Can you use an air fryer to reheat pizza?

Welcome back to Air Fryer Bro! Have you ever woken up after a night out on the town to see a half-eaten pizza on your bedroom floor? Or do you just eat a lot of takeaway pizza in your household? For a multitude of reasons, people need to reheat pizza slices! So, the question for the Air Fryer Bro is can you do this well in an air fryer?? Use an air fryer to reheat pizza you say!! Maybe it does have more uses than just churning out french fries after all 🙂

Just to be clear before we start. I won’t be talking about frozen pizza here. As to me, this is not really reheating pizza but cooking it. And would anyone really reheat frozen pizza after eating some of it in one sitting? So this is more about reheating pizza leftovers from a pizza takeaway.

Now to start our pizza reheating story!! Once upon a time I went to one of my wife’s office parties at a Pizza Express restaurant! The next day I had slices of pizza filling up my fridge, so this was the perfect situation to test out the best way to reheat pizza in an air fryer 🙂

The Pizza Reheating Experiment Starts…..

Below is what we started with, a rather dry cardboard like leftover pizza from the evening before! And, before anyone tells me about the quality of the pizza, it was an entry into a pizza making competition 🙂 (hence the ‘mess’ of toppings). Reheated pizza here we come 🙂

I wanted to try a couple of different heats and timings, to see which one worked the best.

Please note that the pizza used here is Italian thin crust style pizza. You may want to slightly increase or adjust the cook time for a thicker type of pizza, such as deep pan, thick crust or deep dish! Pizza thickness is a factor in your cook time (or I should say reheat time!!).

My first attempt was to reheat a slice of the pizza at 200C (392F) for three minutes.

This gave me a pretty decent result, but I felt that the pizza base was not crispy enough! You can see this result in all its glory in the picture below!

This lead me to try something with a lower temperature. My idea was to cook the pizza slice for longer, to give the air fryer enough chance to crisp up the base more.

I went for 150C (302F) for five minutes to start. This result was much better, as the pizza base was now much firmer and less floppy.

I wasn’t sure if it was too long, so I also tried one minute, two minutes and three minutes (I had a lot of slices to heat up!) at the same temperature.

One minute was barely long enough to heat the pizza all the way through! Two and three minutes gave good results, but the base was still a little too floppy!

It should be noted that I was using a grill skillet pan in my unit rather than the typical air fryer basket. However, I don’t see any major differences with those that only have the air fryer basket available. You might just find it a bit more of a squeeze to fit multiple pizza slices at one time (with a grill pan, it can slightly go over the sides more easily).

So, can you reheat pizza in an air fryer?

The answer is 100% yes! By using my air fryer, I was able to get the best results I have ever had in my life for reheating pizza at home! Quick and easy…but it still tasted amazing!! Now you know what to do the next time you have fresh pizza leftover in your fridge!

How long do you reheat pizza in air fryer?

After my extensive testing, this is my ultimate air fryer recipe for reheating pizza air fryer style!

I would always reheat my pizza for five minutes at 150C (302F) in my air fryer. The result was perfect, with a nice crispy base and pizza crust.

Of course, this is down to personal preference, so I would recommend that you also experiment with your own air fryer. Also, some air fryers might cooker faster or slower than others, so it is always good to personalize the timing to your particular situation.

The bottom line, though, is that all the results were much better than when I reheat a slice of pizza in a microwave. When you use a microwave, you end up with something very soggy and not very appetizing! Merely hot! Maybe too hot!

In an air fryer, the result is never that soggy, and the pizza slice will be heated more evenly. I didn’t find any hot spots to burn my mouth!

Clearly, this is the future for reheating pizza!! Try it, you will be amazed! No more cold pizza or the soggy microwave leftover pizza for you!!

Are there any drawbacks of reheating pizza in an air fryer?

For me, the only drawback is the size of my air fryer. I have an air fryer around the 3 quart mark, so I have to reheat one or two leftover pizza slices at a time in my air fryer basket. Reheating in batches is annoying to say the least 🙂 However, if you have an air fryer oven or a larger air fryer in general, this should be less of a problem.

So, there you have it. It is simply amazing that you can use an air fryer to revitalize a dry cardboard like slice of pizza. Hungover breakfasts will never be the same again!! Yeah, us air fryer geeks finally got one over the instant pot too! Try reheating your pizza in that 🙂

If you have any of your own experiences reheating pizza in an air fryer, we would love to hear all about it in the comments section below 🙂

Next stop for me would be cracking out the pizza dough, cheese and olive oil and trying a scratch made air fried pizza too!!

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I use aluminum foil or parchment paper when reheating pizza in an air fryer?

I would say a definite no to aluminum foil, as it will block the airflow around your leftover pizza and give you a soggy bottom base. If you want to make cleanup easier for the best results, I would recommend you use perforated parchment paper instead. The holes in the parchment paper will allow the hot air to flow through, and your regular crust will be reheated to perfection.

Do you have to use oil spray when you reheat pizza in an air fryer?

No, you do not have to use oil spray when you reheat pizza. Some may think you should spray underneath the leftover pizza to stop it sticking, but a pizza base is floury in nature so doesn’t need any extra flour. And pizza is not the type of food that you need to spritz oil on the top to make it crispier!