If you’re looking for a way to reheat pulled pork without drying it out, then this is the blog post for you. It has valuable information on how to do so and will be sure to answer all of your questions about this topic. From the best practices, to the time it takes and even if ovens are good or bad, we cover it all! So stop scrolling and start reading!
How to Reheat Pulled Pork in the Oven
If you cook a large amount of pulled pork at once, the leftovers can make for a quick and easy meal when you need it. Here’s how to warm up your leftover pulled pork in the oven:
Step One: Prepare Your Pork
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease an oven-safe dish with nonstick cooking spray. Include any additional spices or sauce that you might want to add back into the meat, but maintain a 1/2 cup minimum liquid content before baking otherwise it will dry out too quickly. Spread your pork inside of your prepared dish evenly, then cover with tinfoil for about 25 minutes while waiting for your oven to finish preheating. Once heated, pour about 1/2 cup of your liquid content (water, broth, etc.) over the pork and continue baking for another 25 minutes.
Feel free to baste the meat with additional sauce throughout the cooking process if you have extras available.
To prevent your pork from becoming too dry or overcooked during reheating, only take off the tinfoil cover for a short time while cooking– checking on it frequently at first. After a few times checking up on your dish, you’ll be able to leave the foil off for longer as you get used to how fast it cooks at this point.
Step Two: Let it Rest
Once your pork is fully heated, remove from the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes. This allows the pulled pork to finish cooking slowly at a lower temperature. This will also make your pork easier to handle because the juices won’t spill everywhere once you try to take it out of your dish.
Step Three: Slice or Shred Your Pork
If you would like you can slice up your leftover pork into smaller chunks after reheating, which makes it easier to eat as finger food– perfect for lunch boxes, parties, and quick dinners. You can also shred your pork for tacos, quesadillas or even to make a pulled pork sandwich.
Step Four: Eat!
Once you are finished slicing or shredding enjoy your pulled pork immediately while it’s hot– bonus if you have BBQ sauce available to use as dip!
How To Reheat Pulled Pork in a Crock Pot
When it is time to reheat your pulled pork, take it out of the refrigerator and leave it at room temperature for half an hour. Then all you need to do is place it in a crock pot and reheat on the low setting for about two hours.
You can also add extra barbecue sauce while you are heating your pulled pork if you like.
- Step 1: After cooking or smoking the meat, save the drippings in the pan.
- Step 2: After a few minutes of chilling the liquid juices, you can simply eliminate the fat layer.
- Step 3: Combine the fat-free liquid with the meat and put in the freezer or refrigerator.
- Step 4: When the meat is ready to reheat, take it from the refrigerator and season with BBQ Sauce or apple juice.
- Step 5: Place the meat in a slow cooker and cook on low for several hours, or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F.
Pros: This is the best method because it will keep your pulled pork at its peak of deliciousness, won’t overcook or dry out the meat, and requires no additional work on your part (you don’t even need to monitor it). Another benefit is that when you put the crock pot on low heat instead of high, you save energy.
Cons: The only con is that this method takes up to four hours to reheat rather than just one hour if you used a microwave. However, you can reheat pulled pork in a microwave quickly and easily.
How to Reheat Pulled Pork in a Microwave
All you need to do is take your leftover pulled pork out of the refrigerator and place it on a microwavable plate or bowl. Then cover it with another plate or bowl that fits inside but is not touching the sides of the first plate/bowl, and then heat for about two minutes. You can also add barbecue sauce into this method right before you heat your meat, if you like.
- Place the pulled pork in a container that can be microwaved.
- Additionally, liquids such as apple juice may be added. This enables you to reheat the pulled pork while maintaining its moisture content.
- Place the pulled pork in the microwave.
- Then cook the pulled pork for 2 minutes on high, or until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Serve.
Pros: This method is good because it takes just one hour rather than four hours if you reheated your pulled pork in a crock pot (the best method). Also, there won’t be excess water, so your pulled pork won’t have any problems with being too dry.
Cons: This method seems to heat your pulled pork unevenly because the plates/bowls are not lined up and touching one another; also it can become overcooked and dry.
How to Reheat Pulled Pork on the Grill
The best thing about leftover pulled pork is that you can re-heat it and enjoy it all over again. Whether you have pulled pork leftovers from a cookout or store-bought, the process of reheating pulled pork on the grill will produce delicious results.
First, preheat your grill so that it is nice and hot before adding the meat to the fire. While the coals are heating up, use tongs to place individual pieces of leftover pulled pork onto a plate covered with aluminum foil. Wrap each piece tightly in its own little package until no steam escapes when opening them up to check doneness. This practice will keep condensation from falling back into your food as well as prevent burning yourself on hot juices – ouch!
Once the grill is hot, place those packets directly on the grates. You can also use a metal grate or even a large piece of aluminum foil to boost your cooked leftovers right over the coals – just make sure that no juice drips into the fire below!
Over indirect heat, let each side cook for approximately five minutes before checking doneness. If you are unsure if it is done, unwrap one packet and cut down into a thick portion of meat. The pork should be steaming hot all the way through with no pinkness remaining.
In some cases, if your pulled pork was already kind of dry from being overcooked in its original preparation, re-heating will only dry it out further which makes little cubes of cardboard out of your meat. If you are confident that your leftover pulled pork is not overcooked, it can be reheated for a longer period of time on the grill to make it more tender and moist again, though this will probably require an additional marinade.
How to Reheat Pulled Pork in a Pan
This is probably the overall worst reheating method because it may end up overcooking or drying out your meat if you don’t monitor it carefully. But if you do want to use this method, you should spread some barbecue sauce on both sides of your meat before heating it. Then take your meat out of the refrigerator and place it in a pan on medium-high heat for about ten minutes, turning it over every few minutes. Then let it rest for another five minutes before you eat to make sure that your pulled pork is hot throughout, but not overcooked.
Pros: This method also only takes about one hour rather than four hours if you reheated in a crock pot (the best method).
Cons: The main problem with this method is that depending on how much leftover barbecue sauce there is in the dish, your meat may dry out or become overcooked when you put it back in the pan after heating it in the microwave. Also, this method requires monitoring so you don’t burn either side of your meat.
