13 Mistakes You're Making When Cooking With A Microwave

While people have some mixed opinions about opting for the microwave over the stovetop, oven, or even air fryer, there's no questioning the benefits it can bring to a kitchen. While there are some kitchen appliances you really don't need, most still agree that microwaves are a solid addition to a kitchen — they provide speed and convenience when reheating meals, they can cook a variety of foods to perfection, and they offer better energy efficiency compared to many other appliances in the kitchen. That being said, a microwave will only deliver optimal results if it is used correctly.

Unfortunately, there are several mistakes that people commonly make when cooking with a microwave. These mistakes can have big consequences — from ruining the taste or texture of your meal to leaving you with a huge mess to clean up, creating a safety hazard, and more. We reached out to two professional chefs to help us identify and explain some of the most important microwave mistakes you'll want to avoid. Frank Bonanno is the founder and chef at Bonanno Concepts, and George Duran is a celebrity chef, comedian, and entertainer known for his vibrant culinary performances, often featuring major brands like Dorot Gardens, Mighty Sesame, and Wonder Juice. Learning how to avoid the mistakes they caution against can do more than help you get the most from this kitchen appliance — once you know what you should and shouldn't do when using the microwave, you may gain a newfound appreciation for the true value it can add to a kitchen.

When you're microwaving food, taking the extra step to cover it before starting the microwave can feel like such a waste of time. However, skipping this step will be a mistake. George Duran explains, "Unless you want your microwave to look like a Jackson Pollock painting made entirely of spaghetti sauce, cover your food. All you need is a paper towel or a plate!" Certain foods — such as the sauce that Duran mentions, butter that you're melting for a recipe, or a can of soup that you're heating for lunch — often splatter, leaving you with a huge mess to clean up. Placing a microwave-safe cover over these items will greatly simplify the cleanup necessary after cooking. Instead of wiping down the interior of the appliance, you can just rinse off the cover.

While keeping your microwave clean is important, it's not the only reason why you should always cover food in the microwave. According to Frank Bonanno, that cover also ensures that your food stays moist and cooks evenly. He says, "Food that is left exposed loses steam quickly, resulting in dried out food — especially for rice or pasta. The cover acts as a heat distributor while trapping steam, mixing with the food in a process that promotes heat transfer." Bonanno also cautions against microwaving a container with a tight-fitting lid. Because steam won't be able to escape from these containers, he shares that an explosion due to the built-up pressure could occur.

While microwaves offer a very convenient cooking method and can ensure certain foods come out cooked properly, you shouldn't expect everything you cook in this kitchen appliance to turn out just right. "Microwaving steak or chicken is like trying to tan in a toaster! It's technically possible but why would you? Foods that rely on browning, crisping, or sauteing fall flat in a microwave. Microwaves heat with steam and friction, not dry radiant heat," explains George Duran. Similarly, Frank Bonanno recommends avoiding the microwave when cooking or heating anything breaded or battered. Instead of coming out crisp, the batter will turn soggy. 

Certain foods, such as those mentioned above, won't turn out properly when cooked in the microwave. Other foods can be downright dangerous to try to microwave. According to Frank Bonanno, you should never microwave a hot dog — or at least not without taking one extra (and essential) step. "Hot dogs and sausages that have casings may explode with force if they are not pierced." Similarly, George Duran recommends against microwaving eggs in their shell due to the risk of an explosion.

While using the microwave can be problematic with certain foods, don't let that convince you that the appliance holds no value in your kitchen. There are actually several foods that are well-suited for preparing in a microwave and that should emerge ready to satisfy you with their taste and texture. "High-moisture vegetables do particularly well in the microwave, as they essentially steam themselves in their own moisture," says Frank Bonanno. He also recommends using the microwave for reheating rice because of the starch's ability to absorb the energy evenly. This can help ensure the rice comes out moist with a more uniform temperature throughout.

