Reheated leftover fried chicken at home used to be a sad reminder of what could have been…but not anymore! No more eating leftover fried chicken cold. Here is the perfect method for reheating fried chicken that will keep it super moist and warm on the inside and crispy on the outside.
The best method is by reheating it using a little brown lunch bag and baking it!
Don’t worry, it won’t catch on fire! I served my husband a piece of the reheated chicken and heard a crunch…that’s right…A CRUNCH…with re-heated fried chicken!! I kept saying ‘honey, there was a crunch’ so clearly I was super excited to post this!
Have you ever tried to reheat fried chicken?
Ingredients
- Leftover fried chicken
- brown paper lunchbag
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325.
- Place chicken pieces in brown paper bag and evenly distribute in the bag so that they are in a single layer (I had a breast and thigh in one bag and three legs in another).
- Gently fold the opening of the bag over and place on a cookie sheet.
- Bake for 25 minutes (don't over bake otherwise the chicken inside will be dry), remove and tear bag open and serve warm!
Florence Cathcart says
My problem is where do you find a brown paper bag? In Florida all we get are plastic. The grocery store doesn’t even use paper bags anymore.
Sweetphi says
You can buy paper sandwich bags at the store – where they sell the plastic sandwich bags. Or buy some online (here is a link to the ones i buy)
Katie says
I am 45 years old and a self proclaimed, life long fried chicken junkie! Perhaps, that is why I was actually a little bit angry after trying this method of reheating chicken for the first time this evening… angry because I have literally never had leftover chicken that was this good, and I’m 45! How is it that I’m just finding out about this, now? I
shudder to imagine how many hundreds of pieces of soggy skinned, 2nd day chicken I’ve eaten in my lifetime because I didn’t know about the brown bag! At any rate, better late than never. Great tip!
Sweetphi says
Oh my goodness, your comment totally made my day, thank you! So glad you found my tip and instructions helpful!
Jacquie says
What would you recommend for 3-4 dozen pieces? I’m throwing a party and want to make everything in advance and then reheat at the last minute. A grocery bag, lol?
Sweetphi says
I would recommend multiple brown paper lunchbags, and then putting them on different baking sheets – so about 4-5 bags per baking sheet. I would not recommend a big grocery bag lol.
anna troyer says
I have 200 (hundred) pieces of fried chicken that I had left over which I have frozen. How can I use them? Reheat?
Sweetphi says
Wowza, 200 pieces is a lot. I’ve never dealt with that many pieces, so my only suggestion would be to defrost the chicken, and then portion it off it a bunch of different small brown bags…but I don’t think all the pieces would fit in an oven at once. Best of luck.
Glenna says
I was looking for a way to reheat leftover fried chicken and after examining several ideas I decided to try your method. It actually worked quite well! The chicken turned out pretty crispy and was heated through. The breast pieces were a little dry but I think that’s to be expected. I’ll definitely use this method again. Thanks for sharing this idea!
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much for coming back and leaving feedback! So glad this trick worked for you 🙂
Jen says
Straight out of the refrigerator, or do I need to let it set a room temp for a while??
Sweetphi says
I do it straight out of the refrigerator, but you could certainly let it sit on the baking sheet as the oven comes to temperature 🙂
bakesinslippers says
Isn’t it funny how the things that seem most simple can be most complicated?
Sweetphi says
I couldn’t agree more! One would think reheating fried chicken would be super complicated, but it’s not 🙂 Thank you so much for commenting girl!
Diane says
I just fried a lot of chicken and wondered if I could reheat without losing the crunch. So I googled it and found your site. Thank you so much for your brilliant idea. Do you regularly blog about food? If so, how do I get them.
Gratitude, 72 year old grandma who forgets too much
Diane
Sweetphi says
Hi Diane,
Thank you so much for commenting, so happy you came across my site. I do regularly blog about food, to sign up to receive my emails, you can sign up via this link, but I’ll go ahead and add you 🙂 You’ll get my weekly emails which share new posts and other things.
Thank you so much again!
Phi
Dante says
Wow, I was kind of doubtful, thinking the bag might catch fire, but it didn’t and the chicken was as hot and crispy as when I first got it. Thanks…
Sweetphi says
You’re so welcome, and thank YOU for coming back and telling me about your experience. I’ve had friends kind of look at me a little crazy when I tell them what the method is, but it works like a charm every time doesn’t it?
Dante says
It is soooo fantastic, and yeah it works like a charm! 🙂