* Baking rice in the oven gives the rice even heat as it cooks. Unlike rice cooked on the stove, where the only heat comes from the bottom, the heat surrounds the pan when it's baked in the oven. This means the rice cooks evenly and will come out perfect and not mushy. * When you bake brown rice in the oven, it frees up your stove. * Cooking brown rice in the oven leaves you free to prepare the other parts of your meal. You don't need to "keep watch" over the pan. Just put the rice in the oven and focus on other things.