How to Reheat Fried Chicken In Oven, Microwave Or In Air Fryer

Learn How to reheat fried chicken safely. We all love to have chicken fries. Whether from a nice fast food shop or by making it on our own. The juicy and tender chicken meat with a hot and crispy outside layer can boost up your mood in just a minute.

But what about your leftover and cold fried chicken? Do you think fried chicken can get soggy or hard after reheating? Well, not anymore. Here are the right ways to reheat your fried chicken so that you can enjoy them whenever you like.

How to Reheat Fried Chicken in Oven?

The best way to warm up cold or leftover fried chicken is to reheat it in the oven. But there are some secrets to make the old chicken fries just as new. Here are the steps with some secret tricks to reheat your leftover chicken fries in the oven. Just follow the tricks properly and enjoy leftover chicken fries like they are just coming from the hot oil.

When you use the oven to reheat your chicken fries, it is very important to preheat the oven. Otherwise, the chicken fries will take a longer time to warm. And they won’t be crispy either. To get crispy chicken fries, you have to put them in an already hot oven. So at the first step, preheat your oven to 350°F.

While preheating the oven, get your chicken fries out from the refrigerator. And let them sit for 10 to 20 minutes. This step is also very important which many of us forget sometimes. Thus we end up with soggy chicken fries. Chicken fries take a lot less time to warm up in the oven if they are at room temperature. That’s why they don’t lose their moisture and stay juicy on the inside. It also helps them to keep their outside layer crispy.

Now place a wire rack on top of a baking pan. And place the chicken fries on the wire rack. It will help the fries to raise and prevent the bottom part to become soggy. Cook the chickens for 15 minutes. The cooking time can vary depending on the fry sizes. You can check the chicken fries after 10 minutes to prevent them from drying out. If you think they are warm enough you can jump to the next step.

For the last step, you have to raise the oven temperature to 400°F. And cook the chickens for 5 minutes. You can also reheat frozen chicken easily in this way.

Use an Air Fryer

This blog would not be completed if I don’t mention an air fryer. It is very simple to “reheat fried chicken in an air fryer”. Within a short time, we can make them crispy again. Just follow these simple steps-

Take out the fried chicken from the refrigerator. Allow them to reach at room temperature. It can take 10-15 minutes.
Now take an air fryer, place the chicken pieces inside the basket.
Turn on the air fryer. Set the temperature at 375°F. Heat the fried chicken pieces for 3 minutes. Turn off the air fryer.
Wait for a little to cool down the chicken pieces. Believe me, they will be super crispy like fresh fried chicken.

Check out our best fried chicken recipes

How to Reheat fried chicken in a microwave?

Many of us have a misconception that fried chicken cannot be reheated in the microwave oven. Because most of the time when we microwave our leftover fried chicken, they get soggy. Not to mention the weird taste. Actually, it’s not the fault of the microwave. You can reheat fried chicken in a microwave, and it will come out just perfect. You just need to know the right technique.

The main mistake people do while reheating fried chicken in the microwave is that they put the chickens directly in the microwave. Don’t make that mistake. First, take your fried chicken out from the refrigerator and let it sit on the table for at least 10 to 20 minutes. It will ensure that the chicken pieces are at room temperature while going into the microwave. This will prevent extra-long reheating time thus preventing the chicken from losing all of its moisture. And it will be heated evenly inside out.

Cover the chicken bowl with a paper towel. This is also very important while reheating chicken fries in a microwave. The paper towel will soak up all the excess moisture to prevent the fries from becoming soggy.
Now microwave the fried chickens in short thirty seconds intervals. Check each time if they are warm enough. Don’t overheat the chicken fries. Otherwise, they will dry-out.

Making your leftover foods tasting like the new ones is an art. And it is quite tricky with fried foods. Food like chicken fries has different textures in it. That’s why it is necessary to follow certain steps while reheating them to maintain their taste and texture. Just follow the detailed steps described in this article. And you will never compromise on the taste of your leftover chicken fries.

If you want to know the baking time of chicken in the oven or microwave, read this article. How long to bake chicken?

Can I Use A Frying Pan?

If you want to reheat your leftover soggy fried chicken in a frying pan, here is the right way. To make soggy fried chicken crispy again, you should follow these two steps.

Step-1: Heat up a frying pan, spray a little amount of cooking oil on it. Wait for a moment, add your soft and soggy chicken to it.

Step-2: Heat with low flame. Toss the chicken for 2-3 minutes, turn off the flame. Left them for 2-3 minutes more on the hot frying pan. Remove and enjoy the crunchy chicken.