15 Best Ways To Reheat Fast Food Leftovers

Everyone knows that the best fast food is piping hot, straight-from-the-fryer (or grill or oven) fast food. You'll know if you're getting it as soon as the drive-thru attendant hands over that paper bag or box. Whether it's french fries, chicken nuggets, a burger, or whatever else you crave, if it's practically steaming and you nearly burn your tongue on that first bite you snag from the bag on the drive home, you know you're in for a treat.

Unfortunately, the longer you let your fast food cool off, the worse it tastes. The fries go limp and soggy. The fast-food taco shells turn into nothing more than a wet piece of cardboard. Sides like mac 'n cheese from your favorite fast-food fried chicken joint turn gluey and practically inedible. However, stop before you head to the trash can. If you have leftover fast food, your only option isn't just to toss it. You can store it in the fridge and eat it within a few days — with a few caveats. Here's how to reheat those fast food leftovers properly, so they'll be just as good the second time around.

Possibly the worst fast food item once it gets cold, french fries aren't just something you can casually snack on after they've been left out for a while. Gone are the crunchy, crispy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside spud sticks that you love — and don't even try microwaving them back to life. That's just a recipe for fry-adjacent mush.

Instead, the best way to reheat leftover french fries is to break out your air fryer. While some may say the countertop appliance is over-hyped, there's no denying that it can crisp up many a leftover with ease. All you need to do is cook the french fries in your preheated air fryer until they're crisp and golden again, which usually takes less than five minutes.

Not everyone has an air fryer at their disposal, though. In that case, the next best option is to use your oven. Spread your leftover fries in an even layer on a baking sheet and crisp them at a high temp until they're revived.

Leftover fast food burgers are a tough one to reheat at a later date, especially if you're dealing with a burger that comes with a lot of toppings, many of which are best eaten cold, like tomatoes and lettuce. That's why the secret to successfully reheating a leftover fast food burger is all in the prep.

If you're looking down at a half-eaten burger and know you want to save it for later, disassemble it. Remove the items that need to be cold and that you don't want to reheat: tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, onions, etc. The lettuce may be a little soggy. If so, consider tossing that lone ingredient and replacing it with fresh, if you absolutely must have lettuce on your burger. Otherwise, store those best-kept-cold ingredients in the fridge, separately from the rest of your burger.

When you're ready to reheat and eat your leftover burger, further disassemble it by separating the patties and buns (and any other ingredients that need to be reheated, like bacon) and place them on an oven-safe wire rack on a rimmed baking sheet. Heat it all up in the oven until the patties reach a safe 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, take your hot ingredients and reassemble your burger with the cold ingredients you stored in the fridge.

Reheating leftover fast food tacos presents a similar issue to reheating leftover burgers, as they typically contain a mix of hot and cold ingredients, as well as some ingredients that tend to get pretty slimy, pretty quickly, like lettuce. So, if you want to reheat your Taco Bell or Taco John's tacos, the key is again, some disassembly.

Before you store your tacos for later noshing, remove any raw veggies. If you can, also scrape off sour cream or similar sauces that are better cold. You can keep these for later use, but if you have some sour cream on hand anyway, you might just replace the old with new. Then, store the tacos and their remaining fillings (like chicken, beef, or beans) separately.

When you're ready to reheat and eat your fast food tacos, set your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and place your tacos on an aluminum foil-lined pan. Hard tacos can lie directly on the foil or you can slide them into oven-safe taco holders, if you have them. Consider spritzing the hard taco shells with a bit of oil, for added crunch. For soft tacos, spray them with a bit of water and wrap them in foil. Let the tacos bake until heated all the way through and then garnish them with your cold toppings.

Yes, we've all been there. You order a pizza late at night, merrily eat your fill, and then somehow forget about the box that you left sitting on the kitchen counter, until you see it the next day. It should be fine, right? You can still eat those cold slices? In fact, some might argue that cold leftover pizza is one of the best breakfasts. Unfortunately, science does not agree with those people and, like all foods, pizza must be eaten within two hours of cooking or stored properly. If it's not, it should be tossed, or you'll risk food poisoning.

Luckily, reheating pizza from your favorite chain or local spot and restoring it to its former glory isn't difficult at all. If you have an air fryer, try reheating individual slices for just a few minutes for a crispy crust. If you don't have an air fryer, use your oven and a cast iron skillet. Crank up the temperature so it's extra hot, preheat your cast iron skillet in the oven, and then add your slices to the skillet until heated through.

