We Tried 11 Ways To Reheat Leftover Rice, And This Is The Best Method

Rice is a delicious, nutrient-rich food. It's also cheap as heck, so it's a great food to have on hand at all times. Sometimes, though, you just don't have the time to make a fresh batch, in which case, it's helpful to know how to reheat it well. The same goes for those ubiquitous cartons of white takeout rice, which never seem to get eaten as fast as everything else.

The following methods apply specifically to cooked white rice, which is an easy dish to make. All you do is rinse it, you can season it if you find it bland on its own, and throw it in a pot. Since white rice isn't actually less healthy than brown rice (brown rice is higher in nutrients but also in arsenic), it's perfectly fine to eat it all the time. Note that you can use these strategies on brown, jasmine, and wild rice, as well, but you may need to tweak them to find what works best.

Before learning how to reheat leftover rice to perfection, it's helpful to know how much rice you can make at one time. That way, you can cook a high-quality batch that will last all week. In general, as long as you use the right ratios, you can make a pretty darn big batch of any kind. Look up the ratios online, as they differ by rice variety. For instance, the water to rice ratio is 2 cups to 1 cup for long grain white rice, 2 ¼ to 1 for brown rice, 2 to 1 for jasmine, and so on. You can multiply these out to get the desired amount.

Before you get all excited about reheating, let's make sure nobody gets food poisoning first. In general, rice will last in the refrigerator between three and four days and in the freezer between three and four months. As long as it is within these windows, you can safely use it. If you prefer, you can let frozen rice defrost in the fridge, but I found an easy method for reheating it straight from frozen (method six) that you might want to check out first.

As for reheating rice on the stovetop, it works pretty well. While it might not be the easiest way (in that it does not involve the ever-simple microwave), it certainly requires less brainpower than some methods. All you do is throw it in a small sauce pot with 2 tablespoons of water or broth per cup, cover it and heat on low, stir gently if needed, and serve.

This is the way I usually reheat rice, so I wasn't surprised when it worked well. The rice came out soft and completely tender, the grains were fluffy, and the flavor was good. The rice had not lost its slight chew. If I have one complaint, it's that there was a little clumping left, no matter how hard I stirred. Because I was afraid of mushing up the rice instead of fluffing it, I was unable to solve this problem. I learned with later methods to break up the rice gently with my fingers beforehand, so I don't think this would have been an issue had I done that. Overall this method is good, but you can't walk away, so it's a little high-maintenance.

The oven is another tool you can use to reheat rice. Because ovens use dry heat, I was afraid of losing moisture. However, this is a better way to heat up large amounts of rice. If you're cooking for a family, you may wish to try this way.

Despite my fears about dry heat, you only need about 2 tablespoons of liquid for every cup. Simply preheat your oven to 300 F and spread your rice in an even layer in a dish or pan. You could use either a glass baking dish or a deep cookie sheet; whatever works for you. Make sure you break up any clumps with a fork ahead of time. Drizzle with the liquid, cover the rice with aluminum foil and close it tightly so that it can steam, and pop it in the oven. The advice I found online said to cook between 15 and 20 minutes, but I found 15 was plenty.

The results were surprising. The rice was not dried out at all. Instead, it was soft, fluffy, flavorful, and pretty close to the original. This method takes more prep work, but if you're cooking anyway, that's fine. It's a good method and better than stovetop in my opinion, and is a nice one for a large batch of rice. After all, you can fit a lot of grains in a casserole dish.

Putting rice in the microwave covered with a damp paper towel is another method for reheating it. Now, I tend to think of the microwave as kind of a crummy option. It often produces soggy results, so I was suspicious of the whole idea. Nothing is worse than mushy, overcooked grains that seem better suited to pudding than teriyaki chicken.

But I'm nothing if not a scientist (disclaimer: I am not actually a scientist, just an exaggerator). The directions are pretty simple: Put your rice in a microwave-safe dish and add 1 tablespoon of water per cup of rice. I again broke up the rice slightly with my hands. Then, I covered it with a damp paper towel and microwaved it at 30-second intervals until it was done. To wet the paper towel, I bunched it up a little bit and then used my other hand to flick drops of water onto it with my fingers. This was a bit of a bother, but it worked to create a damp towel.

