If you’ve got leftover chicken from another meal (or half a rotisserie you keep side-eyeing every time you open the fridge door), this post is for you. Below are 15 practical recipes that make leftover chicken feel like a brand new meal. I grouped them by style, so you can jump straight to what you’re craving: soup, salad, skillet dinner, casserole comfort, or something cheesy and snacky!
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All recipes are rigorously tested in our Nashville Test Kitchen to ensure they are easy, affordable, and delicious.
Cozy Soups Using Leftover Chicken
Soup is one of my favorite ways to make leftovers feel brand new. These cozy soups each work great with leftover cooked chicken and will also help reduce food waste in your kitchen!
1. Chicken Noodle Soup
The Best Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
This chicken noodle soup is a classic for a reason! It’s made with wholesome ingredients on the stovetop, and it’s freezer-friendly, too. It starts with a basic onion-carrot-celery base and builds into a brothy, herby soup that tastes like you actually tried (even if your “secret ingredient” is leftover chicken). Pro tip: I recommend freezing it without the noodles if you’re picky about texture later.
2. Chicken Pot Pie Soup
Chicken Pot Pie Soup
This chicken pot pie soup has all the cozy, creamy chicken pot pie vibes, but without dealing with a crust. The potatoes make it hearty, the frozen mixed veg keeps it easy, and the splash of cream at the end adds richness.
Chicken Salads
Leftover chicken makes salads instantly filling, and the best part is they each hold up well in the fridge for meal prep!
3. Classic Chicken Salad
Chicken Salad (Traditional)
This one gives you those deli-style flavors at home—creamy, crunchy, a little sweet from the grapes, plus walnuts for extra bite. I always make this chicken salad for my dad when he comes to visit because it’s one thing I know he will actually eat. Pile it into a sandwich, scoop it with crackers, or just eat it straight from the bowl!
4. Ramen Noodle Salad
Ramen Noodle Salad
Light, fresh, and deliciously crunchy, this ramen noodle salad is surprisingly filling for how simple it is. The crushed ramen noodles, cabbage, and almonds combo keeps it snappy, and the dressing is sweet, salty, and sesame-packed. It also holds up really well in the fridge, so you can eat leftovers for days (less cooking, more eating).
5. Chicken Salad With Broccoli and Cheddar
Broccoli Cheddar Chicken Salad
This broccoli cheddar chicken salad is ready in about 15 minutes and super flexible; rotisserie chicken, grilled chicken, even canned chicken works. I also love that it’s a salad you can serve in a bunch of ways! Wrap it up, stuff it in a pita, or turn it into a melty quesadilla-style dish in a skillet.
Quick & Easy Skillets
These are the “I need dinner, and I need it to happen ASAP” recipes. Especially good when you’ve got leftover cooked chicken and not a lot of patience!
6. Southwest Chicken Skillet
Southwest Chicken Skillet
As long as you’ve got precooked chicken, this Southwest chicken skillet is about 30 minutes away from being done. Rice cooks right in the skillet with salsa, broth, beans, and spices, then you melt cheese on top! So simple and easy.
7. Monterey Chicken Skillet
Monterey Chicken Skillet
Our Monterey chicken skillet is brimming with tomatoes and green chiles, BBQ sauce, cheese, and bacon. There’s so much going on that you never get a dull bite! Just big flavor the whole way through. We turned this one into a pasta dish because chicken, bacon, and cheese aren’t exactly cheap, so stretching it with pasta just makes sense.
Cozy Casseroles
Casseroles are THE ultimate midweek dinner option. They feed a bunch of people, warm everyone up, and pack my fridge with leftovers I already know my family will eat. These are the ones that feel especially comforting and use up leftover chicken. See our other casserole recipes for those days you don’t feel like chicken!
8. White Chicken Lasagna
White Chicken Lasagna Recipe
White chicken lasagna swaps classic tomato sauce for an easy white sauce made with heavy cream, mozzarella, Parmesan, and baby spinach. And let me tell you, it doesn’t disappoint. It’s creamy, cozy, and the spinach makes it feel (slightly) virtuous. 😉
9. King Ranch Chicken Casserole
King Ranch Chicken Casserole
A classic Texan casserole moment! This King Ranch chicken casserole has layers of chicken, tortillas, cheese, and a rich creamy gravy. A lot of versions use canned condensed soups, but we don’t really use that shortcut here. This one is made from-scratch with a quick homemade creamy chicken gravy instead.
Tex-Mex Leftover Favorites
Leftover chicken and easy Tex-Mex dinners are a match made in heaven! These leftover chicken recipes are melty, saucy, scoopable, and (most importantly), easy to love.
10. Chicken Quesadillas
Ultimate Chicken Quesadillas Recipe
Any pre-cooked chicken works here, which is exactly why these chicken quesadillas are such a budget-friendly win. The BBQ sauce adds a tangy, slightly sweet, saucy element that makes the filling extra craveable (I’m a Sweet Baby Ray’s person, but use whatever sauce you like).
11. Chicken Enchiladas
Chicken Enchiladas Recipe
These chicken enchiladas are cheesy and super weeknight-friendly. The homemade red enchilada sauce is the perfect finishing touch, in my opinion! It brings so much flavor, and it’s usually way cheaper than buying store-bought sauce.
12. Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas
Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas
Even though the green chile sauce and filling are made from scratch, this recipe is surprisingly simple and really adaptable. I’d call these green chile chicken enchiladas “medium” spicy. The pepper jack and a little cayenne bring heat, and canned green chiles can vary a lot. If you’re spice-sensitive, it’s easy to dial down by using a milder cheese and skipping the cayenne.
13. BBQ Chicken Burrito Bowls
BBQ Chicken Burrito Bowls
These BBQ chicken burrito bowls stretch one chicken breast across four bowls, which feels like a small victory these days! And if you want to use something other than chicken, I’d swap in roasted sweet potato cubes, tempeh, extra black beans, or my BBQ tofu.
14. Cheesy Chicken Nachos
Chicken Nachos
These chicken nachos are loaded with chicken, jalapeño, cilantro, green onions, avocado—but you can absolutely use whatever toppings you’ve got. My biggest tip is lining the pan with parchment or foil, so cleanup is basically nothing!
Don’t Throw Away the Carcass!
If you bought a rotisserie chicken or roasted a whole chicken, you’re sitting on bonus value. You can make an easy, delicious, nutrient packed chicken bone broth right at home!
15. Homemade Chicken Broth
How to: make chicken broth
This is the definition of low-effort, high-reward! Toss the carcass in a pot, add a handful of clean veggie scraps, cover with water, and let time do the work. As the broth simmers, the leftover bits (especially cartilage and connective tissue) break down and add body and depth, so the finished chicken broth tastes fuller and more “golden” than plain boxed stock!