While using the microwave to reheat a simple chicken breast that you cooked at home usually poses no problems, that's not the case with chicken nuggets. The breading encasing nuggets becomes notoriously soggy after you let them cool in the fridge for a day or so, and then try to reheat them in the microwave. To avoid this, opt for reheating in an air fryer first, but if that's not available, go for the oven. 

Whichever mode you choose, spritz your cooking surface with some non-stick spray (if you're using a baking pan in the oven, line it with aluminum foil, too), and then let the nuggets cook at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until they're heated through and once again crispy on the outside. Be sure not to overcrowd your cooking surface for the maximum amount of crisp, and to be extra safe, use a food thermometer to confirm your nuggets have reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, before chowing down.

If you purchased a bucket of fried chicken at the drive-thru, and are just now realizing that perhaps your eyes were bigger than your stomach, you can easily reheat that fried chicken at home, for a later, just-as-scrumptious meal. The best way to make leftover fried chicken crispy again is to use your air fryer. Preheat the appliance to 370 degrees Fahrenheit, spread the chicken in an even layer with no pieces touching, and heat it for six minutes, flipping halfway through.

If you don't have an air fryer on hand, you can reheat fried chicken in the oven as well, though the breading and skin won't be quite as crispy and moist as if you were to use an air fryer. To reheat cold fried chicken in the oven, allow the meat to come to room temperature, place it on an oven-safe wire rack on a baking sheet, and then pop it into an oven preheated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Let the chicken bake until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

You may have heard horror stories about reheating rice. Food poisoning from improper leftover rice storage and reheating has been dubbed "Reheated Rice Syndrome." Despite the social media storm of worry, though, eating leftover rice isn't all that more dangerous than eating any other leftover foods. The only time you're going to experience food poisoning from eating leftover rice is when you didn't store and reheat it properly. 

The proper way to store leftover rice, such as fast food fried rice, is by ideally stowing it in the fridge within an hour or two of being cooked, and then eating the rice within three to four days, always reheating it to at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit. So now that we have the safety question out of the way, what's the best way to reheat leftover fast food fried rice for the best taste and texture possible? This is one instance where you can actually use your microwave with effective results. Just add a spoonful of water to each cup of rice you're reheating to keep it moist.

Beyond fried rice, there are many more items you might order when you get a hankering for Chinese takeout, and those items deserve proper attention when reheating, too. While Chinese takeout might sometimes taste better the next day, after it's had time to sit in its sauces in the fridge, it doesn't always reheat perfectly, which can leave you with rubbery chicken and broccoli, dry noodles, or soggy sweet and sour or General Tso's chicken.

The best way to reheat Chinese leftovers is to use an air fryer for anything that was previously fried, such as sweet and sour chicken, egg rolls, or wontons. If you don't have an air fryer, go the oven route. If you have a noodle-based dish, break out a wok, or a large saute pan if no wok is handy, and reheat your noodles until they're revived, adding some broth to the pan to ensure they retain their moisture instead of drying out. If you want to add a little more flavor, toss in some oyster sauce and vinegar.

Have you ever tried to reheat eggs? It's not easy. Cooked eggs don't keep well. However, if you have some fast food breakfast on your hands and you really want to enjoy your leftovers a second time around, it is possible to reheat them.

For breakfast sandwiches that do not include eggs, like a sausage biscuit, feel free to reheat that sandwich in the oven until it's piping hot and ready to devour. However, if you're dealing with leftover eggs in any shape or form, you need to head to the microwave, and take some precautions as you do. Properly reheating eggs in the microwave is all about the timing. You never want to put those eggs in the microwave for an extensive period of time. Even 30 seconds could be detrimental. Instead, only microwave the eggs in 15- to 20-second increments, checking as you go. Otherwise, you'll find your eggs overcook incredibly quickly. (If they were part of a breakfast sandwich, remove them from the sandwich and reheat them in the microwave, reheat the rest of the sandwich in the oven, and then combine it all once everything's hot.)

Want to reheat some leftover pancakes that were part of a fast food breakfast? Simply put them on a greased baking sheet in a 350 degrees Fahrenheit oven for five minutes or until hot.

We're not talking deli sandwiches. So long as they're not slathered in mayo or similar condiments that'll turn your bread soggy, you don't need much guidance on how to save those leftovers for later. However, what do you do when you have a hot sandwich that you'd like to reheat, like a hot sub you might pick up from Subway or Jersey Mike's?

