The Absolute Best Oven Hack For Reheating Leftovers

Depending on who you are, leftover food can be the best or worst thing. To some, diving into that container of leftover Chinese food is the best part of your next day, while others think reheated food never quite tastes the same, but in the spirit of avoiding food waste, force themselves to eat it.

Food waste is a major problem around the globe. Worldwide, people waste up to 1.3 billion tons of food annually. According to The World Counts, that is about a third of the entire world's annual food supply. The United States ranks fifth on the list of countries with the most food waste, wasting 19.36 million tons per year, per Statista. (China ranks the highest with nearly 92 million metric tons annually.)

But what if part of the reason so much food goes to waste is that there just isn't a great reheating process for certain dishes? It turns out there is a trick for perfectly reheated leftovers — and all it takes is a simple kitchen tool.

All you need for the best leftovers is a pizza stone. And if you don't have one, you can purchase a decent one for right around $20. Food Network says pizza stones work by absorbing and retaining heat in a style that mimics a brick oven. As a result, the stone helps cook the pizza dough evenly and to the right doneness; it essentially provides an extra push to get that perfect pizza dough that an oven can't give you on its own.

According to Real Simple, the pizza stone has another use: reheating leftover food. Since the stone retains heat, it creates the perfect surface to turn soggy foods crispy and help leftover items get back to their original texture. Pancakes, for example, are crisp yet fluffy when they're first cooked, but they lose that crispness when they sit in the refrigerator. The stone will help revive that crisp while keeping the center fluffy. 

The same goes for other foods, such as chicken nuggets or roasted veggies, that have a crisper outside with a softer inside. It would likely work for French fries, too — and we all know that properly reheating fries can be an impossible code to crack.

There are some food items that will taste delicious with just a quick 30-second heat in the microwave; pasta, Chinese food, and grilled chicken will generally taste fine. However, if you're not interested in spending money on a pizza stone and don't already have one, there are other methods you can use to improve some of your reheated dishes.

Better Homes & Gardens recommends heating chicken breast on the stove with a bit of broth; the added broth will help the chicken retain moisture while it cooks. For fried foods, such as fried chicken, the air fryer is a surefire way to crisp it up, but you can also use the broil setting on an oven (and flip it halfway through), or the toast setting on a toaster oven.

When it comes to French fries, you can certainly try the pizza stone method, but The Pioneer Woman recommends heating your oven to a high temperature, around 425 degrees Fahrenheit, then heating the fries on a baking sheet for about 10 minutes. The air fryer works as an alternative here, too.