Leftover chicken is one of the most useful things in my fridge. I shred it into ramen, fold it through creamy orzo, pile it into arepas, or bake it under a sheet of puff pastry. Here are 28 leftover chicken recipes I actually make on repeat, plus a few tricks I picked up from my Grandma for stopping cooked chicken from drying out.
Here's the thing I've noticed about most leftover chicken recipes: a lot of them end up being a casserole dish. And listen, I love a casserole. But if you've got a container of cooked chicken sitting in the fridge, that chicken could just as easily become a Venezuelan arepa, a Korean stew, a Greek gyro, or a bowl of creamy Japanese-style udon.
I love cooking recipes inspired by dishes from all over the world, which means the same roast chicken tends to visit about four different countries before it's finished. Sunday it's a convection oven roast chicken. Monday it's noodles. Tuesday it could be a sandwich. Wednesday it's whatever's left, folded through pasta with a lot of cream. I'm also lucky enough to have this incredible butcher near my home that sells the BEST rotisserie chicken... but that's just for special occasions!
So, scroll down to get my 28 best leftover chicken recipes!
Jump to:
- How to Prep Leftover Chicken
- How to Stop Leftover Chicken Drying Out
- Where Leftover Chicken Just Gets Added
- Turn It Into a Bowl of Noodles
- Shred It Into Something Handheld
- Fold It Through Pasta
- Give It a Pastry Lid
- Cold Chicken, Done Properly
- Simmer It Into Something Warming
- The Same Trick With Leftover Turkey
- My Leftover Chicken Recipes Cheat Sheet
- FAQs
- One Last Thing
How to Prep Leftover Chicken
Before we get to the leftover chicken recipes, a quick word on the chicken itself, because how you break it up can really change which dishes it suits.
- Shred it for anything saucy. Ramen, curries, stews, enchiladas, arepas. Shredded chicken has more surface area, which means it soaks up whatever it's sitting in and stops tasting like yesterday's dinner.
- Chop it for salads and grain bowls, where you want a distinct bite rather than strands. Roughly half-inch pieces is what I go for.
- Slice it for sandwiches, wraps and anything where the chicken sits on top and needs to actually look like chicken.
Two top tips worth knowing. First, pull the meat off the bird while it's still slightly warm if you can. It comes away in much better pieces, and you'll get more off the carcass. Second, breast and thigh behave completely differently the next day. Thigh stays juicy through almost anything. Breast tends to have a bit of a drying-out problem, so if you've got both, save the thigh for the recipes that get reheated and use the breast for cold dishes like chicken salad.
How to Stop Leftover Chicken Drying Out
This is the bit that can really make the difference between leftover chicken recipes that taste like proper meals and leftover chicken recipes that taste like leftovers.
- Add it at the end, not the beginning. Your chicken is already cooked. It doesn't need to simmer, it needs to warm through. Every extra minute in the pan is another minute of it going stringy and tight. I stir mine in during the last two or three minutes and no earlier, especially if I'm adding it to any of my ramen recipes.
- Give it something to sit in. A splash of stock, a spoonful of cream, coconut milk, a proper sauce, the broth of a noodle soup. Dry heat is what ruins cooked chicken. Wet heat rescues it.
- If it's already gone dry, use fat and moisture together. This is why chicken salad exists. A mayo-based dressing, a creamy pasta sauce, or a coconut curry base will bring back chicken that's gone tight and papery in the fridge. Shred it smaller than you normally would so it soaks up more.
If you get all of this right, leftover chicken really stops tasting like leftovers. And if you get all the way down this list and still can't decide the right way to prepare, don't worry, I've put a little cheat sheet at the very bottom that matches whatever's actually sitting in your fridge to the recipe that suits it best. Right, let's get to the food!
Where Leftover Chicken Just Gets Added
These first two leftover chicken recipes are all very low effort. The chicken isn't really the point of the dish here, it's the thing you throw in because it's sitting in the fridge.
1. Easy Jacket Potato With Cheesy Beans
This is mostly hands-off rather than quick. The potato bakes for an hour wrapped in foil, then another 15 to 20 minutes uncovered to crisp the skin, and the homemade beans just sit there gently simmering the whole time. Which is exactly why it suits leftover chicken: pile shredded chicken in with the cheesy beans and it warms through in the sauce with zero extra work. I already top mine with crispy chorizo, but chicken instead of it, or alongside it, is very good.
2. 5-Minute Pizza Wrap
This is the genuinely fast one. Six minutes start to finish, and I've already got shredded chicken listed as one of my favorite toppings on it. My tip: toss the cooked chicken in half a teaspoon of paprika before it goes on, which stops it tasting like a leftover the second it hits the heat. Scatter it over the sauce with the mozzarella, then five minutes in the air fryer and it's done.
