The Best Way To Reheat Leftover Pizza, According to a Pro Cook

I cook a lot of homemade pizza, so I’ve tried every version of reheating out there. To get that cold pizza as close to its original crispy state as possible, there’s really only one way to reheat it.

Ditch the Microwave

Even if your microwave has some fancy pizza button, don’t microwave your pizza. You’ll end up with a soggy mess of a pizza slice. Microwaves heat water that’s in food, so the pizza ends up steaming from the inside out.

Not ideal and would not recommend.

How I Reheat Pizza

The absolute best way to reheat a pizza is in a skillet on the stove.

This can be a nonstick skillet or a cast iron skillet or even a stainless steel skillet. Literally any skillet will work as long as it has a lid! 

1. Heat up the skillet: Place the skillet over medium low heat and add a little oil to it. (I like to use nonstick spray to get an even layer.)
2. Let the slices reheat slowly in the skillet. Put the pizza slices in the skillet and make sure they aren’t overlapping and are in full contact with the bottom of the skillet. 
3. Put the lid on: Once the slices are crisping up on the bottom (a few minutes), pop the lid on the skillet and let the slices steam on top. This will re-melt the cheese and heat the toppings. Soon your pizza crust will be super crispy and delicious once more.

What About the Oven?

I wouldn’t recommend reheating pizza in the oven because it’s kind of a waste of energy for a few slices of already-cooked pizza.

That said, if you happen to have the oven on anyway, you can absolutely toss in some pizza slices! Just put the slices on parchment paper on a baking sheet, and cook for about 10 minutes or until the toppings have re-melted. 

Don’t bother with a pizza stone unless you are heating the stone up for other purposes as well.