How to Reuse Leftover Roast and Braised Meat

As meat cooks, its muscle fibers contract as they heat up and squeeze out the water between them; that is why cooked meat loses weight. Roast or braised meat has already released some of this water during its first cooking. When the meat is heated a second time, the fibers contract once more and release the remaining water, leaving it dry, stringy, and tough. When working with leftover meat, the goal is to keep the second cooking as short as possible and replace the moisture the meat has lost with liquid. Every method is built around these 2 tasks.

The first step is cutting. Slice cold roast thinly, perpendicular to the grain; when cold, the meat is firm and the slices hold together. A thick slice stays cold inside while drying out on the outside as it heats, while a thin slice warms very quickly in a hot sauce. Use a fork or your fingers to pull braised meat and meat removed from the bone apart along the grain. Shredded meat absorbs sauce and liquid over its whole surface and softens in the liquid even if it has dried out, which makes shredded meat the most versatile form for leftovers.

Add the meat to the liquid and leave heating until last. Finish cooking a vegetable sauce, tomato-based dish, or soup, lower the heat, and add the sliced or shredded meat at the end. Keep the dish over the heat only until the meat is warm, then remove it. Do not simmer the meat in the sauce for a long time, because simmering liquid cooks it a second time. For meat served over rice, lay it on top while the rice rests so the steam from the rice warms it. For safety, the center of the leftover meat should reach at least 74°C / 165°F on a thermometer.

Some leftover meat can also be used without heating it at all. Turn thinly sliced cold roast into a salad with greens, roasted peppers, and a lemon-olive-oil dressing, or add it to a sandwich or wrap. Because cold meat is not reheated, it does not dry out, and the color of the slices is preserved. Add shredded braised meat with its own fat to pastry or pide filling; it warms as the dough bakes and stays moist inside the dough. If the meat looks dry, add a little stock or the dish’s own sauce. A mustard or yogurt sauce goes well with cold roast.

Leftover braised meat is a distinctive ingredient because it was cooked in its own fat. Do not put it back in the pan to brown it again. Melt the fat, crack an egg over it or toss it with boiled potatoes, and keep the meat in the pan only until it is warm. Adding the same braised meat to white-bean or chickpea dishes at the end of cooking gives the dish its flavor. The rule is the same for all leftover meat: do not cook it again; reheat it. Liquid and fat replace the moisture it has lost so dry meat is not served. The fat from the braised meat can also replace some of the fat in rice or bulgur.