Reheating Crispy Food with Steam

Reheating crispy food is quick and easy with the Anova Precision Oven. Your leftovers may not reheat as quickly as they would in the microwave, but they won’t get soggy. After reheating a variety of crispy foods, we found that their perfect reheat setting is 350ºF (176.7ºC) with 25% steam. At temperatures that high, steam won’t make the food soggy, but it does speed up the cooking process and replace some of the moisture you’d otherwise lose in a traditional oven. Nearly everything we tested came out perfectly crispy, save for beer-battered fish; it wasn’t as crispy as other items, but it still had some crunch, and this process seemed to bring out the beer flavor, too. The time required will depend on what you’re reheating. Smaller, thinner items like onion straws and french fries may need 10 minutes or less; breaded fish will often be perfect in 15; and larger pieces of meat like fried chicken take closer to 20 minutes to be warm and crisp. Until you get familiar with the perfect time settings for reheating your favorite crispy foods, keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t burn. (Yes, you can absolutely burn things at high temperatures—even with steam.) If you’re reheating breaded meat, fish, or poultry, you can use the probe and set a target temp of 120ºF (48.9ºC).