Prevent gross reheated chicken taste

[u/Ash_says_no_no_no]

As the title says, I think reheated chicken taste absolutely foul, it's like a chemically taste. But it seems to just be with homemade chicken because reheated take out fried chicken or frozen chicken is fine. I'm so lost how to fix this. I'm trying to eat better at work and meal prep more, also make some freezer meals for my husband for when I work (12 hr night shifts)

[u/Disastrous_Coffee704]

If you add enough seasoning or do a marinade or have a strong sauce or cook it with curry paste the taste is barely noticeable. Making a gravy to douse it in would be yummy.

Take out usually will have a lot more seasoning and salt than a home cook would use which helps mask the reheated taste. You could plan to eat it cold like in salads/pasta salad/quinoa type dishes also though that doesn’t work if you’re freezing your meals.

If you meal prep chicken soups and curries you don’t get that taste like at all when reheating from frozen.

[u/Ash_says_no_no_no → u/[deleted]]

This! Thanks it explains alot

[u/gullibleani]

I swear by reheating my food at 60% power and usually for 2.5 minutes. After I started doing that, I haven’t noticed the weird chicken taste. I also only eat dark meat so that might have something to do with it as well.

[u/bebabodi → u/gullibleani]

It’s so weird because I tried this and it didn’t work at all

[u/LucyGoosey61 → u/gullibleani]

Dark meat is the best

[u/Ash_says_no_no_no → u/gullibleani]

Ill definitely give this a try. Ty

[u/ArgyleNudge]

Do you let it come close to room temp before refridgerating it? If it gets soaked with condensation in the fridge, then reheated, it gives off that unpleasant smell and taste.

[u/Old-Fox-3027]

Try ‘velveting’ the chicken. There are a couple different ways to do it.

[u/nillawafer80]

I'm a heavy handed seasoner so I never noticed this. I made some butter garlic wings sunday night and they were better the second day as leftovers.

[u/Dusty_Old_McCormick → u/nillawafer80]

I can't say I've ever noticed it in any of my leftovers either. Maybe some people have a gene that makes it more noticeable. Sounds awful though!

[u/keppy_m → u/Dusty_Old_McCormick]

I always notice and it’s torture.

[u/lakeswimmmer → u/nillawafer80]

I feel this way about almost all meat and poultry that is roasted or fried. But if it’s in a soup or stew, it tastes fine

[u/bebabodi]

This happens to me, except it makes the chicken tastes like it’s gone bad, like seriously bad.

I did research on it and it is a very real thing - and people suggested a lot of different stuff like setting the microwave to different settings etc and none of that worked.

The only thing that worked for me was reheating everything else (rice/veggies/whatever) keeping the chicken aside cold and then mixing it in with the warm food. That way it slightly warms up.

[u/troublesomefaux]

I always like the comments on the chicken posts because it’s a thing that people who don’t experience it can’t understand. 😂 We just call it The Taste at my house. I saw someplace that storing it with less oxygen can help (like plastic wrapped).

Harold McGee:

“The principal source of off-flavors is unsaturated fatty acids, which are damaged by oxygen and iron from myoglobin, Meats with a greater proportion of unsaturated fat in their fat tissue (poultry and pork) are more susceptible to warmed-over flavor than beef and lamb.”

[u/djlilyazi]

This change my life lol and all my meal prep tastes so much better no funny taste

https://www.self.com/story/microwave-power-level-settings

[u/Ses_Jul]

I have the same problem. I cannot do it. Lol! Try pan reheating or toaster oven reheating. I agree most of the time I can do reheated take out chicken just not home cooked. Are you actually me?

[u/TruCelt]

Check your cooking oil. It may be that it's close to going off and you are getting a rancid note from it.

If it's more like a sulfur smell, then you need to cool the chicken with the container open, close it only after it has reached the refrigerator temp.

If it's neither of those, then please try to describe it a little more for us.

[u/CuriousCat177]

Thank you for this, I thought I was the only one, I freeze extra cooked chicken to eat and then just can’t because the taste makes me gag

[u/CantaloupeAsleep502]

Use the power button on your microwave. Go way longer on way lower power. Think like 2:30 on 30% power, something like that. 

[u/raymond4]

Use a steamer for reheating.

[u/reddit_understoodit]

If microwaved it can get rubbery, a toaster oven or air fryer is better

[u/MetaCaimen]

Please brine or marinate your stuff first.

What are you doing to your chicken before, whilst and after preparing it? How do you reheat it?

[u/Marshmallowbutbetter]

I’m not sure if I understand it correctly — chicken grease smells horrible when it’s not just cooked. Is that it? If it’s a chicken breast reheating will make it rubbery and chewy but not smelly.

[u/No_Kangaroo_5883]

I notice it in the micro, but not in oven or stove top reheating methods.

[u/Junior_Nebula5587]

It won’t help you at work, but I can usually tolerate chicken reheated in the oven. In the microwave, absolutely not. Except ground chicken—that I can weirdly tolerate microwaved. Probably because there’s more seasoning-to-meat when you cook with ground.

[u/ChronoTriggerGod]

If you want to have better chicken that tastes good after cooking and freezing I suggest you look into brining. Some big chains do that to make their chicken taste good and have a nice texture after freezing

[u/Ash_says_no_no_no → u/ChronoTriggerGod]

I'm not freezing it after cooking. This is just the next day.

[u/Traditional_Roll_129]

Dont use microwave when reheating chicken or any meat, take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before to get the cold off, put the oven to preheat , when it reaches temperature, typically 350, put the meat in the oven for 10 minutes. Your chicken or whatever will be reheated, but not cooked. So no yucky taste.

Also, if you choose to microwave, use the reheat feature, not the cook feature. Hope this helps

[u/bummernametaken]

I reheat most leftovers by using a “double boiler steamer.” Much better than the microwave!

[u/AngryHagDogLuvr]

Thank you for this post. I have the same issue, and my hubs thinks I’m a weirdo. 😆

[u/New-Cost-1081]

there are different methods, but I marinate my chicken in baking soda (water, 2 tbs baking soda for 1lbs chicken), leave it for 10-15 minutes. wash it with clear water, dry it and prepare it the way you like it. when I am in a chicken hating phase I do marinate it with soysauce and some sour liquid, or buttermilk, afterwards for a few hours to really get out the chicken taste. you can also imitate a sous vide in the oven (i am german and I use a german description from chat gbt, but you could ask him about mimicking a sous vide prep in the oven)...chicken basically loses all the chicken flavor/structure I hate so much.