Reheating chicken/ Weekly meals prep

[Condi]

Does anyone else think microwave reheated chicken tastes horrible, or am I doing something wrong? I work away during the week so like to cook on a Sunday for 3 or 4 days, but whenever I do chicken, even in a pasta, it just tastes rubbery and off. Obviously lots of people do reheat it, so whats the secret?

[AndyHCZ]

It's quite hard to reheat chicken generally (particularly breast), as all you're essentially doing is drying the meat out further. Unless it's in some sauce, you're always going to be struggling a bit.

Try reheating the chicken by spraying a little water on it and placing it in some tupperware with the lid slightly off, or you could using put it in a bowl with some clingfilm on top and small holes.

How are you cooking the chicken in the first place though usually?

[21TonyK]

It's not just chicken but everything suffers from reheating. Largely because people reheat to far too high a temperature, in effect double cooking. Add in the fact that food is often overcooked first time round and you will end up with a very poor reheated meal.

Think about a supermarket ready meal (Battered will advise better), but these are cooked very precisely and very carefully. They are 100% safe to eat so not "undercooked" as some might think and yet they can be nuked beyond all signs of life or blasted in a hot oven for far too long and still be perfectly edible.

Worth investing in a temperature probe and making sure you are cooking the meal correctly first and making sure you only reheat and not recook the original meal.

FWIW meat "drying out" has nothing to do with sauces or adding liquid when its reheated.