George Duran also highlights soups, oatmeal, and scrambled eggs as some top contenders for cooking in the microwave. Duran also shares that he particularly likes to "roast" garlic in the microwave. "I often buy frozen garlic cubes (like those from Dorot Gardens) and pop [them] into a microwave-safe bowl and add a touch of olive oil. Microwave for about a minute and you have actual roasted garlic," he says.

One of the biggest mistakes everyone makes when reheating food is failing to pause the microwave to stir it periodically. According to George Duran, stirring is essential "unless you enjoy the thrill of biting into molten lava followed by a bite of freezer burn. Microwaves have hot and cold spots, so stirring helps even out the heat and ensures you're not playing temperature roulette with your leftovers." Biting into a cold spot can be more than just annoying. If you're cooking anything with raw meat or poultry in it, those cold spots could be pieces of meat that are still raw and harboring dangerous bacteria.

While stirring can help ensure each dish comes out evenly heated, Frank Bonanno explains that it is even more important with certain types of food that don't allow heat to circulate, such as thicker sauces and soups. "We stir every 30-60 seconds in our kitchens, turning around bowls. That way we get an even distribution for heat and don't have the unpleasant surprise of biting into something that's too hot," Bonanno shares.

Many people don't fully understand all the settings on their microwave — or they don't realize how important some of them can be. One setting that many overlook is the option to adjust the power level. Did you even know that your microwave offers different power levels? And, even if you did know that about the various power settings, do you understand what these microwave power levels mean or when to use them? The power levels indicate the percentage of the cook time that the microwave will be using energy as it operates. So, cooking at full power means that it will be using energy for the entirety of the cook time you enter.

While full power is the optimal setting when you want to cook vegetables, heat soups, or warm up leftovers, this setting will not be ideal for everything. According to George Duran, you should opt for a lower setting for more gentle and even heating, such as when you are warming up rice or melting chocolate. He says, "Skipping this step is like turning your oven to 500 [degrees Fahrenheit] to bake cookies. Yeah, it's fast, but you won't like the results!"

If you are ready to start cooking dinner and just realized that you didn't pull out your chicken breasts or ground beef, you might decide to defrost them quickly in the microwave. While the microwave can certainly come in handy for defrosting meat, it is essential to understand how to do so without compromising safety or threatening the taste or texture of the meat. "Microwaves are great at turning a frozen steak into a partially cooked frisbee if you're not careful. Use the defrost setting and rotate frequently instead," recommends George Duran.

Beyond the potential to ruin how your food tastes if you don't defrost it properly in the microwave, Frank Bonanno shares one more potential threat. He says, "Never use full power for microwaving. Cooking the external surface thoroughly but not the inside gives a great opportunity for bacteria to grow in the warm 'danger zone.'" Both Bonanno and Duran say that it is important to immediately cook any meat that is defrosted in the microwave. "Leaving it around is almost inviting disaster," says Bonanno.

Moreover, some cuts of meat should not be defrosted in the microwave at all. According to Bonanno, you should never try to thaw a whole chicken or a large roast in the microwave. "If the meat starts to cook at its edges during defrosting, safety and quality are both gone." Instead, he recommends only defrosting smaller chunks in a single layer at a time and flipping them midway through the defrost time to prevent the edges from starting to cook too early.

"Never put metal in the microwave." We've all heard this countless times. However, if you don't understand why it is a serious mistake, you may be more likely to overlook the importance of heeding this advice. "Do you want fireworks in your kitchen? Place metal in your microwave! Sparks, smoke, and the possibility of damaging your appliance is a hard no," stresses George Duran. The reason for this is because of how reflective metal is. When the microwaves generated by the magnetron hit the metal, it can cause those unwanted sparks. It doesn't take much for a few sparks to turn into a full-blown kitchen fire or explosion, so the risk simply isn't worth it.

To avoid these potential safety hazards, be very cognizant of the types of bowls and dishes you are using to cook or reheat foods with. Duran says, "Stick to microwave-safe glass, ceramic, and some plastics (always check the label). When in doubt, pretend your microwave is metal intolerant."

