The Best Ways To Reheat Your Favourite Foods

There are so many variables when it comes to reheating food - temperature, time, which appliance, do you stop and stir halfway, is it going to explode in your microwave? Today we uncover the right way to reheat your favourite food and leftovers.

You can now listen to my video in Spanish. Simply select the Spanish audio option in the settings while watching.

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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:33 Grilled Chicken
01:46 Chups
03:01 Steak
04:44 My Products
06:02 Fried Rice
07:29 Roast Veggies
08:40 Stir Fry
11:13 Pizza
13:37 Curry
15:50 Smoked Meat
19:16 Dumplings
20:26 Outro

Director, Chef and Host: Andy
Videographer, Editor: Mitch Henderson
Production Manager: Dazz Braeckmans
Editor: Caleb Dawkins

[FluidKaos]

For a lot of things, I've found the best & fastest way to reheat is to take the chill off in the microwave while the oven preheats. Then, finish heating in the oven to keep the texture right. Takes half the time of oven only with the same outcome.

[harriet]

I’m been watching so many of Andy’s videos and I just love how real he is. Nothing seems forced or fake from the banter with his loved one, the missus coming in and stealing food, stuff falling all over the counter top, love it this is what I like to see. Someone who hasn’t become consumed by YouTube just cooking at home. New sub 🤗

[rmackay]

I've watched a lot of cooking shows and youtube videos, and I don't think I've seen a video or a show dedicate a whole episode to this topic. Super awesome idea. I figured I knew how to reheat leftovers, but I definitely learned a trick or two. Great video, and hello from Texas!

[tagbon]

The most useful and practical cooking video that I needed but never knew could be explained. Bookmarked!

[robocular]

Northern Chinese here. Leftover dumplings are the best and the only way to reheat them is to shallow fry them. We usually make extra just to be able to have fried dumplings the next day

[mycybershots]

You should be one of the judges on MASterchef Australia ! Your personality is great for the show. So here you go, I am blessing you. May the FORCE OF FOOD GODS be with you ! 🫡

[iris]

andy clearly doesnt know how to use a microwave. i just saw him type in the time he wants rather than just hitting the "start +30 seconds" button the requisite number of times.

[flain]

Hot tip for air fryer re-heating leftovers - just drop the temp. Let me repeat - just drop the temp. Leftover pizza? 130c for 10mins. Leftover chicken 130c for 10mins. You don't want to double cook, just heat it up without drying it out while keeping the crisp.

[brendathorpe]

I swear by my pizza method I've used for like 20 years. Heat cast iron pan on lowest setting. Use a tiny bit of oil, or preferably cooking spray. Put pizza in, cover, give it like 20 minutes (depending on crust thickness), remove. Cheese and toppings will be warm and melty and the bottom of the pizza will be super crisp and crunchy. Sometimes even better than fresh

[Juno_Eh]

I love my toaster oven. I rehear all kinds of stuff in it! Its a collage kid MUST for pizza, chicken, roasted veg, even lasagna.

[elizabethbottroff]

Microwave: Sprinkle a bit of water over the top. Place a microwave shield over the top.

Test the reheat button on your microwave. It usually has three time settings and uses lower power settings.

Manual settings:
Set for two minutes on half power. That takes off the refrigerator chill. Flip or mix.

Then, depending on contents, one to three minutes on 70% to 100% power to heat to preference.

Removing fridge chill at lower power first will avoid drying out the food.

Wrap breads and pastries in loose paper towel (kitchen towel?). Sprinkle a bit of water on it. Heat at low power in 30 second increments to avoid bread becoming dry and tough. Some only need twenty seconds.

Many of the tests in the video used a paper towel without a sprinkle of water. He also defaulted to high power, 100%, on all of the tests. Using water and lower power will obtain much better results.

[potapotapotapotapotapota]

I like how you didn't diss any cooking method. They are all valid in their own circumstance.

I"ve got some tips of my own:
1) A lot of microwaves nowadays have staged cooking settings which allow you to fine control how you heat up your food. The way I like to do it is I heat up food on high for a few minutes and then finish it off at a medium low power for another few minutes (all depending on the power of the microwave and the size and type of the food). You won't have to worry about mixing it and the heat will transfer more evenly through the food, since microwaves are notorious for cooking unevenly at high power.
2) Reheating any kind of meat will very often toughen it up, especially white meat. So use a lower temperature to heat up your meat to prevent it from going rock hard. But if it has gone rock hard, just braise it in some water until it has come to temp and it will be super juicy again.
3) When reheating things like bread buns and pastries, if you have an oven that you can set to 75 C then put your pastries in a container with a light spray of water then cover it with cling film and a lid and reheat it at 75C. It should taste fluffy like new again after like 10 min.
4) Preparing food in advance and freezing it for later reheating can actually increase its flavour. Any kind of stew or sauce or curry is a perfect example of this. I don't know why it happens, although it may have something to do with the water particles in the food changing state and being quickly evaporated during reheating, leaving you with a much more concentrated sauce. Rice is another great example of this in terms of texture. Fresh rice might be really sticky, but if you refrigerate or freeze it and then reheat it in a microwave it will often remove that stickiness and make it much more fluffy. My grandma even cooks rice from raw in a microwave and it always tastes amazing.
5) If you are going to reheat a bare piece of meat in the oven, maybe consider covering it in sauce beforehand. That sauce will not only give more flavour to your food but it will add moisture and prevent your food from drying out. A classic example of this are ribs. Often they are cooked in advance and then glazed with bbq sauce before being reheated in the oven.

[barrow_]

Andy - Chef - Home cook - Youtuber - Phenomenal Actor. The man does it all.

[jillbeans]

Wow!
Thanks for doing this comparative study.
Definitely information all of us can use.
Bravo!

[fernbrisot]

Just a quick food safety note from a PhD Microbiologist... The toxin that causes issues in cooked rice is heat stable, which means that once formed, you can't destroy it by heating. So, it doesn't matter if you completely reheat cooked and cooled rice, even though I see this information online. The idea of thoroughly reheating cooked rice makes no sense when you consider how many "cold" dishes are made from cooked rice (sushi, onigiri, rice salad). The way to prevent the toxin forming is to 1. Keep rice at least 140oF/60oC, if on a buffet, and/or 2. Cool your freshly cooked rice appropriately, which is, keep at room temperature for less than 2 hours (or 1 hour if your room is hot), before refrigerating.

[barrow_]

I think people underuse the power control on microwaves. Reheat something on 50% so you don't blast it. And stir it multiple times, like you would reheat something in a saucepan.

[famijher]

My favorite way to reheat things is to put it in the microwave for about a minute to remove the chill, and then put it in the Toaster Oven for about a "Medium Toast" cycle, which finishes heating the product, and makes it crisp, which it great for anything fried. Also for Pizza. I do cover stuff with a Paper Towel, but a Paper Plate works, too. Normally, when I reheat stuff just in the Microwave, I heat it at 70% heat, not high, unless I'm doing the Toaster Oven method. High heat should only be for initial cooking, in my opinion.

[misfit_wonderland]

You have no idea how relieving it is for me to finally have a favourite YT chef who doesn't munch and smack while eating. <3

[wmike]

These are great suggestions, but Andy, please dont underestimate my impatience or ability to tolerate subpar food when it's leftovers

[kerriecu]

Since buying an air fryer, I have only turned on my oven twice and that was for cakes for a cake stall and when needing larger batch of food for guests. Much less expensive to run and less oven cleaning required. Thanks for this great video for reheating my leftovers. 👍