Air fryers are such a great little tool to have around the kitchen, aren’t they? They’re quick, usually compact, and use just a fraction of the oil that a dedicated fryer does.
They’re a healthy eating option for health-conscious families and kitchens!
Plus, pretty much any food can be prepared and cooked inside them. French Fries, veggies, red meats. Even fish can be properly prepared in them too?
However, sometimes, after a full meal, you’ll still have a few pieces of fish left over, that will just go to waste if they aren’t eaten.
Still, there’s no sense in overfilling, so these leftover fish items just go straight into the trash.
But what if I told you that not only can air fryers cook fish, but can reheat leftover fish too, saving you tons of food that would otherwise go to waste?
We’ll cover the how’s, the dos, and the do-nots in this guide, as well as why you should be using an air fryer for this task!
Can You Reheat Fish Foods?
So, before we start going into detail about how to do this, a lot of people may be hesitant to even try this in the first place.
After all, many of us were taught that reheating fish is a bad move and not good for us, so what exactly is the deal here?
Well, there is some truth to that. Badly reheated fish is an accident waiting to happen, usually from some kind of bacterial food poisoning.
However, just like with other notorious foods like chicken and rice, you can avoid this issue by properly and thoroughly reheating your fishy food.
How Long Can Fish Be Reheated After First Cooking?
So, how long exactly can fish be eaten after they were initially cooked?
Well, this depends on largely how quickly the fish was stored after it was first cooked.
If it has been freshly fried or deep-fried, and it is properly stored in an airtight container at a low temperature, a fish will still be edible up to 4 days after it was cooked (again, provided that it is reheated properly).
However, if the fish has been cooked and left exposed to the open air for more than a few hours, then chances are that it’s not going to be safe to reheat.
Bacteria will have already had time to be exposed to and land on the fish, and start making colonies of bugs that could cause your gut some serious harm!
Why Use An Air Fryer?
So, we’ve established that fish can be reheated if you’re prepared to be thorough about it.
But that begs the question, why reheat in an air fryer when a microwave or oven is just as capable of doing the job?
Well, a few, as it turns out!
Reheating your fish in the microwave for a few minutes is guaranteed to get the fish meat hot enough to be safe to eat again, but you’ll often find that the crispy outside of the fish, whether fried or battered and become soggy, is nowhere near as nice to bite and chew into (to learn more about reheating food in the microwave, read here).
You can also find that the texture becomes quite rubbery to chew on. Not nice at all, and a far cry from the fresh fish you ate the day before!
The oven can help keep that crispiness that you love, but you’ll also find that the fish completely dries out, so it’s no longer juicy.
And that’s not even discussing the powerful smell that these reheating methods will leave behind!
An air fryer keeps the best of both, keeping the outside crispy, and the inside juicy, while still thoroughly heating the food.
How To Reheat Fish In Air Fryer
Okay, we’ve ranted and raved enough about this preparation method. Now, let’s show you the best way to use an air fryer to reheat your fish!
Take your leftover fish pieces, and place them inside the air fryer, alongside any other leftover foods you’re looking to reheat (french fries, potato wedges, veggies, etc.)
Set your air fryer to its ‘reheated’ setting. If there is no clearly labeled reheating setting, turn your air fryer up to around 325 to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Set a timer for 4–5 minutes, and let the air frying commence!
After the timer has finished, flip the leftover fish over and any other foods you are reheating, turn the air fryer back on, then start another timer for 4 minutes
And that’s it! That’s all it takes to get your fish back to a nice hot and crispy state and to enjoy it for a second time!
How Hot Should The Fish Be?
If you want to make sure that your fish is safely reheated and good to eat, use a cooking thermometer to check the internal temperature.
If the inside of the fish is over 125 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit, the inside of the fish has been safely reheated, and any smaller bacteria colonies will no longer have survived.
Final Notes
So, as you can see, an air fryer is not only the king of cooking in your kitchen, but it’s also perfect for stopping food waste and saving your amazing meals from the day before.
Have you ever made something so delicious that you wished you could savor it forever?
Only to find that the recipe has now mysteriously vanished from your phone and the entirety of the internet. Yep, there’s not much more painful than that.
Hi, my name is Mark Williams and I have been infatuated with cooking since I was young. I would beg my mother to pull a chair up to the counter so I could watch what she was doing.
