Don’t ruin your leftovers by making them dry! Our methods for reheating turkey will keep the bird as juicy and moist as it was for Thanksgiving dinner. It’s cooking with alia hard to estimate the right amount of turkey to make for Thanksgiving.
With all the filling side dishes and dessert looming in the background, sometimes the main dish earns a smaller-than-expected portion on the plate. You don’t have to suffer from this sad fate, though, because we know best ways for reheating turkey. Once cooled, keep leftover turkey tightly covered or—better yet—in a sealed container. The next step is adding moisture when you reheat the meat. You’ll see in our reheating methods below that we add homemade gravy, chicken stock or butter to the turkey before heating it up. This ensures that juices in the turkey won’t escape as steam when they’re exposed to heat.
Finally, we absolutely recommend covering turkey as it reheats. Use an aluminum foil pouch in the oven, a microwave-safe dish or a skillet fitted tightly with a lid. If the juices surround the turkey meat instead of evaporating off into your kitchen, the leftovers will taste so much better! That said, you won’t want to turn the oven up as high as you did for the original roasting. F—low enough to prevent the heat from drawing moisture away from the meat, but high enough that it won’t take hours to reheat. Place your leftover portions in aluminum foil and spoon a few spoonfuls of gravy or chicken stock over the meat.
Add a pat of butter and close the foil tightly. Alternatively, you can use a casserole dish, but make sure to cover it tightly with aluminum foil to prevent the steam from escaping. Cook the turkey for 30 to 45 minutes, until it’s warmed all the way through. It’s quicker than the oven, but the turkey turns out juicier than in the microwave. It’s also a good option if you’re reheating skin-on pieces. Cover the pan with a lid and bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-high heat.
Simmer for a few minutes until the turkey is warmed through. If you want to crisp up the skin, discard the liquid and dry the pan with a clean towel. Add a teaspoon of oil and heat it over high heat. Add the reheated turkey, skin-side down, and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until the exterior is crispy. It’s really best to cut the turkey into bite-size pieces first, decreasing the chances of the outside drying out before the inside heats all the way through. Place the turkey pieces in a microwave-safe container.
