How to reheat a precooked Thanksgiving dinner: hot pickup, cold pickup, and frozen

Ordering Thanksgiving dinner from a grocery store or restaurant removes most of the cooking but adds a food safety problem: the food is cooked by someone else, travels, and is eaten hours or days later. USDA has specific guidance for cooked holiday dinners. The key question is whether you pick it up hot or cold.

Hot pickup: eat within 2 hours

If you collect the dinner hot and plan to eat soon:

• Keep the food at 140°F or above. In practice, that means going straight home and holding it in a warm oven, set high enough that a thermometer still reads 140°F, until dinner is on the table.
• Eat within 2 hours of pickup.
• If the meal will be later than that, USDA's instructions are to remove the stuffing from the turkey, cut the turkey off the bone, slice the breast (legs and wings can stay whole), and refrigerate everything in shallow containers. Reheat to 165°F when you are ready to eat.

Cold pickup: refrigerate, then reheat

Most stores now offer cold, ready-to-reheat dinners collected a day or two early. USDA's handling guidance:

1. Refrigerate within 2 hours of pickup, at 40°F or below. Keep the food in the car for as little time as possible.
2. Eat within 3 to 4 days. USDA's older farm-to-table page gives 2 days for ready-prepared turkey, so for a Thursday, Nov. 26 meal we would not pick up before Tuesday, Nov. 24.
3. Reheat everything to 165°F, and bring gravy to a rolling boil. Use the oven, stove or microwave; USDA FSIS says not to reheat cooked food in a slow cooker, though one can hold it hot at 140°F afterward (see the slow-cooker sides guide and how to keep Thanksgiving food warm).

A one-oven reheating order

With a single oven, reheat in this order, about an hour before you want to eat. USDA says use an oven temperature of at least 325°F.

When	What
70 minutes before	Oven to 325°F. Move sides from deep tubs into shallow oven-safe dishes.
60 minutes before	Stuffing and dense casseroles in, covered.
40 minutes before	Turkey slices in a pan with a little broth, covered with foil.
20 minutes before	Lighter sides in. Gravy on the stovetop to a rolling boil. Check each dish for 165°F.
Serve	Rolls in the oven while you carve or plate.

Times vary with quantity and dish depth, which is why the thermometer check, not the clock, decides. The one-oven schedule has more on juggling dishes.

Microwave: cover the food, rotate it for even heating, and allow standing time before checking that it reached 165°F.

Why the whole bird is carved first

USDA advises against reheating a whole cooked turkey. A whole bird heats from the outside in, so the center can sit in the danger zone of 40°F to 140°F for a long time while the surface dries. The exception is a commercially packaged, USDA-inspected cooked turkey, which comes with tested reheating directions; follow the package exactly.

If the dinner came with a whole bird, carve it as soon as you get home (see how to carve a turkey), refrigerate the meat in shallow containers, and reheat the slices.

Frozen precooked dinners

• Turkey: thaw in the refrigerator, about 24 hours for every 4 to 5 pounds, then reheat to 165°F.
• Sides: USDA says frozen sides can usually go straight from the freezer to the oven; follow the label.
• Do not thaw cooked food on the counter.

After dinner

The leftovers rules apply: refrigerate within 2 hours of serving, and finish everything within the original 3 to 4 days counted from pickup, not from when you reheated it. Reheat only what you will eat, rather than warming the same dish again and again. See leftovers, safely for freezer times. For a small household, our dinner for two guide compares ordering with cooking.