How to Freeze and Reheat Rice Frozen rice is so convenient for weeknight meals, but there’s no need to buy it at the store! It’s easy to do yourself at home. Here are instructions for freezing, frozen cooked rice, and using homemade rice.

Coco began developing recipes for Simply Recipes in 2016 and is the author of five cookbooks. She is an industry expert on Instant Pot cooking. And it’s much more economical, too—as you would expect. It’s also easy to incorporate this prep step into your routine—if you find yourself making rice for a meal, just make twice as much, so you’ll have some to freeze for next time. Of course, you can also have a dedicated prep day where you freeze some rice for future meals.

I often make a big batch of rice in my Instant Pot and freeze half of it. This method works with any kind of rice, brown or white. I find that the rice still has great texture when reheated, but it does have a tendency to dry out quickly after reheating. Make sure to serve it straight away to avoid this issue. Spread your just-cooked rice on a cookie sheet, fluffing it a bit as you spread it out in an even layer.

Label the bags with the type of rice, the date, and the amount of rice in the bag. It’s really important to label the bags, since different kinds of rice pair well with different meals, and it’s pretty hard to tell varieties apart when frozen! Pop the bags in the freezer, stacked nice and flat. They’ll keep well this way for up to 2 months. After that, it gets dry and the texture suffers. The rice will have frozen into a solid block. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, or with a reusable, microwave-safe lid or bowl.

Place the covered bowl in the microwave and cook the rice on high heat for 2 to 3 minutes. The timing will depend on the wattage of your microwave, so you want to check on it after a couple minutes. Mine is pretty powerful, so I find that 2 minutes is plenty. Alternatively, you can use the rice straight from the freezer, in its still-frozen state. This method works best when you’re adding it to a soup or a chili, since it will defrost evenly when fully submerged in liquid. I often break up frozen rice into chunks, then add it to a pot of simmering chicken soup.

Once it comes back up to a simmer, it’s ready to go. I hope this helps you save some bucks and speed up your weeknight dinner routine, too. Get our list of The Best Rice Cookers. Sign up for our weekly newsletters! The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.

The term TV dinner, which has become common, was first used as part of a brand of packaged meals developed in 1953 by the company C. The original TV Dinner came in an aluminum tray and was heated in an oven. The name “TV dinner” was coined by Gerry Thomas, its inventor. At the time it was introduced, televisions were status symbols and a growing medium. Much has changed since the first TV Dinners were marketed. The American football player “Mean” Joe Greene was the “Hungry-Man” spokesman. The first microwave oven-safe trays were marketed.