6 Delicious Uses for Leftover Chicken
Chicken is one of the more economical types of meat and one that everyone in my family eats, so we tend to have it a lot. We typically don’t have much leftover chicken unless I make extra on purpose. I usually buy boneless, skinless breasts and one of the best ways I’ve discovered to make a little feed our family of five is to cut them all into cutlets.
I just slice each breast in half lengthwise before cooking. Doing so creates more reasonable portion sizes for most of us – the girls and I usually just have one cutlet each, while the boys have two. That means that I can still feed all five of us with 3 or 4 breasts.
Sometimes I’ll roast a whole chicken or purposely cook extra breasts for other meals, but each of these ideas works well for leftover chicken, too – even if you just store a little bit of leftover in the freezer from several meals until there’s enough to use for something else.
1. Top a salad
I love chicken on a salad. In the summer, I like to pair it with grapes and strawberries. In the winter, it’s delicious with apples and walnuts.
2. Add it to soup
I love chicken in soup. The best part is it usually doesn’t take much. My two favorite soups with chicken are probably the chicken gnocchi and taco soup recipes I shared in my favorite soup recipes post. This week I also tried the chicken pot pie soup recipe from Skinny Taste, which turned out really good. It tastes just like the inside of a chicken pot pie.
3. Put it in a pie
If the chicken pot pie soup doesn’t sound good to you, how about an actual chicken pot pie?
4. Make chicken salad
My mother-in-law makes the best chicken salad, but mine’s not too shabby so I’ll give it a go when I’ve got some leftover chicken. I like it with walnuts and grapes, but I have to make it plain for the boys. Which is your favorite?
5. Mix it into a casserole
I’ve got a couple of really good chicken casserole recipes. Most of my crew prefers my chicken and broccoli casserole, but there’s also a really good one involving an entire container of sour cream and some Ritz crackers.
6. Make quesadillas
Chicken quesadillas are a family favorite, so they usually get their own chicken, rather than leftovers. Still, if there’s enough leftover chicken, quesadillas are always a good choice.
What do you like to do with leftover chicken?
Chicken Pot Pie is a frequent use of left over chicken in our house. I put baking Power biscuits on top instead of pie crust. We also sometimes use it in a fritata. With the amount of sour cream and salsa my family puts on I can hide just about anything in a Fritata. We also make it into fried rice and less often a stir fry.