How To Reheat A Casserole

We love a good casserole. It’s the easiest way to combine all of your favorite foods into a single, flavorful dish.

These dishes can be made in so many different ways. There are tons of casserole recipes out there to choose from. And one of the best things about a casserole is a little bit can go a long way! 

Casseroles can be pretty filling because they tend to have multiple ingredients in them. This means that you can feed a lot of people with a simple 9×13 casserole dish.

You would be surprised just how long they can last. Inevitably, this could mean that you end up with some leftovers too. 

How do you reheat a casserole? The best way to reheat your casserole is in the oven. However, you could use a microwave if you are just heating an individual serving. If your pan is half full, you can actually just reheat it in the same pan you baked it in to begin with. The process is really simple. 

In this guide, we will go over how to reheat a casserole. We will walk you through the process for reheating from start to finish. We will cover reheating in the pan or reheating a single serving too.

There are a few tips to make sure you don’t dry out the casserole in the process so we have all of those for you. 

Stick with us to learn how to reheat a casserole and more!

How To Reheat A Casserole – The Best Way

The best way to reheat a casserole if you have more than one serving is to use the oven.

The good news is that you can apply these same principles for almost any type of casserole. The only thing you have to be cautious about is not burning or drying out the ingredients in the casserole. 

However, there are several tricks to avoid those issues so it shouldn’t be a major problem. Most of the time, you can reheat your casserole in the oven in about a total of 30 minutes.

You need to heat up the oven and then the reheating process is generally about 20 minutes. 

Now with that in mind, you should be aware that how long it takes might depend on how much casserole you are reheating. If your casserole dish is less than half full, we recommend moving it to a smaller dish. It simply will work better. 

However, if the casserole dish is half full or more, you can reheat it in the same dish it is already in. This just makes it a little bit easier and doesn’t add any more dirty dishes to the process. 

Follow these steps to reheat a casserole in the oven: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. 
2. While the oven is preheating, allow the casserole to sit out uncovered at room temperature. This just helps bring it to a resting temperature so that it can reheat easier. Let it sit out for about 20-30 minutes. 
3. Cover the baking pan that you are using with aluminum foil. Remember you may need to transfer to a smaller baking dish if you don’t have much left. The foil will help prevent burning the toppings or drying out the casserole. 
4. When the oven is warm, place the covered casserole in the oven. Allow it to heat in this manner for about 20 minutes. Check the temperature and cook it a little bit longer if needed. 
5. Once you remove the casserole from the oven, leave it covered and let it sit for about 3 minutes. 
6. Remove the foil and serve! 

It’s really a pretty simple process. You can use these steps for any type of casserole. The only exception is if you only have maybe 2-3 servings left, you might need to slightly reduce your reheating time. 

In this case, we would recommend checking the casserole at 10 minutes just to be sure it does not get overcooked. Since there is less food, it probably won’t take as long to reheat.

If it is not heated at 10 minutes, go ahead and give it another 5 minutes and check it again. All of the other steps and parts of the process will remain the same, regardless of how much you have left. 

How To Reheat A Casserole In The Microwave

Another option you can use is to reheat a casserole in the microwave. This isn’t the top choice but if you’re just reheating leftovers at work or maybe just need 1-2 servings, it is fast and efficient. 

The challenge with the microwave will be to make sure you don’t dry out the casserole. However, we have a couple of simple tricks to help prevent that issue. 

Follow these steps to reheat a casserole in the microwave: 

1. Transfer a serving of casserole to a microwave-safe dish. A dish with a lid works great if you have one available. 
2. Use a fork and slice into the casserole to slice it up into smaller pieces. This will help it heat more thoroughly throughout. 
3. Cover the dish. If you used a dish with a lid, you can put it on and leave a corner vented. You could also use plastic wrap and leave a corner vented. Just be sure to leave one corner vented as this will help with the end result. 
4. Start the heating time at 1 minute and 30 seconds. Allow it to heat. 
5. Remove from the microwave and stir it around just a bit. 
6. Place the dish back in the microwave for another 1-2 minutes or until it is heated through. 

In the microwave process, the hardest part is to prevent overcooking but also to prevent drying out. If you use the vented lid or plastic wrap as we described, you will have far better results. 

The other thing that really makes a difference in this process is to cut the pieces of the casserole up into smaller bite-sized pieces before you heat it up.

This just helps it heat more consistently overall rather than just heating the edges and leaving the middle cold. 

If you follow these simple tips, you really shouldn’t have any issues with reheating a casserole in the microwave. 

Can You Reheat A Frozen Casserole? 

Yes! You can! This typically works best if you let it thaw out some before you cook it but it’s also simple to cook even if it is still frozen. People do this often with freezer meals or frozen leftovers. 

The one thing you will want to be aware of is that it takes much longer to reheat if the casserole is frozen. If you are able, we recommend moving the casserole to the fridge about 24 hours in advance and letting it thaw out some. 

However, if you forgot to do that or decided last minute, that’s ok too. You will want to start reheating the frozen casserole covered with foil. This will help it to heat up without allowing the top of the casserole to burn. 

You should plan to need closer to an hour to reheat a frozen casserole.

The processes might vary slightly but we recommend getting it mostly warm with foil covering the top and then finishing it for 10-20 minutes uncovered. 

The combination here should help your casserole get warmed all the way through as it should. 

Related Questions

We hope that this guide to reheating a casserole is helpful for you. As long as you know the simple tricks, you shouldn’t have any problems with your reheating process. 

We invite you to take a look at the question and answers below for some additional information that could be helpful as well. 

How long does a casserole last in the fridge? 

If you have leftover casserole to store, you can cover it and put it in the fridge for a few days.

We recommend using your casserole within 3-5 days in order to make sure it gets eaten before it has the chance to go bad. This timeline might vary if you have sensitive ingredients in it. 

Can you freeze leftover casserole? 

In most cases, you can freeze leftover casserole that was already cooked. It’s a great way to save it for later and have a simple meal when you just don’t know what to make or have sports practices to workaround! 

It is best if you can set your frozen casserole in the fridge the day before but you can also heat it from frozen. 

How can you tell when the reheated casserole is done? 

The best way to know your casserole is sufficiently reheated is to check the internal temperature.

In most cases, you will want the center of the casserole to reach 165°F. However, the ingredients were already cooked, so as long as everything gets warm, you should be fine. 

Another great signal that your casserole is sufficiently heated is when the top starts to brown and get bubbly. These are common indicators that people look for. 

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