Cooking rice fermentation is a unique and traditional method of tobacco leaf fermentation in Shifang, Sichuan. However, the characteristic of cooking rice fermentation is based solely on experience, and the mechanism is still unclear. Field trials were conducted to explore the influence of the characteristic cooking rice fermentation on the quality of cigar tobacco leaves. The cigar varieties Shiyan No.1 and Dexue No.1 were used as fermentation materials. Based on the different cooking time (7, 10 and 13 min), three different rice cooking degrees were set up for experiment. With the water fermentation as the control group, the changes of conventional chemical components, neutral aroma components and sensory quality of cigar tobacco leaves during fermentation were analyzed. The results showed that the content of total sugar, reducing sugar and starch in tobacco leaves increased significantly after being treated with cooking rice water, and the contents of total sugar, reducing sugar, starch, protein, total nitrogen and nicotine gradually decreased during the fermentation process. The content of total sugar, reducing sugar, starch, total nitrogen and nicotine in the tobacco leaves of the control group decreased slowly during the fermentation process. Compared with the pre-fermentation and control groups, most of the aroma components increased significantly after cooking rice fermentation, while the neophytadiene content significantly decreased; the sensory quality of tobacco leaves after cooking rice fermentation was significantly improved, mainly reflected in the improvement of aroma quality, the increase of sweetness, purity and mildness degree, the reduction of irritation, the weakening of strength. These findings suggest that the more suitable degree of cooking rice for Shiyan No. 1 and Dexue No. 1 is to cook the rice into a black mass (10 min), until the core of the hand-twisted rice is still white.