35 Leftover Shredded Chicken Recipes

What to Do with Leftover Chicken

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.

How to Make Shredded Chicken in the Slow Cooker

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 or steamed, it’s a goldmine of future recipes and meals waiting to happen.

(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 springboard for all sorts of great chicken meals later in the week. You can plan for leftover chicken breasts or thighs, or even a whole extra 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 leftover chicken ideas, easy shredded chicken recipes just waiting to happen.

Shredded Chicken From Costco

You can buy packages of fresh shredded rotisseries chicken breasts at Costco, and then you are ready to roll with any of the following. It’s a great shortcut for those moments where 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. You can use your fingers, which is the easiest 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 and enchiladas and burritos, and larger chunks for stews and salads.

How Long is Cooked Chicken Good For?

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.

How To Use Up Leftover Chicken

So, without further ado: here’s what can be made from shredded chicken!

36 Shredded Chicken Recipes

Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup

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.

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Late Summer Cobb Salad

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.

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5-Ingredient Pasta: Chicken and Mushroom Marsala Rotelle / Mia / Katie Workman / themom100.com

Chicken Marsala Pasta

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).

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