My rice went crunchy at a dinner party in Austin and I fixed it with a dish towel
I was cooking for six people at my sister's place in Austin last month and tried to stretch a $12 bag of rice to feed the whole table, so I used her biggest pot and way too much water. Sometime around when the chicken went in the oven, I lifted the lid and the bottom had scorched and the top was still hard little pebbles. I panicked for a second, then dumped the whole thing into a strainer, rinsed the burnt layer off, and put it back in the pot with a splash of water and a folded dish towel under the lid. Twelve minutes on low heat and it came out fine, maybe even better than my usual. The towel trick is that it catches the steam and drips it back down so the top cooks while the bottom stops burning. Cost me nothing and nobody at the table knew anything went sideways. What's your go to move when a cheap pot of something starts going south mid cook?
Wrap the towel trick around the whole pot next time and see if that keeps the heat even. My aunt in San Antonio did that with a thin kitchen towel rubber banded over the lid when her rice went half done, and it worked the same way, steam came back down and the top caught up. Add a splash of water only if the bottom starts ticking, otherwise leave it be so you don't drown the rice. CHEAP fix and it beats tossing the whole pot.