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How To Keep Chicken Warm After Cooking (Complete guide)

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You are having a party, and there are a lot of items to cook. You may want to prepare your special chicken dish ahead of time before the guests arrive. However, the chicken should be served hot. It is important not only to preserve the flavor of the food but also to ensure the safety of the diners.

You may keep the chicken warm in a variety of ways. To keep the chicken warm, use an oven, a slow cooker, or a chafing dish. There are other simple solutions as well, such as wrapping your chicken dish with aluminum foil sheets.

In this article, I will share some methods with you to keep chickens warm for hours. Before we get started, let’s find out how long a chicken dish can be left out at room temperature and why it’s important to consume warm food.

The Issue With Cold Chicken

You can definitely eat chicken cold. But it will not taste as good as warm chicken. And keeping it out for too long can actually cause you to get sick. 

A lot of home cooks do not know that leaving cooked chicken or any cooked meat for more than two hours at room temperature is dangerous. It can be even shorter if the room temperature is above 90 degrees F. When cooked chicken is left out at a temperature between 45 degrees F to 140 degrees F, bacteria rapidly grow in the dish. 

As a result, you and your guests will have a high possibility of food poisoning. Therefore, keeping the chicken just warm is not enough. You must make sure that the chicken stays above 145 degrees F until you are ready to dig in. 

Different Methods To Keep Chicken Warm After Cooking

You may have faced a situation where your chicken is ready but the guests have not arrived. So, how can you keep the chicken warm? Fortunately, there are many ways to keep any chicken dish warm for a long time. 

I have been using a few methods depending on the type of chicken dish and how long I want it to stay warm. Here are some techniques you can follow as well. 

Wrapping with Aluminum Foil

Using aluminum foil to keep chicken dishes warm is one of the easiest methods. However, this method works for a limited time. Aluminum foil can keep chicken warm for 20 to 30 minutes. 

This method is perfect for keeping chicken roasts or the whole baked chicken warm at room temperature. Take the aluminum foil sheets and wrap the roast or whole chicken loosely. The meat will remain warm for a while, allowing the juice and chicken stock to disperse evenly. But remember to serve the chicken within 30 minutes or so. 

You can also use aluminum foil to keep chicken stew, soup, or curry warm. For that, you should put the chicken in a casserole or crockpot and cover it with a lid. Then wrap the casserole completely with aluminum foil. 

Using an Electric Crock-pot or Slow Cooker 

Whenever I have to prepare a lot of dishes for a party, I cook some dishes ahead of time. Hence, sometimes I need to keep some food warm for hours. In such cases, you can use an electric crock-pot or slow cooker to keep your chicken warm for up to four hours. 

Your slow cooker may have a keep warm setting, which is great. If it does not have the setting, you can set the cooker to a low cooking setting. Transfer your chicken dish to the slow cooker right after it reaches the cooking temperature.

If you are concerned about getting the dish overcooked, you can put the dish in the pot before it reaches the cooking point. This way, it will slowly get cooked in the cooker. Use a food thermometer to check the temperature regularly to make sure it is above 145 degrees F. 

Using an Oven 

You can keep any type of chicken warm in an oven for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the type, size, and amount of the dish. Some ovens have warm settings, and others can have a separate warming drawer. These settings are for a temperature of 170 degrees F to 250 degrees F. 

If you do not have a warm setting, set the temperature of the oven to 200 to 250 degrees F. Depending on the dish, you may use baking sheets, aluminum foil, a baking dish, or an oven-proof saucepan for warming the chicken in the oven. Heating the dish for more than 30 minutes will affect the taste and texture. So, take it out within 25 to 30 minutes.

You can also keep fried chicken warm and crispy in the oven. Set the oven at 200 to 250 degrees F. It is an ideal temperature that will not let your fried chicken get soggy. Then take a baking rack or oven rack and place a baking sheet over it. 

Right after frying the chicken, place it on the rack and cover it loosely with foil paper. This way, the extra moisture can get out. At the same time, the foil paper will retain some heat. For 20 to 30 minutes, the fried chicken will have the ideal level of crispiness on the outside and tenderness on the inside. 

BBQ chickens can also be kept warm in an oven. After barbecuing, wrap each chicken part with aluminum foil. Next, place them in the 150 to 200-degree preheated oven. When you are ready to serve the chickens, heat them in the oven at a higher temperature of 250 degrees F for 10 minutes. 

Cooler or Insulated Bag 

What if you want to carry your special chicken dish to a picnic? How can you retain the heat during the journey? On such occasions, you can use a cooler or insulated carrier to keep your chicken warm. 

When the chicken is almost cooked, pour some boiled water into the cooler and close the lid for 20 to 30 minutes. It will preheat your cooler so that the chicken does not lose much heat. When the chicken is cooked, throw out the water from the cooler and dry it. Now, place a kitchen towel in the cooler or line the inside with aluminum foil. 

Transfer the chicken to a pot and wrap it with aluminum foil or newspaper. After that, place it on top of the towels and cover it with another towel. You can also put some heating pads inside to keep the food warm for longer. 

Can You Reheat Fried Chicken?

Sometimes, it is not possible to retain the warmth of the chicken. It gets cold and loses its freshness. However, you can reheat the leftovers if they have been out of the danger zone. You can refrigerate the chicken for the next day. But it should not have been left at room temperature for more than two hours. 

It is easy to reheat any chicken dish. Use a stove, oven, microwave oven, or even air fryer to reheat different chicken dishes.

Unfortunately, you will not have the fresh taste. It gets even worse for fried chicken because the outer crust loses its crispiness and becomes soggy. But if you know how to reheat fried chicken, you can get back some of its crispiness. 

Here is what you need to do: 

  • Preheat the oven at a temperature of 300 to 375 degrees F. 
  • Then place a baking or wire rack inside to put the chicken in the oven. Take the leftover chickens and place them on the rack in single layers. 
  • You can apply some butter on the sides of the chicken to add some moisture. 
  • After that, bake the chicken for 15 to 20 minutes. If you bake for longer than 20 minutes, the chicken will get rubbery and dry. 

You may not have the taste of freshly fried chicken, but it will be quite crispy.

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