If you’ve got a piping hot pizza that was just delivered, or that you just made, but you’re not quite ready to eat yet, what can you do to keep it warm?
You can leave the pizza in the oven to keep it warm, but the trick is not baking it (and burning it) and only keeping it warm.
The best way to keep a pizza warm in the oven is on a low temperature in aluminum foil, but below we’ll go over some additional methods.
1. Put The Pizza In Aluminum Foil In The Oven
If you’ve made the pizza, or just don’t have the box, then using aluminum foil is a great way to keep it warm in the oven.
Assuming that your pizza is already cooked, you have two options for putting it in the foil-
- You can wrap the entire pizza in foil, or
- You can cut the pizza and wrap slices or sections in foil
Personally, I find that cutting the pizza in quarters is the most manageable way to get it in foil to stay warm in the oven.
This is exactly what I do when I get pies from my favorite pizza place in Bar Harbor.
Here are the steps to follow:
- Put your oven on “warm” or the lowest setting.
- Wrap your pizza (or slices or sections) completely in foil – but don’t wrap tightly cause you don’t want the cheese sticking to the foil.
- Put the foil-wrapped pizza in the oven to stay warm.
In my experience, you can keep your pizza warm for a few hours like this.
2. Put The Pizza In The Oven In The Pizza Box
I know what you’re thinking – if I put cardboard in the oven, won’t it start a fire?
Not in this instance – you just need to do it without using too high of a heat.
First, check that the pizza shop hasn’t put anything plastic in the box with the pizza, as they sometimes do.
Remove anything plastic, then close the pizza box and put it in the oven.
Put your oven on the lowest possible setting, which is usually around 170 degrees Fahrenheit.
This is really all it takes to keep the pizza hot and crispy in the box until you are ready to eat it.
One thing to remember is to not raise the oven temperature too much.
Anything over 300F runs the risk of the cardboard catching fire.
You should also know that you can turn the oven off 30 minutes before you’re ready to eat the pizza because the residual heat will keep the pizza crispy and warm in the box.
3. Put The Pizza In A Large Frying Pan Or Skillet With A Lid In The Oven
This is actually one of my favorite ways to keep a pizza warm in the oven because the skillet keeps the crust nice and crispy.
Just make sure that you are using an oven-safe frying pan and lid cause you don’t want to melt any plastic handles.
Here are the steps to follow:
- Put your oven on “warm” or the lowest setting.
- Put your pizza in the frying pan and cover it with a lid.
- Put the pan in the oven to stay warm.
In my experience, you can keep your pizza warm for a few hours like this.
Final Word
As you can see, there are three ways to keep your pizza warm in the oven.
The key is a low temperature setting on the oven so that you don’t end up over-cooking your pizza and instead just keep it warm.
Of the methods above, wrapping the pizza or slices in aluminum foil is the best way to keep a pizza warm in the oven for up to three hours.
