Bobby Flay's Brilliant Hack To Reheat Dinner Party Dishes

Planning a large dinner party would stress anybody out. There are so many variables, like what time will everybody arrive? Will there be enough food? And how do you prepare the meal in a way that allows it to still be warm when it is time to serve, but does not require you to spend more time in the kitchen rather than with your guests? Celebrity chef and restauranteur Bobby Flay has the perfect hack for easily reheating food, whether it is for a large group or an intimate family dinner. 

In an interview with Food & Wine, Flay recommends using a warm broth or stock to reheat prepared dishes. The chef's tip was originally shared as his own Thanksgiving hack, but it can be applied to various situations as it not only heats the food but also adds flavor. "The most important thing to my Thanksgiving is having warm chicken stock on the stove to reheat things, like the stuffing and turkey," he said in the interview, before noting that proper application can bring the dish "back to life."

Any time multiple dishes are being served at once, a little planning will go a long way. With this tip, you can minimize your stove and oven time as well as prevent the dishes from drying out during the typical reheating process.

Hosting a dinner party comes with a load of responsibilities. Not only are you responsible for making sure your guests are entertained, but you also have to arrange the food. Bobby Flay's expert advice in Food & Wine is that he uses hot stock or broth to heat meat by simply pouring it over the room-temperature dish. He uses a similar technique to heat side dishes, like stuffing. To do so, he makes divots in the stuffing and pours the hot broth in when it is ready to be served.

In addition to using broth to heat dinner dishes, it also contributes to the taste of the food. For instance, you can cook potatoes with broth to add more flavor to mashed potatoes. When the broth is added to dishes, whether during the cooking process or afterward to reheat the dish, the flavor is absorbed into the dish. That means if you are using chicken stock to reheat a meat dish, that meat will have the added nutrients and flavor that comes from the stock. 

That said, keep in mind the taste of the dishes you are reheating before adding the broth. You wouldn't want to add a savory broth to a sweet potato casserole. In this case, the sweet potato casserole could be placed in the oven while the other dishes are prepped with the delicious liquid and brought to the dining table.

When you think of broth, your mind might automatically go to chicken or beef broth. In fact, Flay himself uses chicken broth, according to Food & Wine. But how can you use this hack to accommodate vegetarians? There are two important elements to this trick: The liquid must be hot and flavorful. Therefore, a vegetable broth would do the trick.

To make an easy vegetable broth, heat oil in a pot and add onions, carrots, celery, and garlic. Let the ingredients simmer for a few minutes and then add water until you reach the amount of broth you need. At this step, you can add any vegetable scraps that you have set aside for the dish, as well as any herbs and seasonings. After cooking for about an hour, strain the liquid out of the pot and you are left with the perfect vegetable broth to reheat your dinner dishes.

In the end, the liquid can be spooned over potato dishes, stuffing, or vegetables to reheat them after they are prepped for a large group. By using this hack, you retain the food's moisture without sacrificing flavor or precious oven time. If you prefer to make a stock, be sure to add gelatin for vegetable stock or animal bones and a few extra hours for meat stock. This allows for the stock to get the hearty texture that distinguishes it from broth.