The enhancement of platinum (Pt) based catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) by addition of rare earth metals represents a promising strategy to achieve high activity yet low content of the precious metal and concurrently addresses stability issues experienced by traditional late transition metal doping. Improvement in Pt utilization is essential for vehicular applications where material cost and abundancy is a great concern. Here we report a fast and efficient production route of yttria-stabilized platinum nanoparticles (PtxYOy) using a conventional household microwave oven. ORR performance showed a significant improvement and an optimum activity at a 3:1 Pt:Y ratio outperforming that of commercial Pt-Vulcan with a doubled specific activity. Incorporation of Y is evidenced by extended X-ray absorption fine structure and energy dispersive X-ray analysis, while significant amounts of integrated Y2O3 species are detected by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Density functional theory calculations suggest surface migration and oxidation of Y, forming stable superficial yttrium oxide species with low negative enthalpies of formation. The robustness of PtxYOy is shown experimentally and through theoretical arguments demonstrating that surface yttria acts as an stabilizing agent and promoter of highly active ORR sites on the remaining Pt surface, surpassing even the Pt3Y alloy configuration.