One of the best things about roasting a whole chicken like we did last weekend is having all that leftover meat! It's often more economical to buy a whole chicken instead of chicken parts, and already having it cooked means one less thing to do when preparing weeknight meals. Here are a few of our favorite ways to use up those leftovers...
Frugal Cooking: Eight Ways to Use Leftover Chicken
If we roast the chicken over the weekend, we can use the extra meat for quick dinners like these throughout the week that follows:
1. Green Salad - A fresh green salad with cubes of chicken, fresh fruit, and some toasted nuts is one of our favorite meals for a simple lunch or dinner.
2. Chicken Salad - Use a little mayo or yogurt to bind shredded chicken together (or skip the mayo altogether). Raw veggies make a nice texture contrast and a sprinkling of spices adds flavor. Add some pasta and you have a full meal!
3. Chicken Soup - Chicken noodle soup is an obvious choice for leftover meat, but we also like to use it to make white chili, chicken and rice soup, posole, or even an extra-hearty minestrone.
4. Chicken Pizza - Toss a handful of shredded chicken onto your favorite pizza!
5. BBQ Chicken Sandwich - Mix a little of your favorite BBQ sauce with the shredded chicken and pile it on a soft roll.
6. Lettuce Wraps - These wraps are just shredded or minced chicken rolled up in lettuce leaves along with small-diced vegetables and a sprinkling of sweet-salty sauce, but they're so good! We like this recipe from Taste of Home.
7. Chicken Pot Pie - Warm and comforting, this is a favorite cool-weather meal.
8. Burritos and Enchiladas - Roll up the leftover chicken in a tortilla along with beans, cheese, rice, and any other extras you might have on hand. Eat as is, or cover the rolls with salsa in a baking dish and bake until they're warmed through.
And if there are still leftovers at the end of the week, we shred all the meat and freeze it for later!
What other suggestions do you have for using up leftover chicken?
Related: More with Less: Frugal and Budget Cooking from the Kitchn
(Image: Emma Christensen for the Kitchn)
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Tips & Techniques, Ingredients - Meat, Meat Products, Recipe Roundup, Frugality, chicken, poultry, leftover, shredded chickenRelated Links
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Chicken stock! Well, from the bones, anyway.
I like leftover chicken on a sandwich with nothing but butter, salt and some really good bread and butter pickles.
view Tiamat_the_Red's profile
Flautas! Warm your corn tortillas in oil, drain well on paper towels, and roll up just a bit of shredded chicken and raw onion as tightly as you can without destroying the tortilla. Secure with toothpicks, fry till golden and crispy. Serve with salsa, guacamole and mexican crema.
view zuzupetals's profile
omg those flautas sound so good. You're naughty!
view ashleym (aka autzve on flickr)'s profile
even tho its already cooked you can dice it up and stirfry it with some frozen veggies and a bit of soy sauce and/or spices for a quick meal. Just throw it in at the end to warm it up as the veggies are finishing up. Great on top of rice or Asian noodles.
view adamwa's profile
Yep, you're missing out if you're not making your own chicken stock from the bones.
view angorian's profile
hah! i just made flautas today with leftover chicken before seeing this post. :)
another idea is to make a quick chicken wellington with those ready made pastry sheets and mushroom/nut pate.
mmmm....
view bluenude's profile
Comfort food! Chicken pot pie is an excellent way to use up leftover chicken.
view Aldyth's profile
i made stock from the bones, etc. of a rotisserie chicken we got at the grocery store this weekend. the only kind they had at that time was BBQ flavor, so our stock is a bit BBQ-y. i think i might use it for baked beans...sounds pretty good to me!
view akostalas's profile
I throw the carcass into a ziploc bag the freezer until I have two or three to make stock. Just cover with water, simmer with carrots, celery and onion for about three hours and strain. Makes a delicious base for any soup or risotto.
view DCista's profile