Anyone who has ever had problems cooking a hard-boiled egg on the stovetop will be delighted to know that you can do it in the microwave. The microwave oven is fast and easy to use compared to the stove and while it is the faster kitchen appliance when it comes to bringing your mug of water to a boil in just 1 minute, it can’t do everything better.

One of the other things the microwave can do faster than the traditional method is to reheat food. It really is fast but the problem is that you can also dry out the food you’re reheating. To prevent drying your food out, add water, either in a bowl or in the food itself when reheating. The water will keep your food juicy as it heats up.

You may already know that you can easily poach an egg in the microwave. The trick to that is vigilance. Here’s how you do it:

1. Break an egg into a microwave-safe mug or bowl. Gently add enough water to cover the egg. (You can also do it vice versa: pour water into a mug and break the egg into it to lessen the chances of the yolk breaking as it lands in the water, instead of the hard glass.)
2. Cover the bowl or mug with a small saucer, and place it in the microwave. Heat the egg for 20 seconds then check your egg. (The egg should have just begun to cook. It will continue to cook while in the hot water.)
3. Cook the egg further in 5-second intervals until it is cooked to your desired doneness. Then pop it out, drain, and serve as desired.

Cooking that same egg in the microwave but while still in the shell however is a different matter altogether. The shell is the factor you have to consider. That’s because if you don’t do it the right way aka the safe way, there is a possibility of the egg exploding in your microwave. That’s not good.

However, there is a safe way and a not so safe way to do it. What you need to do to hard boil an egg in the microwave is to break the shell but not so much that the egg inside will come out. You can break the shell by using a pin to puncture a hole into the not-too-pointy end. This is where the air pocket is located and that’s what will prevent the egg from exploding.

The Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen tested this hard-boiling egg method and discovered that not only do you have to make this hole, but you also have to lower the power of your microwave so that it’s not at full power. They discovered that the safe power setting is at 50%. (Cooking at full power or 100% power made the egg explode!)

Curious how it’s done? Here’s how to do it:

1. Place a microwave-safe bowl or mug halfway full of water in the microwave. Set the power to 50% and heat the water until almost boiling hot, around 3 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, make a hole in the bottom of an egg.
3. Place the pricked egg in the hot water and return to the microwave. Place a plate over the mug or bowl.
4. (Set the power again to 50% if necessary.) Heat the egg for 4 minutes. Remove from the microwave.
5. Peel the egg for a runny yolk or leave it in the hot water for another 2 minutes for a firmer egg yolk.

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