Making Common Leftovers Taste Yummy Again
It’s Thursday night and you’re exhausted from a long week of online culinary arts classes and don’t want to even think about cooking. You know there are plenty of leftovers in the fridge, but think they won’t taste as good as the first time. It doesn’t have to be that way though. If you put in some extra effort, you can make these foods taste delicious again. Here is a guide on how to improve common leftovers:
Pizza
If you’re like most people, you probably heat up your leftover pizza in the microwave. Unfortunately, this method will just make the pizza soggier and chewier. According to Cosmopolitan, a good way to make leftover pizza taste amazing again is to warm it up in a pan. Leave the slice in the preheated pan until the edges are crispy and light brown.
Pasta
To make leftover pasta more appetizing, Real Simple recommends cooking it in the oven. After you have placed the pasta in a shallow dish and covered it with aluminum foil, bake it for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. When the pasta is done, sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese on it to add more flavor.
Mac ‘n’ cheese
Have some leftover mac ‘n’ cheese in the kitchen you’re dying to eat? You can make it taste 100 times better with Shake-n-Bake. Premeditated Leftovers suggests putting the noodles and Shake-n-Bake in a plastic bag and shaking it up. This will make your mac ‘n’ cheese more crunchy and flavorful. If you have extra cheese sauce nearby, pour it over the dish.
Chicken
Since leftover chicken tends to have soggy skin, Matt Duckor, senior editor at Epicurious, recommends completely removing it. However, you shouldn’t throw the skin in the trash. After you drop a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, throw the skin in and cook it for about three to four minutes on each side.
“Remove the now shatteringly crisp chicken skins and cook the leftover chicken in the liquid gold chicken schmaltz that remains,” Duckor explained. “Right now, I love to throw together a radicchio salad with watermelon radishes, parsley, and the cooked chicken, topping the whole thing with a mustard vinaigrette and, yeah, crumbled bits of salty, fatty chicken skin.”
