27 Leftover Chicken Recipes

Meggan Hill

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These 27 Leftover Chicken Recipes prove that round two can be just as good as (or better than) round one! Including salads, sandwiches, soups, casseroles, and more, these can also be rotisserie chicken recipes if you prefer to outsource the roasting.

An image collage showing 5 different recipes for leftover chicken.


 

Chicken recipes of all kinds are a staple in my home. From street cart-inspired Chicken Gyros and delivery-style BBQ Chicken Skillet Pizza to Midwest favorites like Wisconsin-Style Jambalaya and Chicken Spaghetti, my family never complains when chicken is invited to the table.

Since this is the case (my fellow parents will likely understand the lengths we’ll go to keep the peace!), I often meal prep a big batch of a more blank-slate chicken recipe to keep in the fridge and incorporate into other meals throughout the week. Other times, I end up with leftover chicken. Either way, I always make it my mission to reinvent them into something new because my kids (and I) tire of the same dish day after day.

Ahead, I’m revealing some of my favorite leftover chicken recipes that certainly don’t taste like they’re second place in anything. Start with one of these customizable chicken recipes, then remix the protein into the easy leftover chicken recipes below.

Easy Chicken Recipes

Some of the recipes below start with uncooked chicken, but they can easily be modified to substitute leftover chicken.

Don’t feel like cooking tonight? Pick up a rotisserie chicken or two from the supermarket and you can follow along with these exact same recipes. These prove that “leftovers” can be good as gold!

Table of Contents

  1. Chicken Salads
  2. Chicken Sandwiches
  3. Chicken Pastas
  4. Chicken Soups
  5. Chicken Casseroles
  6. More Recipes for Leftover Chicken

Chicken Salads

Leftover rotisserie chicken or homemade leftover roast chicken shines in chicken salads that are fully of colorful fruits and veggies. I’m particularly fond of the flavors and colors in the Cobb Salad (one of my go-to weekday lunches). Bonus: If you start with leftover chicken, all of these ask for zero cooking or only require one pan.

Chicken Sandwiches

As far as the sandwich goes, I’m serving the chicken Caesar mixture inside of a tortilla here, but you could absolutely enjoy it between a couple slices of bread instead. If you want to up the ante on that sandwich, add a couple slices of cooked bacon for crunch and a salty-savory kick.

Chicken Pastas

Take your taste buds on a tour of the globe without stepping foot outside of your kitchen with these creative combinations that showcase chicken with pasta. The other ingredients such as spices, sauces, and vegetables allow you to make these dinnertime staples taste diverse and exciting. Finish each with a generous sprinkle of fresh herbs to add a final flourish of flavor and visual appeal.

Chicken Soups

Light on prep time yet high on flavor, these soups and wraps are frequent requests from my family for lunch or dinner. All of the soups are actually a double dose of poultry goodness, since they start with chicken broth and feature chicken. (Goodness, after reflecting on that wild rice soup, I sure am craving a big bowl of creamy broth, mushrooms, chicken, and rice.)

Chicken Casseroles

I don’t know about you, but I find it impossible to resist a baking dish full of diced or shredded chicken, sauce, veggies, and cheese. All of the leftover chicken casseroles below deliver on that promise. If I had to choose my personal sweetheart, it would be the pot pie (due to the flaky, buttery crust that conceals a surprising amount of veggies; even picky eaters approve of this one).

More Recipes for Leftover Chicken

While they don’t fit neatly into any of the above categories, these recipes are packed with flavor and a great way to use up leftover chicken!

How to Make Chicken Broth

For the best, most delicious homemade bone broth, start with a whole raw chicken or chicken pieces and simple vegetables and herbs. At the end of it, you’ll have 4 cups of delicious cooked chicken and 2 quarts of the best chicken broth you’ve ever tasted.

1 hour 40 minutes
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Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.

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