Reheating your leftover chicken meat is very common in households. You can’t let it go waste. Reheating your leftover food saves your time and money. However, the benefits you get from reheating should not be at the expense of your health. Incorrect storage and reheating of your food can put your health at risk. This article educates you of the safe reheating practices to avoid making yourself and others ill.
Can I reheat my leftover chicken twice?
Reheating is a good way to avoid wasting a bite of your tasty roasted chicken. It is not advised to reheat leftover chicken twice. You should reheat it only once after original preparation. Consume it in a single setting. This way, you can be ensured of safe and healthy eating.
Safe Ways to reheat your leftover Chicken
There are numerous methods that you can use to reheat your leftover chicken such as a microwave, inside the oven, a frying pan, in a cooker or on the barbecue. Whichever method you use, ensure to reheat it only ONCE.
Tips to ensure safe reheating of leftover chicken.
- Never leave your raw chicken outside of the refrigerator. It can cause growth of bacteria in it.
- If you are using oven to reheat it, then properly cover your cooked meat by wrapping it in foil before you place it in oven. If you are using microwave for this job, then don’t use foil inside a microwave. All you need is to place your cooked leftover chicken on a plate and keep it inside the microwave for reheating.
- Cool your cooked chicken in 1 hour of serving.
- To ensure safe reheating, you should keep it at a minimum temperature of 75°C. The only precise way to know that your cooked chicken reaches to this temperature is by using a cooking thermometer.
- Be careful while reheating your cooked food. Ensure that it is not under-cooked. It has to be reheated thoroughly and should be piping hot throughout before you serve it.
- The right method to reheat your chicken is by cutting it into smaller parts. Doing this will ensure that the meat gets properly heated throughout and prevents its center from remaining cold. This is usually the problem in big mass of chicken. Also, ensure that the smaller pieces do not overlap or touch each other. Addition of a little chicken stock or water will prevent it from drying out.
- You can even add a ready-cooked chicken to your favorite dish like chicken curry, pizza etc. and reheat it using the above tips.
Right way to store cooked chicken
Storing your cooked chicken holds a lot of importance. Don’t allow it to get contaminated by raw meat. It has to be stored separately from raw meats. This can be done by storing your raw meat and cooked meat on different shelves of the refrigerator.
Properly cover your cooked chicken. Don’t keep it in the fridge for more than three days. If it happens to be standing inside your fridge for more than this limit, then you need to discard it.