In the end, the paper towel method keeps the rice nice and moist without letting it go soggy. It came out hot enough, steaming gently and fluffy looking, but it was kind of gummy. I also saw instructions to microwave the rice on low instead of high power, so I set my microwave to 50% and gave that a whirl, too. It did not improve things; the rice just took longer to heat up without being tastier. Overall, this was not the best method.

Another easy microwave method, this one relies on the steam generated from the mug of water to keep the rice moist and re-fluff it without making it soggy. Whatever your approach, you should check for an internal temperature of 165 F. This is apparently true for every method, because that is the safe temperature to ensure that you have killed potentially harmful pathogens.

To reheat with a mug of water, put your rice in a bowl and set it in the microwave. Fill a standard coffee mug halfway up with water and put that in the microwave, too. Instead of feeding in bursts like the last method, I let the microwave run on high for two minutes. Then, I set a timer for one minute and let the rice rest.

The results were... okay. Yes, the rice came out steaming hot and reasonably re-fluffed. However, it was chewier than many of the other methods. I'd rank this about equivalent to the microwaving with a paper towel method, but slightly higher because getting a paper towel wet without tearing it is annoying. Plus, it's wasteful. In the end, you don't need to do either if you want to use the microwave, because the magical ice cube trick exists.

If combining an ice cube with a microwave oven sounds counterintuitive to you, then you are not alone. This trick has been making the TikTok rounds for a while, so it seemed wrong to leave it out even though it was the one getting the most side-eye from me in the run-up to my reheating tests. How does it work?

Ostensibly, you just put an ice cube into a bowl of rice in the microwave and heat it. As the ice cube melts, it distributes water into the rice without all rushing to the bottom at once. This trick requires no mugs of water, no paper towels, and no coverings of any kind. I simply spread my rice into a shallow glass dish, popped an ice cube on top, and let it cook for a minute. At first, it seemed my suspicions were going to be confirmed. I heard lots of weird popping noises that I associate with crisping rather than softening, so I assumed that wasn't good.

But I was wrong. The rice was soft, fresh, fluffy, and had a lot of its original flavor. For scientific reasons I don't understand, it was done after only a minute, considerably less cooking time than the other microwave methods. The ice cube mostly retained its shape, though there was a little melting, clearly just enough to moisten the surrounding rice. I would say this is definitely the best microwave method, and I would even choose it over the oven method, unless I had a very large batch to warm.

I can't imagine freezing rice after I've made it at home because it's so easy to make only the amount you need. However, I'm often left with rice from takeout meals that I can't use up. It seems like no matter how hard I try to order the right amount, there's always some left over. Freezing is a good way to make sure it doesn't go to waste.

Reheating frozen rice is a microwave technique that works similarly to rice from the fridge, using a damp paper towel to protect the goods. You just add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water per cup of cooked rice, cover it with a damp paper towel, and pop it in for several minutes. The directions I found said three to four minutes, but one minute was plenty for me. Of course, I was cooking only about a cup of rice, so I'm sure this factors in.

Because cooking rice straight from frozen would be so much more convenient than defrosting first, I was hopeful about this method, and I was not disappointed. The texture of rice from frozen was kind of astonishing. It was pretty tender and fluffy, and it didn't take any longer than microwaving it from the fridge. I wouldn't rank it higher than refrigerated rice using the ice cube method, but if you have to freeze and then reheat rice quickly, this is the way to do it.

The Instant Pot is not only a wonderful way to make rice without having to spend a lot of time or monitor it, but it is also said to be a good way to reheat rice. I was all in on this because the Instant Pot is just the best in my experience. I've found it more versatile than the Crock-Pot by far, and you still have the same ability to throw food in and walk away.

The good news is the Instant Pot is kind of hard to screw up. Unlike real pressure cookers (which I find quite frightening despite my familiarity), the Instant Pot is very forgiving if you follow directions. In this case, reheating rice involves using the steam method. All you do is put the trivet that comes with it at the bottom of the dish, then put an inch or 2 of water at the bottom, so that it hits below the trivet. Use a glass dish for your rice, then lower it in. It's a good idea to break it up with your hands. I didn't find any need to add water to the rice, since it absorbed the steam from below. I used the steam function for five minutes, and boom! Done.

