The Best Ways to Reheat Leftover Pizza (And the Worst)

I'm Frank Proto, professional chef and color instructor,

and today I'm gonna show you how to get last night's pizza

hot and crispy.

This is how to reheat pizza 101.

[drum blares]

Even though I do enjoy a cold slice of pizza once in a while

the dough gets tough,

the cheese congeals,

so I'm gonna show you a handful of methods

to bring that crust back to crisp

and that cheese back to melty.

[bright guitar music]

One of the most common methods is the microwave.

Using a microwave is not my favorite method to reheat pizza,

but it gets the job done.

I've heard a trick that if you put a glass of water

in the microwave with the pizza,

it steams it and makes the cheese really melty.

It's hot, it's sizzly.

The cheese looks like it's melted,

but at the end of the day it feels a little rubbery

and floppy to me.

It's definitely hot, but it is not crisp.

There's some moisture on the plate.

That moisture, I feel like has made this

kinda mushy and floppy.

Just to see if there's a difference,

I'm gonna take another slice

and microwave it without the water in the microwave.

It looks a little bit better.

Looks like the cheese got a little caramelized.

The cheese definitely got overcooked

and got a little chewy.

On Frank's Pizza Scale I give it a one out of five.

[bright guitar music]

I do not have an air fryer at home,

but I've heard it's a great way to reheat pizza.

This is literally the first time I'm ever using one,

so we're gonna see how it does.

If you line the basket with foil, it's easier cleanup.

Air fryers are like mini convection ovens.

They blow hot air around the product,

crisping it from all sides.

Pepperoni's crispy,

crust has some crisp to it, I like that.

It is a little floppy still,

so it doesn't feel like the bottom crust is crispy,

but the top crust definitely got crispy

and the cheese looks like it got melty.

[upbeat drum music]

Not bad, not bad at all.

I'm gonna give this a three out of five

on the Frank pizza scale.

Good job, air fryer. Good job.

[bright guitar music]

This is not the method I do at home,

but I've heard it's really effective.

We're gonna use a non-stick pan.

First step, a little bit of oil in your pan.

I'm gonna go with like a medium heat

and just rub it in there.

Get some of that oil on the bottom.

The trick here is that we wait for the crust

to start crisping up

and then we add a little water

and then put the lid on so the cheese melts.

Be sure you don't soak the pizza with the water,

we just want to get enough to cause some steam.

Okay, the cheese looks sufficiently melted.

We got a little crispiness on the bottom.

Looking at it right now, the top is still soft and squishy.

The crust did not get crisp on top.

The bottom sounds nice and crispy.

The cheese is a little melty

but I think it's still a little on the firm side.

[pizza crunches]

It's got some real crisp on the bottom.

The cheese is melty even though I didn't think it was.

My only problem is, is that the top of the crust

is kinda squishy and not really that great.

On a scale of one to five,

I give this a four on the Frank pizza meter.

[bright guitar music]

Now this next method is a little ambitious.

You're gonna need the right tools and a little bit of time.

The next method is using a cast iron skillet.

The key to getting your pizza crispy on the bottom

and melting on top of the cast iron

is to preheat the oven and preheat your pan in that oven.

Once you put your pizza in the pan,

it starts the crisping right away.

Cover it with a piece of foil.

With this method, we're gonna ensure

that we get a crispy bottom

and the top doesn't get too brown.

I'm gonna bake the pizza in the oven for about 10 minutes

and we'll take it out and see how it looks.

All right, on first look, it looks pretty good.

Little bit of floppiness going on,

but it feels kinda crisp, so not so bad.

The top looks melty.

The pepperoni is nice and hot.

[pizza crunches]

It's got some really good crunch to it.

Here's the thing though, I have to get my cast iron out.

I have to preheat the oven and it takes way too long.

On the Frank pizza scale

I give the cast iron method a three.

[bright guitar music]

Using the oven is a classic method to reheat pizza.

I preheated my oven to 375.

I have a sheet tray with parchment.

You can also use foil if you have that.

The parchment or the foil stops the cheese

from burning onto the tray.

It's also easy cleanup.

The pizza's been in the oven for about seven minutes.

The crust is a little soft, has a little crispiness to it.

It seems to be holding up.

It's not really flopping over too much.

The cheese looks melted.

The pepperoni looks like it's reheated really well.

[pizza crunches]

It has a little crunch on the bottom.

The cheese is nice and melty and soft.

On the Frank pizza scale

I give the oven method a four out of five.

[bright guitar music]

This method is the waffle iron.

Now, this sounds ridiculous to me.

We're gonna give it a shot, see how it turns out.

I'm gonna do two slices

and based on my research,

they said to put a little oil on the base.

In our preheated waffle iron,

we're gonna put these two together like a sandwich

so that they don't burn onto the waffle iron.

The pizza's been in the waffle iron for about seven minutes,

and if you look, you can see some sizzling.

Let's see what we got here.

Definitely crispy on both sides.

Let's open it up and look.

We got a little cheese pull there, that ain't bad.

No syrup, no sausage, I'm giving it a bite.

[pizza crunches]

It's got some good rigidity there.

The cheese is melty, the crust is crispy.

I don't think that's bad at all.

On a scale of one to five, I give the waffle iron a four.

[bright guitar music]

This method to reheat pizza is the toaster oven.

This has been preheating for a few minutes.

Let's pop it in there

and we'll let the pizza do its thing for about 10 minutes.

All right.

I'm gonna tell you I'm looking at this

and I'm already happy.

The crust has some crispiness to it

and that's what's exciting me.

Based on the look of this,

I think I know what the rating's gonna be,

but we're gonna wait till I taste it

to give it the true results.

The cheese is melty.

The pepperoni got a little crispy.

The edges and the crust are crispy, the bottom's crispy.

This is definitely a five out of five

on the Frank pizza scale.

[cheering]

We went through a lot of methods of reheating pizza today.

There were some that were good,

there were some that were bad,

but at the end of the day,

you still have hot pizza and that ain't half bad.

[upbeat drum music]