Best Way to Reheat Turkey Without It Drying Out

Turkey is a favorite staple in American dinners, most especially during Thanksgiving. If cooked well, the meat is tender, moist, and juicy. But when you’ve got some leftover, it can be a challenge to make it taste palatable again.

Learning the best way to reheat turkey is very important in making your leftover turkey taste great once again.

Best Way to Reheat Turkey

Sure, it’s possible to serve the leftover turkey cold, after all the stuffing is removed. But if you are craving for a hot turkey meal after a long day at work, reheating your leftover turkey in oven is the best way to go. Although the meat will no longer have the same texture and flavor as when it was first cooked, if you know the way to reheating turkey properly, you can still make the bird taste juicy and yummy.

How to Reheat a Smoked Turkey

We all love to indulge in mouthwatering smoked turkey meat even when it’s just some leftover. However, achieving the perfect results when reheating the meat requires a lot of time and patience. But don’t worry because reheat smoked turkey shouldn’t be that complicated.

Here are the steps to follow, as recommended by the experts.

Thing You Need:

• Oven
• Cooking oil
• Aluminum foil
• Baking pan

Instructions:

1. It’s important that your turkey is at room temperature before reheating. So whether you’ve frozen the meat or you just place it in the fridge, make sure you let it rest for a bit after you take it out of the freezer or refrigerator.
2. While the turkey rests, preheat the oven to 325°F.
3. Brush or spray the turkey meat with cooking oil. This can help to make the skin crispy and the meat moist and juicy.
4. Then wrap the turkey meat with aluminum foil and arrange in a roasting pan.
5. Place the pan inside the preheated oven to start reheating.
6. The amount of time to reheat your turkey in the oven will greatly vary, but the basic rule is five minutes for every pound of turkey meat. Nevertheless, using a meat thermometer is the best way to ensure that the meat has reached the ideal temperature, which is usually 165°F.

How to Reheat Turkey without Drying It Out

In order not to dry out the turkey as you reheat the meat, it is best to cut the meat into several pieces. Roast the meat of the previous day and leave it to cool. Store in the refrigerator overnight, and before reheating, bring it to room temperature.

Thing You Need:

• Oven
• Kitchen knife
• Baking pan
• Aluminum foil

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F
2. Cut the turkey meat into large pieces, separating the wings, breast, legs, etc.
3. Arrange them in the baking sheets and cover with aluminum foil.
4. Reheat the meat pieces at 325°F, which usually takes around 20-30 minutes.
5. Take the foil and broil for another minute or two, until the skin is crispy enough for your taste.

How to Reheat a Whole Turkey without Drying It Out

Reheating whole turkey don’t forget to cover it with foil before placing it in the oven.

Thing You Need:

• Oven
• Aluminum foil
• Instant read Thermometer

Instructions:

1. Set the temperature of the oven to 275°F
2. Put the bird in the baking pan and Cover the turkey with foil.
3. Reheat the meat depending on its weight. Again, it should be 5 minutes for every pound of meat. If you’re reheating a 10-lb turkey, then that should take 50 minutes
4. Check the meat with a thermometer before you take it out of the oven.

How to Reheat a Fully Cooked Turkey

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To reheat a turkey that’s fully cooked,

Thing You Need:

• Oven
• Kitchen knife
• Pot
• Casserole dish or baking pan
• Aluminum foil
• Some chicken broth

Instructions:

1. Start by carving the bird. Once the meat has been sliced, arrange it in a casserole dish.
2. Using a pot, heat some chicken broth. Consider adding herbs in the broth, such as sage and thyme to make your turkey dish more flavorful.
3. When the chicken broth is hot enough and tastes according to your liking, pour it over the turkey meat that’s on the casserole dish.
4. Cover it with foil and place in the oven.
5. Cook for up to 15 minutes. This should result in a juicy and flavorful turkey dish.

Store Leftover Turkey

You definitely don’t want your turkey leftover to smell rancid. To avoid this, proper storage is the key. Below are the steps to follow when it comes to ensuring safe storage of your leftover turkey and keep it from smelling bad.

After your meal, make sure you refrigerate any leftover meat within two hours to prevent bacteria growth.
Store the meat in shallow container or pan to minimize cooling time. Doing this also helps to prevent the food from spending a lot of time at an unsafe temperature.

As much as possible, store the turkey on its own. Store the stuffing and sides in a separate container.
Before reheating the leftover meat, have some sides to go with it to make the dish more flavorful. You can have mash potatoes etc.

Clear Your Doubt

What temperature do you reheat turkey?

Reheating turkey is to set the temperature of your oven to at least 325° F and reheat the meat until it reaches an internal temperature of 165° F. Check the meat’s internal temperature using a food thermometer. To keep the meat moist, add a small amount of water or broth and cover it with foil.

Can you cook a turkey the day before and reheat?

Yes, it’s possible to cook the turkey a day before Thanksgiving and reheat it on the following day. Simply roast the bird the way you want it. Once the internal meat temperature reaches 170°F, remove it from the oven and leave it to rest for around 10 minutes, but make sure it’s covered. In a separate container, pour the turkey drippings that come from the roasting pan and include all those bits of pieces at the bottom. Use it for gravy on the following day.

When Thanksgiving comes, take the turkey out of the fridge and leave it to sit until it reaches room temperature. Place the turkey in a roasting pan and cover it with foil. Reheat at 350°F, which should take up to 55 minutes or until the internal meat temperature reaches 165°F.

Related: Where to Put Thermometer in turkey

Joost Nusselder, the founder of Lakeside Smokers is a content marketer, dad and loves trying out new food with BBQ Smoking (& Japanese food!) at the heart of his passion, and together with his team he's been creating in-depth blog articles since 2016 to help loyal readers with recipes and cooking tips.