Reheating in the oven: why and how?

Question

I recently made some pan-fried chicken breast halves. When I wanted to reheat the leftovers I tried to do it in the conventional oven instead of the microwave oven as usual. Following some instructions on the Internet, I preheated to 450 °F, put two chicken breast halves from the refrigerator on a baking sheet, covered with aluminum foil, and then put in the oven for 10 min. In the end, the chicken was pretty tepid. I resorted to putting them in the microwave oven under plastic wrap for 1 min and they were fine.

This raises two questions for me:

1. What did I miss out on by using the microwave in the end instead of sticking to the oven?
2. How should I have heated these up in the oven instead of what I did? I worry about overcooking or burning the food.

Answer 1

1. You miss out on nothing. You do risk overcooking in the Microwave, as all you need to do is reheat, so be careful with the timing

I use a glass bowl with lid, or reusable silicone lid instead of messy plastic wrap. Usually much nicer that way, as it can sweat in plastic wrap and go mushy

2. Re-heating in the oven is not ideal for delicate food. OK for Pizza, but for food that can go tough quickly is tricky. Either use the nukelator or a medium hot skillet. The skillet will only work if there is plenty of sauce or oil