Rotisserie chicken for tonight: keep warm, or let cool and reheat?

[MossyPeak]

As the title says - just picked up a nice juicy rotisserie chicken for dinner tonight and unsure whether to keep it in the oven on low or allow to cool and reheat later.

Which will keep it most moist?

And obvs not lead to food poisoning!

I would double wrap in foil, cover with a towel and let sit if you want it warmish. You should not reheat.

If it’s really hot where you are you’re better putting in fridge and letting come to room temperature before eating if you don’t want it fridge cold.

I'd allow it to cool, in the bag, then put in the fridge keeping it in the bag. If you were eating it in a few hours you could keep it warm, but I wouldn't keep it warm until this evening.

It would end up like shoe leather if you keep it warm in the oven for hours! Unless you use it in a casserole and want the meat to fall apart.

I would put it in the fridge as soon as I got home ( possibly letting it cool for half an hour first if it is really hot) then reheat it before your meal. I often reheat chicken from the day before and have never had a problem, make sure you reheat it well and use a meat thermometer to check it has reached at least 74°C in the middle.

Keeping it 'a bit warm' as pp suggests is the worst thing food poisoning wise. Bacteria multiply fastest in the warm. They multiply slowest below about 8 degrees (fridge) or if you are holding it hot you need to keep it over 63 degrees the whole time.
So cool it, chill it in the fridge, and reheat later.

Thanks all! Was in the middle of replying earlier when my phone went, then the door, and then it was non stop till now; I didn’t mean to post and disappear!

I did debate putting it in the slow cooker on the keep warm setting, but I think it’s only safe to do that for a few hours max, and dinner will be more like 8pm, so I followed the advice to let it cool, and put it in the fridge to reheat this evening. Which was what I was going to do originally but just thought it might stay nicer if warm the whole time - but between the risk of it drying out and the risk of making us all ill, didn’t seem like such a good idea!

I was surprised you suggested putting it in the fridge so soon, ihateslugs - I always thought putting things in the fridge when still warm was a big no-no?

When I roast a chicken myself, I always let what’s left cool (covered) before putting it in the fridge after, which can take a while - never got food poisoning yet!! touch wood!!

Special thank you Molly for the food science info

Oh, and in the UK, so not especially hot here

I don’t usually put warm food it the fridge as it raises the temperature in the fridge. But I’m a bit wary leaving chicken to go completely cold in my kitchen, even here in the UK, it’s been fairly mild indoors. So I would probably put it in the fridge when still a bit warm, rather than hot and boost the fridge temp up for an hour or so.

In my new fridge, I actually have a drawer which can be set at a colder temp than the rest of the fridge so I could use that but I’ve not done so far.

Yeah as pp said, not putting hot things in the fridge is just to do with not raising the temperature of the whole fridge. Whether it's a good idea or not depends what the thing is. If small I would put it in, as the fridge can probably handle it and will quickly return to temperature. An entire steaming lasagne though, probably not!

Thank you both, that’s really helpful, I had no idea that’s why we’re advised not to put warm stuff in the fridge!

Good to know.