Quick answer
How to reheat food in an air fryer
Reheating is not cooking: the food is already done, and the only target is 74 °C in the centre. The temperature floor, the safe minimum and the reason there is no minute-by-minute chart here.
- Target in the centre
- 74 °C
- Temperature floor
- 163 °C
- Sauces and soups
- to a rolling boil
- How long
- by thermometer, not by clock
The method
- 1
Set the temperature, not the timer. Anything from 163 °C upward. USDA asks for an oven set no lower than 163 °C when reheating, and an air fryer is a small convection oven, so it clears that bar quickly.
- 2
Spread it in one layer. A stacked basket reheats its outside and leaves the middle cold. Whatever will not fit in one layer goes in a second round.
- 3
Cover what should stay moist, leave crisp things open. USDA advises covering leftovers so they heat through without drying. The exception is anything breaded: a cover traps the steam and the crust is gone.
- 4
Check the centre. 74 °C in the thickest part, measured with a thermometer. Sauces, soups and gravies are different: they have to reach a rolling boil.
Four kinds of leftovers
Minutes depend on the thickness of the piece and on where it came from, but the method depends on the kind of food — and that can be named honestly.
Breaded and crisp
This is what the air fryer is for: moving hot air dries the surface, which a microwave never does. Single layer, uncovered — a cover traps the steam and softens the crust.
Meat and poultry in a piece
The risk is a dry outside while the middle catches up. Cover with foil, as USDA advises: the moisture stays in and the piece heats through. Use a thermometer — this is exactly the case where the eye cannot tell.
Saucy dishes and gravy
USDA asks for sauces, soups and gravies to reach a rolling boil, not just 74 °C. A basket is a poor and messy place for that: heat those on the hob and keep the basket for whatever was alongside.
Bread and pastry
Dry heat stales bread faster than anything: a minute too long and it is a rusk. Mist it with water and pull it earlier than feels right; the safe minimum does not apply here — there is nothing in bread to make safe but the bread.
Cooking from raw instead?
Those pages carry manufacturer times and temperatures for each product.
Sources for these numbers
The target of 74 °C, the rolling boil for sauces, the 163 °C floor and the advice to cover are all USDA guidance for reheating leftovers. The manufacturer guide is here for the REHEAT program itself — its cooking charts cover Air Fry, Max Crisp, Roast and Dehydrate, and no reheat table exists in it.
FAQs
What temperature should I reheat at in an air fryer?+
No lower than 163 °C — that is the floor USDA sets for reheating in an oven, and an air fryer is a small convection oven. Higher is fine for breaded food, which wants a dry surface; lower is not, because food then spends too long between fridge temperature and safe.
How long does reheating take?+
That depends on the thickness of the piece and whether it came from the fridge or the freezer, and no chart can know either. This is why the target here is a temperature and not a time: reheat, probe, and put it back if it is short.
Why is there no minute-by-minute chart on this page?+
Because no manufacturer publishes one. The chart behind our cooking times (Ninja Dual Zone) has a REHEAT program but no reheat table, and the minute-by-minute charts elsewhere on the web cite nothing. Every number on this site has a source, and inventing one here would break that.
Is the air fryer better than the microwave for leftovers?+
For anything with a crust, yes: moving hot air dries the surface, while a microwave steams it. For a saucy dish or a bowl of soup the microwave wins, and USDA wants those brought to a boil anyway.
Why 74 °C and not the temperature the dish was cooked to?+
Because reheating has a different job. A steak was cooked to the doneness you wanted; once it has been in the fridge, the target is 74 °C for all leftovers regardless of what they were, because that is the temperature that deals with anything that grew there since.