These super easy leftover chicken recipes are perfect for lunch or dinner, absolutely delicious, kid-friendly and pretty healthy too!
So, wonder no more how to use the leftover chicken in your fridge! With a few simple tricks, you can turn those leftovers into a tasty chicken dinner that your family will love. And you’ll need between 10-30 minutes to do so. Not a ton of cleanup either.
From healing chicken soup, through chicken pasta to spicy chicken wraps…you’ll find everything you need in this collection of delicious and simple leftover chicken recipes.
You can make the meals on this list using rotisserie chicken, roast chicken or leftover shredded chicken. When you give them a try, you’ll want to make them again and again and again for a quick and easy lunch or dinner.
Easy Leftover chicken recipes
Chicken recipes like these are the very reason I love having some rotisserie chicken at home. Last year, we went through a period where we were buying rotisserie chicken quite often. While it’s super delicious with some hummus, tzatziki, bread, and salad on the first day, the day after, you just crave something else.
What? I cannot possibly tell you, right now. It all depends on what you’re in the mood for at that moment. But whatever your cravings are, here you’ll find the inspiration you need to make a tasty and quick lunch or dinner using those leftover scraps of chicken.
Most of these easy meals rely on cooked ingredients, so you can prep them quickly and clean up your fridge while you’re cooking something pretty tasty. Make sure to save this list of leftover chicken recipes for whenever you’re hungry, got some cooked chicken to use up and not a ton of time!
1. Rotisserie GREEK Chicken wraps
This Mediterranean chicken recipe is made with leftover rotisserie chicken, tzatziki as well as fresh and roasted vegetables. Sounds (and looks) good right? This easy recipe is pretty healthy, versatile and what’s even better is that you can make these tasty chicken wraps in about 20 minutes using what you have at home. The recipe is here.
2. Chickpea, Feta and Chicken Salad
The easiest way to use up leftover chicken: throw everything into a bowl, toss and you’ve got a quick and healthy chicken salad! Perfect for lunch or dinner, this super filling salad recipe is made with fresh and roasted vegetables, chickpeas, feta and cooked chicken in about 10 minutes. You can find the recipe here.
3. 15-Minute Cheesy Leftover Chicken Quesadilla
The ingredients for this amazing cheesy quesadilla include leftover shredded chicken (or any kind of leftover cooked chicken you have), cream cheese, garlic and jalapenos.
It is super easy to prepare too. Simply mix the filling ingredients together, then spread them on 1/2 of a tortilla, cheese on top, fold the tortilla in half and toast on both sides until golden brown and the cheese is melty. You’ve got yourself the most delicious chicken quesadilla ready for dinner or lunch and it took you about 15 minutes and some leftovers. Plus it tastes divine! This chicken dinner is definitely a winner. Recipe here.
4. 10-Minute Leftover Chicken Pasta
Yes, you can make a kid-friendly leftover chicken pasta and you can do so in about 10 minutes.
This pasta dish is kinda healthy and it tastes wonderful! The ingredients you’ll need include quick-cooking macaroni, leftover shredded chicken, but you can also use rotisserie or roast chicken, dill, tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.
You’ll love this easy meal, as it’s filling, super tasty and perfect for a quick dinner that doesn’t require a ton of effort! Recipe here.
5. 15-Minute Leftover Quinoa Fried Rice With Chicken
Tranform leftovers and make this delicious, healthier quick dinner using cooked chicken, cooked quinoa, soy or tamari sauce and whatever vegetables you have at home! Cabbage, onion, garlic, and carrots are all a good choices here. If you’re not a fan of quinoa, you can also use leftover cooked rice or cauliflower rice for a low-carb option. This is so much better than takeout! Recipe here.
6. Healthy Avocado Chicken Salad
Mash one avocado with garlic, add some shredded chicken, onion, herbs and some more chopped veggies for texture and serve this leftover chicken salad on a slice of bread. Or eat it with a spoon. You can even serve it as lettuce wraps or a part of healthy lunch bowls alongside some rice or quinoa as well! It’s fresh, easy and super healthy! Ready in 10 minutes, you can find the recipe here.
7. 10-Minute Spicy Feta and Leftover Chicken Quesadilla
I know, it sounds like a leftover makeover gone crazy, but this version of chicken quesadilla is super good!
All you need to do is combine feta cheese, garlic, leftover rotisserie chicken, herbs and tomato paste. Spread that over half of a tortilla, fold the tortilla in half, toast and make this spicy leftover chicken quesadilla.
Ready in about 10-15 minutes with whatever food you’ve got at home, this chicken recipe is perfect for quick lunch or dinner. The recipe is here.
8. Anti-Inflammatory Cauliflower And Leftover Chicken Soup
Isn’t it just wonderful that you can cook this healing chicken soup in about 30 minutes by using leftover shredded chicken? I think it’s pretty great. And it’s especially great when you’re craving a homemade comforting meal when the weather is gloomy and you just want to hide at home and hibernate like a little bear.