The best way to reheat a hot sandwich is in the oven — avoid the microwave. The intense heat will just turn your sandwich bread as hard as a rock. You need a slower, gentler heat source, and you want to retain some of your sandwich's moisture, so the bread stays nice and fluffy. As such, remove any cold ingredients from your sandwich, like lettuce or tomato, and then wrap the remaining sandwich in aluminum foil. Pop the wrapped sandwich into the oven on a baking sheet and let it get nice and toasty for about 10 to 15 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. When it's done, add in any cold ingredients.

Not everyone loves a fried fish sandwich, a la Filet-O-Fish, or seafood fast food chains like Long John Silver's or Captain D's, but that hasn't kept these menu items and franchises from still growing substantial followings. If you count yourself among the fans, you may have had some leftover fried fish in your fridge a time or two. The good news? While, yes, you should never reheat fish in the microwave if you love your family and/or coworkers, you can still heat up that fried fish from your favorite chain, rather than let it go to waste.

The best way to reheat crispy fried fish is in either an air fryer or oven. However, be careful that you don't allow your fish to reheat in either appliance too long, or at too high heat, as that can dry it out. If you're using an oven, place the fish in an oven-safe container with a ventilated lid and bake it at 325 degrees Fahrenheit, checking the fish's internal temperature frequently to ensure you take it out right when it reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit. If you use your air fryer, line the bottom of the basket with parchment paper, but keep it at that same low temperature and only let the fish cook for a few minutes.

While nachos might not be the first fast food you think of, that doesn't change the fact that multiple chains have rolled them out as an offering, including Taco Bell and Moe's Southwest Grill. However, reheated fast food nachos fall prey to a big issue that even fresh nachos can encounter, an issue that can turn your nacho experience from tasty to terrible: sogginess.

To reheat your nachos and achieve maximum crisp, first, remove any wet or cold ingredients, like guac, sour cream, salsa, lettuce, diced tomatoes, etc. Then, once you're left with only the ingredients that you would prefer to be warm, such as the chips, cheese, and any protein, spread the leftover nachos out evenly on a baking sheet and cover them with aluminum foil. Allow the nachos to reheat slowly, at a low temperature (about 250 degrees Fahrenheit) in the oven. Once the chips and protein are warmed through and the cheese is melted again, you're good to add your cold ingredients and chow down.

If you've ever reheated leftover fast food mozzarella sticks in the microwave and found yourself with a stick that's all soggy, with a crumby exterior and rock-hard, dried out interior, you may have decided to swear off saving leftover mozzarella sticks moving forward. However, the key to reheating mozzarella sticks is avoiding the microwave.

The best way to reheat mozzarella sticks and achieve anything close to the texture and taste you'd expect from a fresh batch, is to use your oven or toaster oven. In a convection oven, heat the mozzarella sticks for up to 10 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a toaster oven, go a little hotter, and reheat the mozzarella sticks at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for up to eight or nine minutes. Make sure that you flip the mozzarella sticks half-way through reheating them. You can also try a half-microwave, half-oven method, wherein you microwave them for a few seconds, then finish them off under the broiler so they're crispy — but if you're already turning on the oven, you might as well just complete the entire process there.

Whether you picked it up at Boston Market or KFC, leftover macaroni and cheese from a chain can dry out quickly, the longer you leave it in the fridge. Give that leftover mac 'n cheese a new life by using the proper methods to reheat it the next day.

For most fast food macaroni and cheese, the stovetop method is going to be your best bet. Place the leftover macaroni and cheese in a saucepan on the stove, and add a bit of liquid. Milk is ideal, at a ratio of 1 tablespoon of milk to 1 cup of macaroni and cheese. The milk will keep the macaroni and cheese from drying out as you reheat it. If you're stirring the mac as it heats and you realize it's still getting a little dry, add more milk. Whatever you do, use low to medium heat and don't rush things.

Burrito bowls are undeniably delicious, but they typically come in massive servings, leaving you with a dilemma. Do you throw the rest of the bowl away, or keep it? If you decide on the latter, you might be left wondering how in the world you're going to reheat it later. There are ingredients you'd prefer heated, like rice, beans, and chicken or beef, but then you don't really want to stick the other ingredients in the bowl in the microwave, like lettuce, salsa, sour cream, and guacamole.

The secret to reheating a burrito bowl is separating the cold and warm ingredients the best you can. Put the cold ingredients to one side and keep them for later, but don't include them in the reheating process. Then, when you reheat the warm ingredients, don't just shove them into the microwave. Instead, use a skillet on the stovetop. It only requires a few seconds on medium heat and this method provides better texture and even reheating. When the warm ingredients are fully reheated, reunite them with the cold toppings.