How to reheat turkey and keep it moist (2024)

FAQs

How to reheat turkey and keep it moist? ›

Place the turkey pieces in a baking dish and drizzle with a few tablespoons of stock and/or butter. Cover the dish with foil and heat in the oven at 350°F for about 30 minutes. Alternatively, you can microwave the sliced turkey (cover with a damp paper towel) in a microwave-safe dish at 50% power in 1-minute intervals.

After your turkey is done resting, cover it with foil and place it back in the oven. To ensure that the turkey stays moist, pour some warm water into a pan and place the pan under the turkey in the oven.

We also recommend covering turkey as it reheats. Use an aluminum foil pouch in the oven or a microwave-safe dish in the microwave. If the juices stay in the turkey instead of evaporating off into your kitchen, the leftovers will taste so much better!

Place the turkey pieces in a baking dish and drizzle with a few tablespoons of stock and/or butter. Cover the dish with foil and heat in the oven at 350°F for about 30 minutes. Alternatively, you can microwave the sliced turkey (cover with a damp paper towel) in a microwave-safe dish at 50% power in 1-minute intervals.

Use Turkey Stock

Alternatively, you can use the oven: put the turkey in an oven-proof pan, pour the stock overtop, cover the pan, and reheat on low, around 300 degrees F (150 degrees C), for about 20 minutes. Transfer the individual slices to your serving platter, and you'll find the cuts now have more moisture.

If you let the turkey rest a bit, the juices reabsorb into the meat rather than running out of the bird and landing on the cutting board. Carve it to order. The longer you let it sit after you slice it, the drier it will be. If you need to slice it, cover it with foil or plastic wrap to keep it from drying out.

Use freezer-safe bags or containers and "limit air space in the package to prevent freezer burn," she says. Another option is to wrap the turkey in aluminum foil, followed by plastic wrap. "The aluminum foil helps prevent freezer burn and the plastic wrap helps retain moisture," explains Baker.

It's easy: Simply cook it a day or two in advance, let it cool completely, then carve the bird into large pieces—breasts, wings, thighs and drumsticks. Store in a container in the refrigerator until the big day. This method actually result in juicier meat—and an infinitely more relaxed host.

Place similarly-sized pieces of sliced, chopped, or shredded turkey in a 9-x13-inch pan or Dutch oven. Top with a little broth or gravy, cover with foil or the Dutch oven lid then, bake at 350°F until the turkey reaches 165°F. (This usually takes about 30 minutes.)

Transfer the turkey and mashed potatoes into oven-safe dishes, add a little stock to the turkey and butter to the potatoes, and cover both dishes. Reheat them together for about 30 minutes at 350°F. You're winning the leftover dinner game right now.

How do you keep turkey warm and moist after cooking? ›

After the turkey has reached an internal temperature of 165 °F, as measured with a food thermometer, you can keep it warm covered with foil in an oven.

To achieve a perfectly golden, juicy turkey, let the bird spend time both covered and uncovered in the oven. We recommend covering your bird for most of the cooking time to prevent it from drying out; then, during the last 30 minutes or so of cooking, remove the cover so the skin crisps in the hot oven.

Put your bird, stuffing and side dishes in an oven with the temperature set high enough to keep the food at 140 F or above. Insert a meat thermometer in the food periodically to make sure it stays at that temperature. Covering with foil will help keep your food moist.

One of the best ways is to cook it breast down so all of the yummy juices drip inside if the bird that usually dries out. About 30 minutes before it is done, put the bird legs down, baste the top with butter several times over 30 minutes so you get a golden and crispy skin on the top.

If your turkey is dry, it means that the outer portion has overcooked. The size of the bird is what makes this a challenge. It can be difficult to achieve food safe temperatures at the center of the meat before the exterior dries out.

We've found that covering a turkey in foil yields much moister results than roasting it without foil, and we favor simply covering up the breast to even out cooking time. Some people swear that roasting a turkey breast-side down and flipping it halfway through achieves the same results as a foil covered breast.