How to reheat pulled pork

If you are someone who loves a good barbeque, you’ve probably already tried the pulled pork and are a massive fan of it. Pulled pork is a versatile dish that can go as a main dish and as a side well on any kind of occasion. Pull pork is so popular among barbeque lovers because it is a very easy yet delicious dish that can be seasoned with any kind of flavor you prefer.

And because of this popularity, pulled pork is often the one dish out of an eventful dinner or lunch that gets left over in significant amounts. If you ever find yourself in such a predicament, you’ve indeed thought about how best to reheat the dish to its former glory and enjoy it as it was enjoyed initially.

Well, this article will talk about the different ways you can reheat pork, so read till the end to find which method will be best suited for you.

Using the Sous Vide method:

One unusual yet straightforward way that you can reheat pulled pork is by using the sous vide method. This method requires you to dunk a vacuum-sealed bag of pulled pork into a pot of boiling water, which will reheat the dish.

“Sous vide” means “under vacuum,” so obviously, the meat needs to be stored in a vacuum-sealed bag first in order to use this method of reheating your meat. There is good and bad news that comes with this method. The bad news is that you will need a vacuum sealer.

The good news is that you can find sous vide machines in many places, and the device can be used to cook not only your vacuum-sealed pork but also other frozen items. But it is recommended that you use this for frozen food only when you don’t have the appropriate 24 hours time to unfreeze your food correctly.

Using the Oven method:

The most common way to reheat pulled pork is by using an oven. As long as your kitchen has the facility to use a fully functioning oven, reheating pulled pork in an oven will be the easiest and stress-free method.

Here is a step-by-step on how you can get perfectly reheated pulled pork using an oven:

1. Always preheat the oven. The ideal temperature to preheat is 250 degrees Fahrenheit. The goal is to slowly reheat the pork to avoid overcooking or causing the juices to dry out and be left with dried meat.
2. Please take out your pulled pork from where you were storing it into an oven-safe pan.
3. Add any remaining gravy or juices from the dish if you have any left. This will ensure that your meat stays as juicy as possible after reheating.
4. Cover the pot with foil to retain the heat as well as evenly distribute the temperature in the oven.
5. You can keep this dish in the oven for however long you prefer, but remember that since it is already cooked, you won’t need to keep it inside the oven for longer than the time it took to cook it in the first place. Ideally, it is perfectly reheated once the meat reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and you can enjoy your dish.

Make sure you toss the meat around and mix it up properly before serving. You can even add any seasoning or gravy if you want once it is out of the oven.

Using the Crockpot/ stovetop method:

Another similar method, if you don’t have an oven, is by using a crockpot. It doesn’t take as long as it takes an oven to reheat your dish and is a very quick and easy technique for reheating meat.

This is the best method to use for reheating pulled pork if you have a lot of the juices from the meat left. If you don’t have any, you might want to add in some type of liquid that will retain the moisture in the dish.

Here are the steps to follow when using a crockpot:

• Open the pot and add your leftover pulled pork inside it. Don’t forget to add the juices if you have any left.
• Keep the setting on “warm” and allow the pot to do its job for 2-3 hours.
• Once this is done, you can check the inside of the meat to see if it is 165 degrees Fahrenheit. If it is, then your meat is ready to be devoured.

Using the Microwave method:

You can use the microwave if you’re running out of time and options and need a quick warm-up for your leftover meat. Although this is not the ideal way to reheat your dish, it gets the job done efficiently. 

The steps regarding this method will vary depending on what kind of microwave you are using, but basically, all you have to do is to put the meat into a microwave-friendly dish, cover it with a compatible lid and let the microwave do its job.

Make sure you have fully thawed or defrosted the meat before you pop it in the microwave, so it shortens the time spent reheating and gets higher quality tasting results.

Using the Grill method:

The most common way to cook pulled pork is on a grill, so it is no surprise that the same method can be used to reheat leftover meat. For this method, you can follow these steps:

• Heat up the grill on one side up to 225 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Wrap the leftover meat in some foil, and make sure to add some gravy or juices to help retain moisture.
• Place this foil bundle on the other side of the grill where it was heated. This will ensure that your meat doesn’t completely dry up.
• When the meat temperature reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit, you can take the foil off the grill and enjoy the perfectly reheated meat. This will typically take about 5-10 minutes on the grill, but it also depends on how much meat you reheat.