Chicken Leftovers Recipes – What to Do with Your Leftover Chicken!
Leftover chicken always makes the next day’s meal so much easier. If you have roasted a chicken, have leftover chicken breast or chicken pieces, there are plenty of meals you can make. Here are some ideas for you:
1. Chicken Pot Pie: Homemade chicken pot pie always tastes better than the frozen kind. You can make your own crust from scratch or simply use a premade one from the grocery store. It’s always a great “leftovers” meal after a chicken dinner. Just use the leftover chicken meat and vegetables in your pie. By the way, if you need a detailed recipe, we have one for turkey pot pie here…just substitute the turkey for chicken.
2. Chicken Salad Sandwiches: Take some leftover chicken, chop it finely with a food chopper. Then chop some celery finely too. Mix chicken and celery with a few tablespoons of mayo and a bit of mustard. Season with salt and pepper. Serve on bread and add some lettuce and tomato, if you’d like.
3. Chicken Fried Rice: All you need is some fully-cooked chicken pieces, steamed rice, carrots, peas, corn and scrambled eggs. Slice the carrots thinly and sauté them in a large skillet. Add the peas and corn and sauté a little longer. Then add the rice and stir until heated through. Then add the scrambled eggs and mix thoroughly. Serve with soy sauce.
4. Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo: Cut fully-cooked chicken into cubes. Meanwhile, cook the fettuccini noodles according to the package instructions. Slice some mushrooms and finely chopped onion and sauté until tender. Add Alfredo sauce and cook until heated through. Toss with the cooked fettucini noodles. Serve with parmesan and garlic bread.
5. Chicken Noodle Soup: All you need is some chicken stock, your favorite vegetables cut in small pieces, fully-cooked chicken chopped into small pieces and some noodles. Start by heating the stock over medium-high heat and adding the vegetables. Add the densest vegetables first as they’ll need more time to cook. Allow carrots to simmer for about 20 minutes, while frozen peas and corn only need about 5 minutes. Add the noodles and cook for the length indicated in the package directions. Add the chicken 5 minutes before serving. Here’s our complete chicken noodle soup recipe.
6. Chicken Masala: This is an Indian curry dish with boneless chicken pieces and spicy masala sauce. The sauce is made with yogurt, cream and pureed tomato. It’s can be seasoned in a variety of way and may contain cayenne pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cumin, paprika and jalapeno pepper. Serve with rice and/or bread.
7. Chicken Florentine: This dish is made in a variety of ways and with varying ingredients, but here’s a simple approach. Take some fully cooked chicken pieces and place them in one layer on a baking dish, top with a few handfuls of spinach and some Alfredo sauce. Sprinkle on parmesan and bake in a 350 F oven for 30 minutes.
8. Chicken Quesadillas: If you’ve got leftover chicken, you’ve got easy quesadillas. Just cut into small pieces, place on a soft tortilla, add cheese and your other favorite quesadilla fillings. Fold the tortilla in half and cook on a medium skillet until heated and cheese is melted.
9. Chicken Rice Soup: Much like chicken noodle soup, use rice instead of noodles. You can add rice to your broth as you cook the soup, but be careful not to overcook it, or it will be soggy.
Don’t let that delicious and nutritious chicken go to waste. You’ve got 9 ideas to help you eat it up.
