When you want to enjoy a fun movie night with your family or friend, no snack is better than the good old delicious bowl of nachos. But what can you do if after everyone has left you still have half a bowl? Obviously, we are not throwing away this goodness – let’s put it in the fridge and we will figure out the best way to reheat nachos meanwhile!
There are so many options – microwave, stove, oven, broiler…air fryer? No need to research it anymore, we have all the right answers for you! In this article, we will tell you why the best way to reheat nachos is in the oven and why we do not recommend methods like microwave and broiler instead.
How about before revealing the ways to reheat nachos, we dig in deeper and figure out what makes them go stale anyway? It turns out that for chips and nachos, it is all about the moisture – they lose most of it when fried, however, they contain a lot of starch molecules which in return absorb moisture from the air, once the nachos are fried.
This would mean that the longer the bag of nachos stays open or unsealed, the higher is the chance of them getting stale; combining this will all of the toppings we like to put on our nachos like guacamole, sour cream, and salsa – this turns them into a moisture bomb!
Now that we know a bit more about why the nachos get so soft and soggy, let’s learn on how to reheat them properly and bring back to life their crispiness.
The ultimate choice – In the oven
When it comes to reheating nachos, the oven for us wins the prize – it heats up everything evenly, crisps it up and makes the sogginess disappear. We would recommend you to remove any toppings from the nachos, however, before reheating them in the oven.
If there is any sour cream, it will create a wet mess and other toppings like salsa, we do not really want to cook as it is more of a cold salad or appetizer.
You can pre-heat your oven to 230˚F or 110˚C, cover the nachos with aluminium foil and reheat them for about 15-20 minutes. The foil should keep any of the toppings left from cooking and will make sure to only reheat them gently.
We can guarantee that the nachos will be crispy again and for extra flavour, the last 5 minutes you can get them out, grape some extra cheese on top and reheat again with or without the aluminium foil, just so the cheese gets the chance to melt evenly!
Tip: For a smaller portion, a toaster oven would work just fine, again we recommend you to remove all the toppings and cover with aluminium foil.
And the silver medal goes to…Reheating nachos on the stove!
If you do not have any time to pre-heat your over and you want a quicker solution to this soggy situation, we can recommend you reheating your nachos on the stove.
Because the stove does not have a fan option, there is a higher chance of burning in the bottom of the ban, so heat it up only to medium, instead of high and again cover the skillet with aluminium foil so the temperature raises more quickly. You can also put the lid on top of the foil.
Do not reheat for more than5 minutes, otherwise you risk burning the nachos.
Finally and definitely on the last place go the microwave and the broiler
If any of these two methods work for you, that is fantastic – apparently, you have managed to master them or you have discovered the secret of perfectly reheating dishes with their help! In our opinion, however, they take the last place, not because they cannot complete the task, but because it will take much more time than expected and the result will be average or unsatisfactory.
Both of these appliances do not distribute the heat evenly – while the microwave will most likely heat up the top of the dish and the sides, leaving the centre cold, the broiler could actually burn the top and leave everything else cold, which is definitely not ideal!
Constant mixing of the nachos is required if you are to use any of these two methods and in the end, we cannot guarantee that the chips will be crispy again. Unlike the oven, which uses fans to lower the humidity, there is nothing that can do that for the microwave or the broiler and the nachos still absorb the moisture out of the surrounding air inside of the appliance.
To summarise it
If you have time, definitely go for an oven or a toaster oven, if the portion is smaller. Make sure to scrape off all toppings and to cover the nachos with aluminium foil.
If you are running out of time, or you do not feel like waiting for your oven to reach the desired temperature, go for the stove – medium high temperature is the way to go and again, cover the nachos with aluminium foil, to ensure even distribution of heat.
Microwave and broiler are a no go, can do the job, but in the end you will reach for those chicken leftovers anyways!
We hope you enjoyed this article and make sure to stay tuned for more! Now go and get these nachos reheated!
