripe, fragrant at the stem and yielding to a press; a firm mango next to sweet coconut rice is two things on a plate rather than a dish. Nam Dok Mai and Ok Rong are the Thai varieties; an Ataulfo or honey mango is the best stand-in elsewhere.
Thai hot-season tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Bangkok (Central). Bangkok's canal-side kitchens fire basil, chili, and fish sauce into the night, from boat noodles to green curry and mango sticky rice. Central Thai cooking balances sweet, sour, salty, and spicy in every bite.
🗺️
Thailand. Several things the world files under Thai came from next door. Som tam and larb belong to the Lao side of the Mekong and to Isan in the northeast; chillies arrived with Portuguese traders in the sixteenth century, so nothing built on them is ancient; and pad thai was pushed as a national dish by the Phibun government in the mid twentieth century.
🌍
Asia. Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, and its food spans the delicate seasonality of Japanese washoku, the chili-fired curries of India and Thailand, and the wheat-and-lamb traditions of Central Asia. Rice, noodles, soy, and fermentation recur across its regions, while ancient spice routes and religious traditions shaped distinct grammars of flavor. Whether from a street-cart wok or a monastery kitchen, eating is deeply communal and ritual-rich.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Thailand
Pad Krapow Gai (Holy Basil Chicken)Bangkok's favorite one-plate meal: fiery minced chicken and holy basil over rice with a crispy fried egg.
Khao SoiChiang Mai’s coconut-curry noodles: soft egg noodles in golden broth, crowned with a crispy noodle nest.
Massaman CurryA mild, aromatic curry of beef, potatoes, and peanuts scented with cardamom, cinnamon, and star anise, Thailand’s gentlest, most fragrant curry.
Browse all Thailand recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Steamer.
Storing it: Cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate within an hour. Keep up to 2 days and reheat until piping hot all the way through.
Make it a Thailand meal
Pad Krapow Gai (Holy Basil Chicken)Dinner
Thai Iced TeaDrink
Similar dishes from around the world
KleponIndonesia
TangyuanChina
LaduComoros
Belizean Rice and BeansBelize
Kiribati Coconut RiceKiribati
Es CendolIndonesia
Cuisine
Diet
Vegetarian Recipes from Around the World
Vegan Recipes from Around the World
Gluten-Free Recipes from Around the World
Dairy-Free Recipes from Around the World
Egg-Free Recipes from Around the World
Pork-Free Recipes from Around the World
Vegan Desserts from Around the World
Vegetarian Desserts from Around the World
Gluten-Free Desserts from Around the World
Dairy-Free Desserts from Around the World
Egg-Free Desserts from Around the World
Frequently asked questions
What is Mango Sticky Rice?
Warm coconut-sweetened glutinous rice with ripe mango and a salty-sweet coconut sauce, Thailand's favorite dessert.
Where does Mango Sticky Rice come from?
Mango Sticky Rice is a Thai dish from Bangkok (Central), Thailand.
Can Mango Sticky Rice be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Mango Sticky Rice recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Mango Sticky Rice safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Mango Sticky Rice take to make?
About 55 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 4.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.