In this work, broken rice was pre-gelatinized by a wet heating method followed by roller drying to prepare ready-to-eat cooked rice powder. The effect of pregelatinization time on the water absorption index (WAI), water solubility index (WSI), rheological properties, and microstructure and digestion characteristics of instant rice powder was evaluated. The results showed that the reconstitution characteristics and digestibility of instant rice powder were improved by pregelatinization. Compared to the unpregelatinized sample, pregelatinization for 30 min increased WAI, WSI, gelatinization degree, starch hydrolysis rate and fast digestible starch content by 9%, 50%, 21%, 21% and 57% (P < 0.05), respectively; and decreased caking rate by 1.87%.