The other thing that’s great about this soup is that you can use leftovers to make it! Cooked or rotisserie chicken will work in this soup, which can speed up the process a ton.
Made with cauliflower and healing spices this homemade chicken soup makes a great weeknight dinner idea that you will love. You can pack leftovers for an easy hot lunch as well! Recipe here.
9. 10-Minute Beans and Chicken
If you’ve got a can of white beans, an onion, herbs, spices and some leftover rotisserie chicken, you can make this healthy dish for dinner in about 10 minutes. It’s packed with flavor, yet super easy to put together on busy nights. I recommend you serve this meal with a salad and maybe some tzatziki sauce to add something creamy and garlicky. You will find the recipe here.
10. Parmesan Pesto Leftover Chicken Wraps
Having some leftover roast chicken in the fridge is great if you love chicken wraps! They’re perfect for lunch or even dinner if you’re not in the mood to cook an entire big meal.
These particular parmesan chicken wraps are ready in about 10-15 minutes and made with pesto, garlic, cooked chicken, vegetables and mozzarella. Add in some spinach, shredded mozzarella and olives if you wish. I always love to toast my wraps before serving, since I Love that crispy texture, so I highly recommend you do it too. You can find the full recipe here.
11. Chicken Salad Sandwich Melt
Not your typical chicken salad, but this chicken salad sandwich melt is so good! Super flavorful, seriously melt-in-your-mouth and crispy on the outside, I could eat this every single day.
Here’s what you need to to. Start by making the chicken salad with cream cheese, herbs, garlic and the cooked chicken. Then put that salad between two slices of bread. Add some cheese on top if you wish. And last, but not least: toast both sides until golden brown with some olive oil in a pan. It’s really tasty. You can find the recipe here.
12. Pesto Chicken Cauliflower Rice
If you’ve never had cauliflower rice before, the time has come! This chicken and cauliflower rice recipe is so delicious and super easy to put together using some pesto, tomatoes, cheese, cooked chicken and cauliflower. Recipe here.
13. 15-minute Quinoa and Chicken
This is another option if you already have some chicken leftovers and some leftover quinoa. This is a more Mediterranean-style quick dinner idea with mozzarella cheese and lots of vegetables. If you don’t have the quinoa, you can make this leftover chicken recipe with cooked rice as well. Recipe here.
14. Leftover Spicy Avocado Chicken Wraps
If you love spicy food, chicken and avocado, you need to make these delicious spicy leftover chicken wraps. Filled with nutritious vegetables like spinach, basil and zucchini, these wraps make a healthier recipe for lunch or dinner that is ready in about 15 minutes. You can find it here.
15. Chicken Breakfast Egg Bake
Yes, you can even have that leftover chicken at breakfast too. This is a very easy meal prep breakfast recipe with eggs, cooked chicken and vegetables. The egg bake is lower in carbs, higher in protein, stores well in the fridge and tastes really good! Recipe here.
How To Store Leftover Chicken
As with almost any other food, store your cooked chicken in the fridge in an airtight container. If you do have cooked chicken that you do not want to eat in the next 3 days, you can also portion the leftovers out in containers and freeze.
The chicken will stay good for about a month and can be used in the chicken recipes after defrosting for about 5-10 minutes. I always like to heat up chicken leftovers before using in salads, that’s just a personal preference. I do this on the stove, microwave or in the oven.
More Easy Chicken Recipes:
- Healthy Rice And Chicken Dinner Skillet
- 15-Minute High-Protein Spicy Chicken & Chickpeas
- One-Pan Rice, Chicken And Spinach
I hope you got some new ideas and inspiration on what to do with rotisserie chicken or any kind of leftover chicken in your fridge!
Easy Leftover Chicken Recipes For Dinner Or Lunch
These super easy leftover chicken recipes are perfect for lunch or dinner, absolutely delicious, kid-friendly and pretty healthy too! From healing chicken soup, through chicken pasta to spicy chicken wraps...you'll find all the ideas you need to use leftover rotisserie or roast chicken!
Ingredients
- 1 cup chicken, cooked, chopped*
- 2 Tbsp sour cream or cream cheese
- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 Tbsp basil, chopped
- 2 Tbsp arugula chopped
- 1 scallion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced (optional)
- black pepper
- salt to taste
- 4 olives, pitted, chopped
- 1 tomato, sliced (optional)
- 4-5 slices of bread
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix the chicken with the sour cream (or cream cheese), basil, arugula, scallion, garlic, black pepper, olives and mozzarella. Add salt to taste.
- Spread the salad on 2 slices of your favorite bread, add a slice of tomato (optional) on one of the slices and press both slices together.
- To toast: Toast the sandwich on the stove in a non-stick pan with some olive oil until golden brown.
Nutrition Information
Yield 2 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 523Total Fat 24gSaturated Fat 10gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 11gCholesterol 99mgSodium 976mgCarbohydrates 46gFiber 4gSugar 8gProtein 30g
This post was originally published in September 2021 and updated in November 2022.