Preset options can vary between even the best microwave brands and models, but putting all of your trust in these settings will be a mistake. Some of the preset options that you might see on your microwave include defrost, reheat, popcorn, keep warm, or even crisp. Despite the simplicity of pressing the corresponding setting and walking away to take care of something else while the microwave does everything for you, there is too much room for error. The item you're trying to cook or defrost may end up still frozen, scalding hot, or burnt.

As George Duran puts it, "These buttons are like that friend who means well but doesn't always deliver. They're based on averages, not your bag of popcorn or your 2-pound mystery meat slab. I use them as a starting point, not gospel." This means that you should still periodically check on the progress of your food when cooking or reheating it with one of the presets.

If you regularly bring a cup of soup or a bowl of leftover pasta to the office for work, you may have determined the optimal cook time for it to come out hot and ready to eat. So, if you're home from work and decide to warm that same item up in your microwave, you might automatically set the timer on your unit to match what works perfectly on your office appliance. If you do so, you should be prepared for your food to turn out differently than it does at the office. It might come out scalding hot or not be heated all the way through.

"Microwaves are like people. Same job with wildly different personalities," says George Duran. He explains how the ideal cooking time can vary from one appliance to the next, depending on the wattage, the size, or even how old it is. "A burrito that takes 90 seconds in one microwave might still be frozen in the middle in another. Always test and tweak. And once you know your own microwave's personality, you'll know quickly how long to cook anything," he shares.

Knowing how to properly clean your microwave is important for a variety of reasons. You want to make sure that you don't scratch or damage it or introduce any potentially harmful chemicals. For example, you should never use bleach because it could leave a residue that could contaminate the food that you cook. George Duran notes that it will also be a mistake to make yourself work harder than is necessary to remove stuck-on gunk from the walls or turntable of the appliance.

There's no need to overexert yourself when there is a much simpler way to clean the microwave using lemons. Duran says, "Microwave a bowl of water with lemon or vinegar for a couple of minutes. The steam loosens the grime and gives you a citrusy spa moment while you're at it!" After letting the hot bowl of lemon and vinegar sit in the microwave for a few minutes after heating, remove it. Now, all that gunk and grime should be much easier to wipe off since it is no longer caked onto the walls.

Many plastic plates, bowls, and cups are labeled microwave safe. However, that doesn't mean that you can reheat or cook foods in all plastic containers. Not all plastics are microwave safe, and putting one that isn't considered safe to heat up can have potentially drastic consequences.

Always look for a "microwave-safe" label before proceeding. Any single-use containers, such as those provided by a restaurant to hold your leftovers or tubs for cottage cheese or yogurt, are not meant to go in the microwave. Beyond the potential for them to leak, George Duran says, "That takeout container might leach chemicals." When in doubt, stick with glass dishes (that are labeled as microwave-safe). Unlike certain plastics, glass will not leach any chemicals onto the foods you're heating.

While some microwaves don't have turntables, many of the models you'll find on the market today do. Turntables are in microwaves for an important reason, so manually disabling yours — or removing the rotating glass base from the unit — will be a mistake. "That rotating plate isn't just for fun! If it's stuck or missing, your food won't cook evenly," George Duran warns.

While the first microwave was patented in 1945, turntables didn't arrive on the scene for another 20 years. The first microwave with a turntable was released by Sharp in 1966. It was described as a feature that would help ensure foods cook evenly and to a more uniform temperature. Even decades ago, people understood the importance of turntables — utilize this feature and don't take it for granted.

There are several surprising facts about your microwave that you might not know. For example, according to George Duran, many people don't realize that letting foods rest after they cook applies not only when cooking them in the oven. Even when cooking in the microwave, he says to give them at least a one-minute rest period to ensure that the heat has the chance to disperse throughout the item evenly. Duran explains that doing so is crucial for "avoiding cold and hot spots." 

The rest period is important for more than just the taste of the food. Remember, those cold spots can harbor bacteria that can cause foodborne illnesses. So, giving the item a minute or so to more evenly distribute the heat can prevent cold spots from getting you or someone else sick.