How do I keep crispy food warm and crispy on a buffet?!
Answers: I am cooking chicken fingers for a party and need to keep them warm on the buffet for a hour or so after I take thenm from the oven
There are specialty heat retention trays designed for this, but can be costly. As a less expensive alternative, use a chafing dish, which can be stainless or aluminum/disposable (you can buy the disposable ones at most party supply stores).
Just in case -- a chafing dish is a pan that sits on a raised stand with a can of sterno or some other heat source underneath. The dish itself sits in a pan of water so that the food inside the dish does not get burned by having direct contact with the heat source. Instead, the heat source warms the water, and the water provides gentle, evenly distributed heat to the dish holding the food.
The steam that would be generated inside a chafing dish would normally make crispy items soggy in relatively short time, so, what you need to do is elevate the crispy items by placing them on top of something that is more likely to absorb the moisture than the food. Dried, curly rice noodles are a good option. They are porous, and will therefore absorb most of the moisture. Also, they are airy enough that they will allow air to circulate around the food item, thereby keeping them crisp.
Another trick is to use a rack like that which you would use to cool cookies, etc. Just something to get the food off the surface of the pan.
Also, if you making the crispy item yourself, and it is a breaded item, I recommend using panko, Japanese breadcrumbs, instead of regular breadcrumbs as they will hold a crisp much longer.
Finally, keeping the lid off the chafer as long as possible will help, as steam will be less likely to build-up.
Excellent question! I'll look forward to reading the other answers! My friend uses her electric griddle on low, but if there are kids around that's dangerous...Good luck!
Make sure the cover for the tray is vented to allow steam out otherwise they will get soggy.
One of the easiest ways to keep crispy things crispy is to cook them in small batches very often rather than try to keep them hot and crisp for an hour. Even the best technology won't accomplish that for such a long period of time.
If this is a fairly informal buffet, you can simply place a toaster oven conveniently and cook a small pan full (or let folks do their own) every few minutes. (For something that needs say 20 minutes in the oven, cook it for 17 minutes, then reheat in the toaster oven for another 3 or 4 minutes, enough to crisp them up and heat them through.)
Otherwise, you might consider asking an acquaintance or hiring someone to keep your buffet full, doing things like adding plates, making more coffee, bringing out fresh platters of food - and crisping up the chicken.
Ok, you go to a party store and you buy these pans that are on top of a wire frame and under it you put a sterno which is a little flame and it keeps it warm. Good luck!
