Fajitas on the table

Can You Reheat Fajitas? (Tasty Tips)

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Do you have leftover fajitas and are now wondering if you can reheat them, or will that just ruin them? This is a surprisingly commonly asked question. As much as leftover fajitas can be enjoyed cold, can you reheat them without ruining the dish?

You definitely can reheat fajitas, and you can do so very quickly. You can warm up your filling in the microwave or on a stovetop, and you can warm up your shell on a dry pan on the stove or in the microwave, but always reheat the filling and shell separately for the best results.

Let us look at some of the best ways that you can reheat your fajitas and how to reheat them without them losing any of their flavor or texture.

Can You Reheat Fajitas?

You definitely can reheat your fajitas; it may just be slightly more of a process than warming up some soup, though, as there are many different ingredients that make up this dish.

It is important to know that though you can reheat your fajitas, you should always separate the filling of your fajitas from the shell (the taco shell or the corn tortilla) before you warm them up to ensure you get the best results.

The fillings of your fajita are going to warm up differently to the shell, and the fillings are more than likely covered in juices from the meat and vegetables or even a sauce of some sort.

If the fillings are heated up with the shell, there are two things that may go wrong:

  1. The shell can become soggy – if you warm up your filling while it is in the shell, all of the sauce is going to heat up and start to cook into the shell, which will, unfortunately, make it soggy.
  1. The shell can become dry – the shell will heat up much faster than the fillings will, and when they are heated up together, the shell will continue to be heated up until the filling inside is hot. This can cause the shell to lose its moisture and make it incredibly dry.

So even though you can reheat your fajitas, just remember to heat up the filling and the shell separately.

How Do You Reheat Fajitas?

There are two ways that you can choose from when it comes to reheating your fajitas:

On The Stove

Tortillas on the stove

When you choose to reheat your fajitas on the stove, you will generally get the best results out of your meal.

Reheating food on the stove tends to leave your food less dry and more flavorful, as it heats up the food slowly and evenly.

You can put your shell in a dry pan, and over a medium to high heat, let it get warm again on each side.

Once the shell is hot, put it on a plate and put another plate over it to keep your shell warm while you heat up the fillings.

Next, pour all your fillings into the same pan that you heated up the shell in. Over medium-high heat, keep stirring the mixture until everything has been heated up to your preferred temperature.

You can then assemble your fajita again and enjoy it – hot and as good as new.

In The Microwave

Woman with a microwave
Microwave is quick and easy, but beware of dry fajitas

The microwave is definitely the easier option to go for; however, you may end up with your fajita being slightly more dry than usual, so if you have any extra sauce available, be sure to keep it close just in case.

To heat up your fajitas in the microwave, you will again first separate the filling from the shell.

Put the shell on a plate, and place it in the microwave. Not all microwaves are the same or have the same heat settings, so it is hard to give a time limit on how long to leave your shell in the microwave.

You can usually leave your shell in the microwave on its highest heat setting between 30 to 60 seconds; put it in, and after 30 seconds, check on it.

If it still needs to go for longer, put it in for another 30 seconds, and if it is fine, take it out and put it aside with another plate covering it to keep it hot.

Next, you can put your fajita filling mix into a bowl and put it in the microwave for a minute to start with.

Once the minute is done, you can take out the bowl, mix the fajita filling and test whether it is hot enough or if you would like it to go for longer.

If it is hot enough, then you can leave it out. However, if you would like it to be hotter, place it back in the microwave and let it keep going for another 30 seconds to a minute, depending on just how much hotter it needs to be.

Once the filling is at the heat you want it at, take a bite of the mixture and see if it is dry or not. If it is dry, you may want to add a sauce of your choice into the filling and mix it in well to add some more moisture back in.

Next, you can go ahead and add your filling into your shell and enjoy your fajitas again.

How Do You Reheat Fajitas Without Them Going Dry?

One concern about reheating food is that you really do not want it to go dry, so how do you reheat your fajitas without them going dry?

If your fajita filling is a little drier, to begin with, reheating it will most likely add to that dryness – so here is what you can do to avoid this:

When cooking on the stovetop, you can add more of the original sauces that you cooked with in the first place.

For example, if you added some hot sauce and some soy sauce to your fajita filling when you were cooking it, you can add a little bit more to it when heating it up again.

This will add some more liquid back into the filling, and when it heats up and loses some moisture in the steam, it will not make the filling dry because you would have already replaced that lost liquid.

If you are reheating your fajita filling in the microwave, you can do two things.

You can add a mug filled halfway with water into the microwave next to your bowl that has the filling in.

Doing this will add moisture back into your filling as moisture is being taken out, which will prevent your filling from getting dry; however, you may lose some flavor this way as you are replacing any lost/evaporated sauce with water.

Or, you could also use the same method used when cooking on the stovetop while cooking in the microwave.

You can add more of the sauce or sauces that were originally used in the fajita filling into the filling now and put it in the microwave to cook.

This time though, you will need to take the bowl out every 20 to 30 seconds and mix it in to make sure that the sauce spreads and cooks through evenly.

Conclusion

It may have been a concern for you that if you reheated your fajitas that they may have lost their flavor or texture or become dry; thankfully, that is not the case.

You can very easily reheat your fajitas in a way that will keep them yummy and tastes almost as good as new.

Just be sure that whatever the method you use to reheat your fajitas, you are aware of how to get the absolute best results out of your fajita.

Be sure to reheat the fajita filling and the fajita shell separately to avoid the shell going dry or going soggy; also, to avoid the filling not getting hot enough when warmed up in the shell.

Be sure to keep enough liquid in your fajita filling when reheating it to make sure that it does not go dry and that it does not lose too much moisture.

And most of all, be sure to enjoy round two of your fajitas once they are hot and ready to go!

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