I eat a lot of precooked and leftover chicken…..and prefer it cold. Interesting topic. Pulled from Serious Eats:
"A powerful foe exists in kitchens the world over—a force so strong it can render even a famous chef's roast chicken cardboard-y, stale, and faintly rancid. It's called warmed-over flavor, or WOF for short, and we most recently met when I reheated some chicken I'd braised for a dinner party the night before. the flavor is most noticeable in cooked meats that have been refrigerated for 24 hours or more, then reheated. Though it's especially obvious in leftover fish and poultry, discerning connoisseurs can pick out the WOF bouquet in most reheated meats.
These flavors are the result of a series of chemical reactions that begins with the deterioration of specific kinds of fats known as polyunsaturated fatty acids, or PUFAs. The muscles that we consume as meat are made up of millions of microscopic cells, each of which is surrounded by a membrane of tightly organized fat molecules that behave like an oil drop in water. That membrane serves as a barrier to enclose all the machinery that makes the cell tick. The amount of PUFAs in cell membranes differs from animal to animal; chicken and fish have a much higher concentration of PUFAs in their cells than lamb, pork, or beef, hence their increased tendency toward WOF.
When certain proteins denature, they loosen their hold on iron molecules. Free iron roams around cells and catalyzes a chemical reaction between PUFAs and oxygen. That reaction in turn creates free radicals. Those free radicals start a chain reaction that transforms the normally inoffensive PUFAs into by-products with the tastes and aromas of warmed-over flavor. They're not harmful to eat, but they stink. And, unfortunately, once the reaction starts, there's nothing you can do to stop its malodorous spread. Because the reaction involves cell membranes rather than the visible white fat that marbles meat, buying lean cuts doesn't help reduce WOF, nor does trimming excess fat from your chicken. Dark meat, like a chicken thigh, is dark because of high concentrations of iron in its cells, making it particularly susceptible to WOF.
On the industrial scale, commercially produced meats, like cold cuts and precooked chicken, are processed with phosphates and vacuum-packed while still hot to minimize WOF. Vacuum-packing sucks out all the air, limiting the oxygen that's available to react with iron. Phosphate, on the other hand, pairs up with all the free iron and holds on to it, preventing it from catalyzing chemical reactions. In a vacuum with little free iron, WOF will develop more slowly.
Without the amenities of a meat-processing facility, home cooks have a more limited range of options to slow down WOF-inducing reactions. The best way is to take a page from the industrial playbook and limit cooked meats' exposure to oxygen as soon as feasibly possible….might pack the leftovers tightly in heat-safe containers after everyone is served. If you're especially sensitive to warmed-over flavor, you may even consider investing in a vacuum sealer of your own. The faster you vacuum-pack it, the more effective it's going to be.
Flavorful sauces are another potential solution, since they create a barrier to air, which will slow down WOF-forming processes—especially in soups, stews, or curries in which smaller morsels of meat are fully submerged. Microwaving does gross things to chicken and should be avoided at all costs. Compared with the other reheating methods, the microwave gave the chicken an unappealingly spongy texture that, combined with WOF undertones, is no way to win over the leftover-leery. We generally detected WOF in the leftovers regardless of whether the thighs were browned or not. Because flavors tend to be less pronounced in cold food, try second-day meals that avoid the microwave to keep WOF under the radar. Have grilled chicken one night and a grilled-chicken Caesar salad the next."
From the comments section:
"I have never been a big fan of leftovers in general because reheating often changes the texture of many foods, so my strategy has always been to eat them as a cold dish—unless we’re talking about stews and curries and similar dishes, for me, those can be reheated with little to no adverse consequences of either texture or WOF!
I’ve found that leftovers generally are better when eaten cold out of the refrigerator and not reheated (affects texture, rather than taste). In fact, cold chicken drumsticks are quite a tasty late night snack.
I often spatchcock chicken, we eat about 1/2 the first night, then shock cool the rest in a zip lock. I reheat using sous vide about 10 degrees below the typical chicken cooking temp, 140. I never microwave meat to reheat.
So WHY are there so many recipes all over the Internet for utilizing leftover rotisserie chicken? I tried making shredded BBQ chicken with leftover rotisserie chicken to serve to some friends, and it tasted terrible!"