This Simple Trick Makes Grocery Store Fried Chicken Taste Homemade

Have you ever craved fried chicken and scooped up some at your local grocery store or even gas station to get it, only to discover that it’s shriveled and dry? Or, perhaps, you served the best fresh fried chicken of your life—you even fried it yourself—only to find yourself with a bucket-full of leftovers that have lost their pizzazz and need some tender love and care to re-heat and re-eat.

I learned this hack for reheating store-bought fried chicken in graduate school, and I found it to be endlessly versatile for hosting fried chicken-forward dinners of all kinds. Whether slicing it atop Korean-inspired rice bowls or simply serving chicken legs with potato salad and summer sides, this hack is a time-saver and a crowd-pleaser for crispy, fresh-feeling fried chicken even if it has been languishing a bit in the refrigerator.

My Trick for Fixing Dry Fried Chicken

While fast food joints have certainly dialed in their fried chicken game, many store-bought, refrigerated, or grocery store fried chicken still reaches your plate terribly dry. This is because while some grocery stores tend to keep their fried chicken on a strict rotation under a heat lamp that slowly drains the chicken of flavor, moisture, and any resemblance of fresh fried chicken. What you can end up with, in other worse, might taste irreversibly chewy, tacky, or gummy. But fear not—there is a solution, and it requires just a few minutes and a few ingredients.

First, reheat the chicken in the oven to warm it up all the way through. Once the chicken is warm, the edges might be starting to crisp up again—but they’ll still be a bit dry. This is when the magic happens: You’ll toss the reheated chicken with hot oil (or very hot melted butter). 

How It Works

The fat of the oil or butter interacts with the heats of the surface of the reheated chicken to rehydrate and re-crisp the breading, simulating the way that fried chicken was originally cooked. When you add spices or sauces of choice, this method brightens what was once sad, dry chicken to an extremely tasty, memorable dish. Try hot spices like ground cayenne, smoky spices like paprika, a pinch of earthy cumin, a tablespoon or two of barbecue sauce, or even simply a pinch of salt.

How To Reheat Grocery Store Fried Chicken

• Step 1: Re-heat chicken. Place store-bought chicken a preheated oven on a rack and heat until hot and warmed through.
• Step 2: Heat oil. Heat a neutral cooking oil (such as canola oil or grapeseed oil) on the stove until very hot. Carefully transfer to a large heat-safe mixing bowl. You can also use hot oil, but I prefer canola oil because it does not solidify when cooled, and it complements the oil that was used for the fried chicken originally.
• Step 3: Add flavor. Whisk spices of choice or barbecue sauce into the oil, stirring to agitate and emulsify the mixture. It should be fragrant—this means the spices are “blooming” which means the hot oils are helping to release the aroma and flavor.
• Step 4: Toss! Carefully toss the spices (or sauces, if you opted for a barbecue sauce) in oil with the chicken until fully coated.
• Step 5: Serve and enjoy. Your chicken should be crispy and flavorful. While nothing beats fresh fried chicken, this should come close—or at least closer than before!

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