Tacos are among the most popular items on the Jack in the Box menu, and it might be hard to resist ordering too many. When the time comes to store your Jack in the Box tacos and reheat them for later, you might be wondering how.
You’d like to retain the crispy or soft shell and the quality of the ingredients inside, and have the same texture and taste from right after that first hot bite.
For an almost as good as original flavor for Jack in the Box tacos, you should use the oven to reheat them. You do have other options if an oven isn’t available, including a well controlled microwave or a toaster oven.
Regardless of the reheating method you choose, you might want to consider how the taco came to go in the first place. Jack in the Box didn’t heat up the shell with the ingredients inside. Instead, they assembled the ingredients like beef, cheese, lettuce, and tomato from separate containers and put them in a warm shell.
So it makes sense to disassemble your taco first, right? We would rather avoid having remaining juices from the tomato and beef marinate and soften the wheel.
So whether you are reheating in the oven, microwave, or toaster oven, you can try to dump the filling of the taco out onto a separate tray or plate. You could even go so far as to separate the lettuce, tomato and any other cold ingredient it came with on a separate plate so it doesn’t get heated up.
Let’s assume at this point that you have an oven safe plate or tray with the shell, and another tray just for the non cold ingredients (like beef, refried beans, etc)
Here are the next steps:
Preheat your oven to 350 to 400 degrees. This is good enough to get hot while not making it hot too quickly and risk drying out.
Line the tray with aluminum foil to keep things crispy.
Bake the tacos for a few minutes to start. Ideally, you’ll want to check on them after 5 minutes to see if they are hot and crispy enough for you. You can always put them back in.
When they are finished, remove the trays using some oven safe gloves.
We recommend the oven first because the slow heat will reduce the chances of drying anything out. The oven raises temperatures slower than other appliances like the microwave. Since the oven also takes more time to heat up, you’ll have a better chance to catch your tacos hitting just the right temperature before the meat gets less juicy.
Reheating Jack in the Box tacos in the microwave
The microwave will be a common option for people who only have a couple of minutes to reheat – especially if you are at work and don’t have access to an oven.
We suggest using a similar disassemble method if you can. While the shell is microwaveable, you’ll lose the crispiness.
Get a microwave safe plate. Preferably only put the hot ingredients on the plate
Put the plate with the ingredients in the microwave
On the high setting, start with 30 seconds and see how hot the food gets.
If it’s hot enough, take it out. Otherwise, try another 15 to 30 seconds until you find the right temperature.
If you did get a chance to disassemble, throw the hot ingredients back in the taco shell and put the cold ingredients in too.
You might want to go a little slower if you are microwaving the shell. The shell will dry out relatively quickly. Of course, if you want a softer shell, by all means use this method.
Reheating Jack in the Box tacos in a toaster oven
Some kitchens and workplaces have a toaster oven too. The best part of the toaster oven is that it mimics the effort of a conventional oven while taking up much less space.
Disassembled or not, the instructions are similar to oven usage.
Preheat the toaster oven to 350 to 400 degrees.
Place the ingredients you want in the toaster oven on an oven safe tray. Some toaster ovens come with a crisper tray.
Leave the taco ingredients in there for about 5 minutes or less at first. A smaller toaster oven can heat up quick.
Check the tacos to see if they are the right temperature.
When they reach the right temperature, remove and enjoy.
The toaster oven offers an ideal balance between fast heat and usability. The problem is that toaster ovens are not as common as microwaves.
Reheating with a skillet
While this probably isn’t the first method you thought of for reheating a taco, it certainly works.
Get a skillet out. The skillet has some potential to keep the shell itself crispy because it will be in direct contact with the pan, but you shouldn’t count on it.
We again suggest separating ingredients first.
Turn a stovetop burner on to medium heat after placing the skillet on. You’ll probably also want a spatula or something to flip and remove with.
If you have multiple tacos, be sure the skillet is big enough to separate them. You could also just do tacos separately.
Give the heat about 5 minutes before you check the temperature. Remove once you’ve reached the desired heat.
A stovetop is common in households, but not so much as the office and school.
Conclusion
Jack in the Box tacos can be as good as they were the moment you got them. While we suggest using an oven or skillet to heat them back up and disassembly, do what works best for you and your situation. Just keep an eye on your tacos to keep them moist.
