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What do to with those leftover chicken breasts? Those leftover chicken thighs? Shred them! Leftover cooked shredded chicken is one of the most perpetually useful things to have in your fridge, a springboard for all kinds of meals.
Whether it’s from a store-bought rotisserie chicken, or just extra chicken from a dinner earlier in the week, whether the chicken has been poached, grilled, roasted, baked, made in a slow cooker or Instant Pot, or steamed, it’s a goldmine of future recipes and meals waiting to happen. Think tacos, enchiladas, chicken salads, soups, and quesadillas.
(Psst….anything on this list also works with leftover shredded turkey! Which many of us will have in our fridges right after Thanksgiving.)
If you’re super smart, you’ll plan ahead and make a few extra pieces whenever you cook chicken, and then you’ll have this head start for all sorts of great chicken meals later in the week. You can plan for leftover chicken breasts or thighs or even a whole roast chicken.
I often buy a rotisserie chicken at the market if I’m not sure what the week’s meal plan is because there will be a dinner one way or another. There are so many easy shredded chicken recipes just waiting to happen.
You can also buy packages of freshly shredded rotisserie chicken breasts at Costco, and then you are ready to roll with any of the following. It’s a great shortcut for those moments when you don’t even have time to shred up a rotisserie chicken. These packages are all chicken breasts, so all white meat, perfect for chicken salads and the like.
How to Shred Chicken
You can shred chicken while it’s still warm, once it’s cooled to room temperature, or when it’s cold from the fridge. I think it’s easiest to shred when it’s still slightly warm. You can use your fingers, which is the quickest way to shred chicken, or you can use two forks to pull apart the meat.
And, you can shred the chicken as roughly or as finely as you like, in pieces large or small, depending on the texture you are looking for and how you’re using it. I like smaller pieces for soups, enchiladas, and burritos and larger chunks for stews and salads.
Leftover cooked chicken will last in the fridge will last for 3 or 5 days, depending on how fresh the chicken was when you cooked it. Keep it tightly sealed in a container or well-sealed zipper top bag.
Can you freeze leftover chicken?
Yes! Put it in a container or zipper top bag, and seal it tightly. Label it with the date and freeze for up to 6 months.
30 Shredded Chicken Recipes
So, without further ado, here’s what can be made from shredded chicken!
This divine soup is scented with chili, cumin, and coriander and topped with all kinds of deliciousness, like avocado and tortilla crisps. This is one of my favorite soups of all time. It’s bursting with flavor, and if you have leftover shredded chicken at the ready, it comes together very quickly. Another soup that can easily hold its own as the main course. Serve with Roasted Garlic and Tomato Bread if you like.
The salad to keep up with the end-of-summer influx of produce. Lay down a bed of crunchy lettuce, and then create rows of whatever ingredients you’re craving, with a row of shredded chicken going right down the middle. I like leftover chicken breasts for this one. Tomatoes, chickpeas, onions, avocados, bacon…anything you’d like to see in your salad is fair game.
Pick up some mushrooms and a rotisserie chicken, and have this pasta for dinner in about 30 minutes. This is the very definition of an easy weeknight dinner, with a sauce anchored by a bit of richly flavored marsala wine and a generous amount of sautéed mushrooms. And guess what — only 5 ingredients (not including the pasta and olive oil, which I hope you’ll think is fair).
This is a delicious twist on the more traditional taco fillings. The shredded chicken is tossed with a Mexican-spice seasoned tomato sauce that has piquancy and depth.
This herbed mayo is a summer staple in my house, and you can make it with whatever herbs you have on hand. It turns some simply shredded chicken breasts into an amazing chicken salad.
This is the perfect combo of Caesar Salad and pasta salad. Don't think for a minute that lettuce in a pasta salad is weird; I promise you it's not! And the dressing is divine.
You definitely should plan to save some leftover cooked (or rotisserie!) chicken to make these easy, super kid-friendly quesadillas. If you use bottled sauce they can be ready in minutes.
If you are making this ahead of time, make sure to add the avocado just before serving so it doesn't brown. This a great portable dish — perfect for an office lunch, a buffet, a picnic, you name it.
This soup is so easy but will make you feel like you've gotten some amazing takeout from a Thai restaurant. Lemongrass, ginger, and fish sauce give it an amazing aroma, and the rice noodles are imminently slurpable.
These are super cheesy and flavorful, and stuffed full. If you are making quesadillas for a crowd, baking them is so much more efficient than making them in a pan.
If you are lucky enough to get your hands on some ramps in the spring, then make this salad! This robustly flavored hearty pasta salad with shredded chicken is beautiful and delicious.
With a couple of cups of shredded chicken and a handful of additional ingredients, in less than half an hour you can have a creamy, mildly spicy, and eye-rollingly good hot dip. Perfect for game day.
A chopped salad made with diced or shredded chicken is one of our favorite lunches. Heavy on the chicken! I made huge bowls of this when the whole family is around.
The first time I had this salad was at The Cheesecake Factory, and I've never looked back. But this colorful, classic restaurant salad is yours to make at home — savory and sweet, with lots of crunch.
Another chopped salad, but this one featured blue cheese dressing, which is one of our favorite creamy dressings. Use your favorite blue cheese, or just use bottled blue cheese dressing (I like Marie's).
Katie Workman is a cook, a writer, a mother of two, an activist in hunger issues, and an enthusiastic advocate for family meals, which is the inspiration behind her two beloved cookbooks, Dinner Solved! and The Mom 100 Cookbook.