The Instant Pot worked quite well. It was soft and fluffy, flavorful, and with just the right amount of structure left. This method works for a larger amount of rice, like the oven, so I see myself using it in future when my rice is already stored in a round glass dish. This was as good as the stovetop or ice cube method.

The air fryer is a handy tool. With so many settings and temperature levels, it's like a toaster oven on steroids. And whereas a toaster oven can only fit so much, you can put bigger batches into the air fryer. To reheat rice, all you have to do is spread it in an oven-safe dish, cover it with foil, put it in the air fryer, and heat for between five and six minutes, at least according to opinions I found online.

Unfortunately, I found that five minutes resulted in rice that was not nearly hot enough. Also, it was kind of gummy. This surprised me, since I associate the air fryer with making things crispy and dry, which is why I like to reheat my takeout calamari in it. Instead, the results were odd and subpar. Give this method a miss.

Fried rice is a favorite in my home, so it was no skin off my nose to test reheating rice in this way. It is reliably delicious, easy, and quick. The simplest recipes, and the ones this writer makes on a weeknight, require nothing more than a few frozen veggies, a bit of oil, and leftover cooked rice. If you have a bit longer to prep seasonings, that's great. If not, all you have to do is reheat ice in oil for a crispy base that you can either eat plain or top with other ingredients. Yum.

As it usually is, fried rice was a win. It only takes about 20 minutes to chop and sauté onions, make and chop an egg omelet, and add it all back in with the rice and some frozen veggies. Just make sure to crisp the rice long enough to give it that delicious crunchy effect. If you have the time, and you like fried rice, this method was probably my favorite.

On a final note, I like making my fried rice with lard. I realize that saving bacon grease is kind of a low-rent thing to do, and it can get a bad rap from the health crowd, but in today's economy, it's just smart. Plus, it has amazing flavor and you don't need as much salt, so that's kind of nutritious, right?

Yes, you can reheat rice in soup. It's important to keep in mind that rice is a grain, though. That means once it's cooked it has already absorbed a lot of liquid, which is what leads to it becoming soft and edible. However, this also means that if you add too much more moisture, you will make it soggy instead of tender. For this reason, you should only put it in soup at the end when you are ready to eat it. Reheating in a liquid bath should only take a minute or so.

My notes were that rice in soup becomes kind of soggy right away. All I did was add it to soup and microwave for a minute and 30 seconds, so I can only imagine if it had cooked on the stovetop for a while. It's a good addition nutrient-wise, but it's probably better to follow a recipe that has you add rice when it's still in its dry form.

Making rice pudding with leftover rice is super easy. This classic favorite requires nothing more than throwing rice in a pan, then heating it slowly while stirring with milk and sugar. Some people also add flavorings such as vanilla, cinnamon, or raisins. The only strike against it is that it takes about 45 minutes of constant, dedicated stirring, but the results from cooked rice were awesome.

Similarly, congee is a savory rice pudding from Asia (and likely originated in China), involving reheating the rice with salt and broth and stirring it. This reheating method takes a little longer and requires a few more ingredients, but it's a delicious way to use up leftover or takeout rice.

If you're looking to turn your leftover rice into real food, either of these methods will do the trick. They are both excellent in flavor and in final result, though they lack the convenience of a quick zap in the microwave.

Since these methods vary so widely, and some of them use other flavorings, it was hard to pick a winner. If you're looking for a way to reheat rice that results in dinner, then fried rice is definitely the best choice. If your rice is either too soggy or too hard, then the best method is rice pudding or congee, because you disguise the problems with milk and sugar or broth.

However, if all you want to do is heat up white rice, then I would choose one of three methods. The oven method makes the most rice. The instant pot is best if your rice is already in a round glass dish, because you can just drop it in. And finally, the ice cube method is best for a smallish bowl of rice. I found these methods to produce equal quality reheated rice, so I would choose based on convenience.

Now a quick note on methodology. I always started with cold rice for the reheating tests so that it was an even playing field. This rice was made the day before and sat in the fridge overnight. It had exactly the same dry, hard, overly chewy consistency as a carton of rice from a Chinese restaurant, so you can safely use any of the three methods above with homemade rice or takeout. Happy reheating, friends.