Use This Pro Trick To Save Limp Delivery Pizza

For a simple and crowd-pleasing feast without any prep work required, ordering a few pizzas for delivery is an ideal choice. Still, even takeout comes with its drawbacks. When it comes to placing a pizza order, you always run the risk of a pie arriving slightly cold and soggy. Pizza sitting in the delivery driver's car can get cold fast and lose its crispness before it even reaches your countertop. Luckily, there are some easy ways to save a limp pizza. 

To get some expert insight on the matter, Chowhound spoke exclusively with Nicole Bean, who owns and operates two locations of Pizaro's Pizza Napoletana with her family in Houston, Texas. Bean swears by a classic trick to save limp delivery pizza. "Reheating or cooking additionally once the pizza is delivered, will help make it crispier," she says. While this might be an obvious answer, it's straightforward for a reason — even the most iconic pizzerias in New York use this trick daily. "When you think about New York style pizza, specifically slices, those pizzas are cooked and then reheated to serve. They are cooked twice, hence why they are so crispy," Bean explains. Fortunately, getting that same restaurant-quality result at home with a delivery order is pretty easy. Here's how, according to Bean.

When it comes to reheating pizza, there are a few methods you can try. For starters, you can't go wrong with the classic choice of using the oven. Pizzeria owner Nicole Bean swears by sliding a limp pizza on a steel plate or pizza stone, then baking it in the oven until sufficiently crisp. (And don't forget to reheat pizza with a spoonful of water to keep the cheese perfectly gooey and delicious.) If you want to try something new, however, there's always the stovetop. "[Heat] up a skillet with an ice cube in the pan and then [cover] that skillet with a pot cover," Bean says. Use a medium to high heat setting for the best results, and keep heating the pizza until the ice cube evaporates completely. This should leave you with a few crispy slices in a pan.

While it would be ideal to dig into a pizza straight out of the box, the reality is that it's hard to keep a pizza in transit crisp, even after trying an ordering hack to prevent a soggy pie. However, with these tips from Bean, you can still easily enjoy a delicious delivery pizza with minimal effort. Give one of her reheating methods a try the next time you order out. And remember, some problems just can't be fixed, so keep an eye out for pizza shop red flags to know which locations to avoid.