# Reheating chicken help please?



## Ruth

Monday night I made a roast chicken and it turned out really yummy and juicy.  We still have a little over half of it left and I'd like to have it as leftovers for dinner tonight.  Can anyone tell me what is the best way to reheat it so that it tastes the same as it did on Monday without the meat drying out.  (The meat is still on the bones - we only carved what we ate.)

Thanks.


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## Lifter

I guess you'd be left trying to carve off what you wanted, cold, and re-heating in a microwave...

When I cook poultry, I carve the full bird, complete...

As a "brining" advocate, I'm never short on gravy, so microwaving "meal sized" portions, and serving with watered/re-heated gravy seems to get it done pretty well, until you are down to the "Chicken-ala-King"/Chicken Stew and or "chicken chunks in gravy" levels, at the end...

Lifter


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## PA Baker

Hi Ruth,
This is probably too late, but when I reheat, I usually cut it off the bones and put it in a baking dish with a little chicken broth on the bottom of the dish (1/4" or so?).  Then cover tightly w/ foil and reheat in the oven.  The broth helps create steam to keep it moist.


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## Audeo

Hello, Ruth.  I'm also a day late and a dollar short, but what I do is put leftover chicken in the basket of my steamer with plain water beneath.  The taste isn't altered, the steam is an extremely efficient "re-heater" (darned fast!), and it does not dry out the meat further.


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## Otter

Day late and two dollars short. If it's reasonably moist, I just put wrap it in foil and put it in the oven. If it's borderline dry, I add a bit of broth.


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## Psiguyy

What they said, but add one day. 

I sometimes just take the meat off the bones and add it to the pot of gravy I'm heating up.


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## scott123

Reheating poultry is tricky business.  Whether your roasting or reheating, if you exceed a certain magic temperature, the meat will be dry/dense/tough, especially if it's white meat. It's very important just to warm the chicken _not_ cook it any more.  Wet reheating methods tend to work a little better but are no gaurantee the bird won't be dry. In other words, you don't want to plunge cold poultry into simmering gravy/broth and then go do something else. Depending on how much gravy you have, you can bring it to a simmer, remove it from the heat, add the sliced meat and allow the residual heat to warm the meat.

If you do end up overheating the meat, you have only one option - keep simmering it.  Prolonged simmering will soften up the muscle fibers and make it tender. It will also have a tendency to shred though.


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