I Tried That Brilliant Ice Cube Trick for Reheating Rice and It Actually Works

The words “life-changing” and “tip” get thrown around a lot in cooking, but what you’re about to see can’t be described in any other way. You see, before today I used to think the best way to reheat day-old rice in the microwave was by using the moist paper towel method or the pour-some-water-on-it method.

But on my recent nightly TikTok scroll, I discovered a new solution I would have never thought of: Put an ice cube on top of the rice before you reheat it in the microwave. Apparently the ice won’t melt (!); instead, it will actually steam the rice, making it perfectly fluffy and delicious once again.

I tried the rice hack myself to see if it would work, and I was delighted by how easy and effective it was. In the video, which has 35,000 likes, the creator puts a single ice cube on a tiny pile of leftover cooked rice on a plate, then nukes it for a minute. I used more rice than the person in the video, so I took a gamble and went with two ice cubes (although my ice cubes were also smaller than the ones in the video).

If you want to try this at home too, make sure your rice is safe to eat first!

After a minute in the microwave, the ice was still totally intact. (Fun fact: A quick Google search taught me that’s because of the hydrogen bonds in the frozen water, which prevent the water molecules from rotating and, in turn, from absorbing microwave energy.) And the jasmine rice? Well, it was perfect — hot, but not dry, almost as though I had just cooked it for the first time. I’ll definitely be keeping this game-changing hack in my back pocket.

This post was originally published on The Kitchn. Read it there: I Tried That Brilliant Ice Cube Trick for Reheating Rice and It Actually Works