Turn It Into a Bowl of Noodles
This is my favorite thing to do with leftover chicken, and once you look at how I actually build these recipes, it makes complete sense. In every single one of the noodle dishes below, the chicken gets cooked separately and then goes in right at the end, either sliced over the top or shredded and dressed. That step is already built into the recipe. So when you've got cooked chicken sitting in the fridge, you're not adapting anything. You're just skipping the longest part.
3. Chicken Caesar Ramen
All the flavors of a chicken Caesar salad, but creamy and comforting and made in one pot. Normally the chicken breasts get fried, then simmered in the sauce for 10 to 15 minutes. With leftover chicken you skip both: build the anchovy, Parmesan and mayonnaise sauce, cook the noodles straight in it, then lay sliced chicken over the top with a jammy egg. That takes the cook time from 25 minutes down to about ten. Whatever you do, don't skip the anchovies. They melt into the sauce and they're the whole reason it tastes like a Caesar.
4. Marry Me Chicken Ramen
One of the most-loved recipes on my whole site and I completely understand why. Creamy, a bit indulgent, built on sun-dried tomatoes, cream and Parmesan. One honest note on adapting it: I normally coat the breasts in flour before frying, and that flour is doing quiet work thickening the broth later. With leftover chicken you lose that, so let the sauce reduce a minute or two longer before the noodles go in. Then slice the chicken over the top the way I do, rather than stirring it through.
5. Lemon Chicken Ramen
A 20-minute dinner for you. The lemon does a lot of work waking cooked chicken back up. Same adaptation as above: build the broth with the garlic, paprika, oregano and chilli flakes, add stock, lemon and cream, then slice your leftover chicken over the finished bowl with parsley, snow peas and sesame seeds.
6. Teriyaki Chicken Udon
If you only make one thing from this section, make this one. It's a brothy noodle soup rather than a sticky sauce dish, built on tomato, ginger, garlic, teriyaki and fish sauce, thickened with a little cornstarch and finished with ribbons of whisked egg. And here's the thing: the recipe as written has you poaching a chicken breast for 20 minutes purely so you can shred it into the broth. That's the single longest step and leftover chicken deletes it entirely. My mum used to make us something like this when we were younger, and it's still what I want when it's cold out. Leftover thigh meat is even better here than breast.
7. Lime and Coconut Chicken Noodles
Coconut milk is genuinely one of the best things you can do to leftover chicken, because it's fatty and liquid at the same time, which is exactly the combination that rescues chicken that's been in the fridge a couple of days. In the original the breasts simmer in the coconut broth for 15 minutes, then come out and get shredded and tossed with chili oil, parsley and sesame seeds before going back on top. With cooked chicken you skip straight to that shredding step, which is most of the cooking gone. I made this the first time when I was under the weather and it hit exactly the right spot.
8. Chicken Paprikash Noodles
Hungarian, deeply savory, and built on a lot of good sweet smoked paprika and a sour cream sauce. This one takes 40 minutes normally, mostly because the thighs marinate, then sear, then simmer in the stew for ten minutes. Leftover chicken cuts most of that: build the paprika base with the onions and peppers, stir in the sour cream and flour mixture, cook the noodles in it, then slice your chicken over the top with parsley. Thigh meat is ideal here if you've got it, since it holds up so much better than breast the next day.
If you want more ways to load up a noodle bowl, I've put together my full ramen toppings guide with everything I keep on hand.
Shred It Into Something Handheld
There's a reason so many sandwiches and wraps suit leftover chicken: the chicken almost never goes in hot. It gets cooked, cooled slightly, then shredded or chopped and dressed with something punchy before it ever touches the bread. Which is exactly the state your leftovers are already in.
9. Venezuelan Arepas (Reina Pepiada)
If you make one handheld leftover chicken recipe, make this. Reina Pepiada translates roughly to "curvy queen," and it's the classic Venezuelan arepa filling: shredded chicken mashed together with ripe avocado, red onion, garlic, red chili, mayo, cilantro and lime. The recipe has you poaching a chicken breast specially, which is 15 to 20 minutes of simmering before you can even start. With leftover chicken you skip straight to mashing the filling, and it comes together while the arepas fry.
10. Greek Chicken Gyros
Two months traveling around Greece and I ate these nearly every day. My chicken gyros are made in the air fryer, with marinated chicken thigh on skewers in one drawer and homemade fries in the other, so they finish at the same time. Then it all goes into a big garlic and herb flatbread with tzatziki, tomato, red onion, parsley and yes, the fries go inside the wrap. With leftover chicken you lose the marinade, so give the sliced chicken five minutes in the air fryer at 200C / 390F to warm it and get some color back on the edges, which is the same thing I do when reheating leftover gyros anyway.
11. Buffalo Chicken Wrap
This one takes its cue from the chopped salad trend, and the chopping is the whole point. Everything goes onto a big board together, the chicken, gem lettuce, celery, carrot, chives, hot sauce, yogurt, mayo, honey, crispy onions and blue cheese, and then you chop until it's properly combined so you get every flavor in every bite. Leftover chicken works perfectly here because it's getting chopped up regardless. Just toss it in the paprika and buffalo sauce in a hot pan for a minute first so it picks up that flavor before it hits the board.
