Are you a fan of the grocery store rotisserie chicken? It’s the ultimate solution for a busy weeknight meal. A whole roasted chicken can easily serve a family of four, and you may even end up with leftovers. It’s versatile and budget-friendly: you can pair it with rice, potatoes, salad, pasta, roasted veggies… the options are limitless!
A major benefit of rotisserie chicken is that it’s already seasoned, brined and cooked. This is good for those who always think that their chicken breasts come out dull and flavorless. Instead of eating your chicken straight from its plastic container, whip up a home-cooked meal with precooked chicken. One nutrition note: Don’t go overboard with salt and other seasonings because rotisserie chicken is prepped with plenty of sodium-rich brines, broths or rubs.
Because we know you value time and convenience, we’ve rounded up 15 of our favorite recipes using rotisserie chicken. We even grouped them by total cook time to make choosing even easier!
FAST (TOTAL COOK TIME: 20 MINUTES OR LESS)
1. Barbecued Chicken Burritos is ready in 15 minutes. Combine cooked chicken, BBQ sauce, beans, corn and sour cream over the stovetop. Then, assemble your burrito with a whole-wheat tortilla, so you also get a dose of fiber — 6 grams per serving! This makes a hearty lunch item, too.
2 Asian Mango and Chicken Salad takes 10 minutes to toss together. It’s a Vietnamese-style salad featuring shredded chicken, cabbage, carrot, mango and mint drizzled with a lime dressing. This nutritious dish gives you over 100% of your vitamins A and C for the day!
3. Curried Chicken Pita Pockets is a spice-filled 15-minute meal you can make ahead for lunch. These no-cook pita pockets are stuffed with cubed chicken, pears, celery, cranberries and almonds. Serve it with a cool, curry-based yogurt dressing.
4. Green Goddess Salad With Chicken comes together in 15 minutes using common ingredients like romaine lettuce, cucumber, avocado and cherry tomatoes. Green Goddess refers to the salad dressing made with pureed buttermilk, herbs and vinegar. A serving is less than 300 calories but packs 6 grams of fiber.
5. Chicken Waldorf Salad is a 15-minute sandwich filling. This recipe is made with thick chunks of refreshing ingredients like apples, grapes, celery and walnuts. It’s a high-protein meal delivering 31 grams of protein per serving.
6. Orange Walnut Chicken Salad is a quick 20-minute dinner option for salad lovers. This bright salad uses mixed greens, shredded chicken, orange, walnut and goat cheese. Serve it with an orange vinaigrette. It’s not a skimpy salad — each serving is 470 calories and provides over 100% of your daily needs for vitamins A and C.
7. Roasted Chicken Salad With Garlic Toast is an easy 20-minute meal that features comforting garlic toast served along a side salad and chicken. Each serving packs 37 grams of protein, which can help you feel fuller for longer.
MEDIUM (TOTAL COOK TIME: 25–45 MINUTES)
8. Chicken and Slaw Tostadas bakes up in 35 minutes. It’s made with a yummy tofu-based dressing that’s jazzed up with lime, honey, mustard and chipotle. Assemble your tostadas with crispy baked tortillas, creamy slaw and lean cooked chicken. The recipe serves six as an appetizer but feel free to eat two or three tostadas if this is your main meal.
9. Jerk Chicken Pockets can be enjoyed in 45 minutes. Dish out jerk-flavored chicken, sweet potatoes, peppers and raisins rolled into whole-wheat pizza dough. These baked pockets make a satisfying supper hot out of the oven. You can make the filling in advance and roll them into the pizza dough when you’re ready to bake.
10. Chicken and White Bean Soup is sip-worthy in 25 minutes! It’s a quick soup recipe you should save for a chilly day. Shredded chicken is served along with leeks, sage and white beans. At under 250 calories, you can enjoy this as an appetizer, or double the serving size and enjoy it for dinner.
11. Chicken Salad With Dried Cherries requires no cooking, and is done in less than 35 minutes. This recipe lightens up classic chicken salad with low-fat yogurt and mayonnaise. It gets a touch of sweetness from dried cherries, but you can also use cranberries instead. This recipe calls for uncooked chicken, but you can cut out this step and use rotisserie chicken instead.
12. Melon and Chicken Pasta Salad takes 40 minutes to cook up, but you can easily pack leftovers for lunch the next day. This pasta salad features cubed melon, proscuitto, bowtie pasta, spinach and cranberries tossed in a creamy sauce. Each serving is under 300 calories and packs 4 grams of fiber and 25 grams of protein.
SLOW (TOTAL COOK TIME: 50 MINUTES OR MORE)
13. Cilantro-Chicken Chilaquiles With Crumbled Queso Fresco is a skillet dinner that’s ready in 50 minutes. The recipe sounds like a mouthful because this meal will be a mouthful: tender layers of corn tortilla, shredded chicken, tomatoes and salsa topped with sour cream and queso fresco.
14. Chicken, Charred Tomato and Broccoli Salad is ready in an hour, and perfect for low-carb lovers. Lean shredded chicken is simmered along with broccoli florets and tomatoes. The final dish delivers 110% of your daily needs for vitamin C.
15. Chile Rellenos with Chicken roasts up perfectly in an hour and 45 minutes. Blistered poblano peppers are a flavorful vessel for shredded chicken, corn, egg and cheese. At 350 calories, you can double the serving size if you want this to be a more filling meal.
