Lydia Buchtmann from the Food Safety Information Council told SBS.com that you can actually re-heat chicken as much as you want.
The most important thing is that it should be piping hot all the way through.
Chicken must reach 75°C in the middle, according to the Food Standards Agency.
The only accurate way to measure this is with a cooking thermometer.
How to reheat cooked chicken?
Depending on the tools available to you and how you cooked the chicken in the first place, you can reheat your meal a number of ways.
Oven
A crucial step to keeping your chicken delicious is to pre-heat your oven before cooking.
Blot the chicken you want to eat before adding some oil to crisp up the skin.
Food should be heated until it maintains the 75C or above temperature for two minutes.
Make sure it is piping hot all the way through before serving.
Microwave
Microwaves do not always heat food evenly throughout, so this requires a bit more attention than the oven.
Take your food out halfway through cooking and give it a stir to ensure your food is evenly heated.
Cook on full power for at least three minutes, and then let the dish sit for two minutes before serving.
The best way to make sure your food’s ready to eat is by cutting the chicken up into smaller parts.
This ensures that the meat is properly heated all the way through and prevents the centre from being cold, which can happen if it’s a big chunk of chicken.
Hob
Add oil or butter to the hot pan before adding the chicken, and then cover if you want to maintain moisture.
Heat for around five minutes, flipping halfway to ensure the meat is thoroughly heated through.
If the meat has been separated into smaller pieces, make sure they aren’t overlapping or touching each other.
Also, adding a few drops of water or chicken stock can ensure that it doesn’t dry out.
Can you refreeze defrosted chicken?
If the chicken was raw when frozen, and you fully defrosted and cooked it, then yes — you can freeze the leftovers after cooking.
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If the chicken — or any meat — has thawed in the refrigerator, then it can be refrozen raw within two days of thawing.
If it was thawed in the microwave or in water then for good food safety do not refreeze without cooking it first.
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