12. Shredded Buffalo Chicken Sandwich
This is the one that's practically written for leftovers. The recipe poaches chicken breasts for 10 minutes purely so you can shred them, then fries the shredded chicken with hot sauce, garlic powder, honey, paprika and a little stock until the sauce thickens and clings. With cooked chicken in the fridge you skip straight to that frying step, which is about two minutes of work. Then it's brioche, blue cheese sauce, the cucumber and celery slaw, and pickled jalapeños on top.
Fold It Through Pasta
In every single one of my chicken pasta recipes, I sear the chicken and then take it straight back out of the pan, and only return it right at the end so it doesn't overcook. So naturally, leftover chicken is perfect for these types of dishes!
13. Creamy Chicken Orzo
Chicken thighs, baby tomatoes, lemon zest, a little balsamic, and orzo cooked right in the stock and cream so it goes properly creamy. Then the whole thing gets topped with sliced mozzarella and put under the grill for five minutes until it's golden and bubbling, which is the bit that makes it. Add leftover chicken in the last few minutes of the orzo simmering, before the mozzarella goes on. One thing worth repeating from the recipe: use the lemon zest only, not the juice, because the juice can turn bitter and split the sauce.
14. Chicken Spinach Alfredo
One pot, 25 minutes, and the pasta cooks directly in the garlicky stock and cream. The chicken gets seared with paprika, removed, and then goes back in at the very end alongside the spinach and Parmesan. So with leftover chicken you're skipping the first ten minutes entirely and adding it exactly where the recipe already tells you to. If the sauce tightens up while you're doing it, a splash of water or stock loosens it straight back out.
15. Chicken and Broccoli Pasta Bake
Fair warning, this is the most involved recipe in this section rather than the easiest. There's a proper béchamel to make, whisking the milk into the flour and butter in quarters, plus cheddar, Red Leicester, crispy lardons and a mozzarella top that goes under the grill at the end. It's 40 minutes and it feeds four. But leftover chicken does save you a step: instead of frying the chicken and broccoli off at the start, just fold the cooked chicken in when you combine everything with the sauce before it goes in the oven.
16. Honey Harissa Chicken Pasta With Chickpeas
This recipe only takes 20 minutes. Aaaand the chickpeas are really great in this recipe, so try not to skip them. The chicken thighs fry with garlic and harissa, then come out while the onions and chickpeas go in with cream, honey and lemon, and the chicken gets sliced back through at the end. With leftover chicken, stir it through a few minutes before serving to heat up the chicken.
Give It a Pastry Lid
Chicken pot pie is the single most-suggested thing to do with leftover chicken on the internet, and it is a great way of using up leftover chicken so, I've got three, and two of them use scrunched filo rather than a traditional lid, which I'd genuinely recommend if you've only ever done puff. It goes crisp and it takes about a minute to do. So, here are some leftover chicken recipes using pastry.
17. Easy Chicken Pot Pie Using Puff Pastry
Onion, garlic, chicken, a bag of frozen vegetables, stock and cream, thickened with a spoonful of flour and seasoned with whatever paste you've got in the fridge. I use 'nduja, which sounds unexpected in a pot pie but is delicious! Harissa, chipotle, Thai red curry paste or just smoked paprika all work too. Then puff pastry over the top and 20 minutes in the oven. Leftover chicken means you skip the initial frying and just stir it into the sauce before it goes in the dish.
18. Easy Chicken Pot Pie With Filo Pastry
I call this one Chimi-Chicken Pie, because the filling is built on chimichurri flavors: parsley, garlic, red chili and oregano, with peas through it, and then a fresh chimichurri spooned over the top once it comes out of the oven. That last step is what makes it. My recipe already caters to pre-cooked chicken instead, so this is a straight swap. I use thighs here because they stay juicy where breast can dry out, which is worth remembering when you're picking which leftovers to use.
19. Marry Me Chicken Pie
All the marry me chicken flavors, sun-dried tomatoes, cream, Parmesan and chili flakes, with butter beans and spinach to bulk it out, under a crumpled filo top. Again, it's perfect for pre-cooked chicken, just shred or dice it and add it to the sauce during the final stages so it absorbs the flavors.
Cold Chicken, Done Properly
Cold leftover chicken gets a bad reputation and I think that's unfair. It just needs dressing well. Two of the three leftover chicken recipes below are already written around pre-cooked chicken, so there's genuinely nothing to change: you open the fridge, you chop, you dress, you eat - yum!
20. The Best Chicken Salad Without Mayo
Five minutes, and no cooking whatsoever. This one is already built around pre-cooked rotisserie chicken, so leftover roast works exactly as written. It's my lighter take on a deli chicken salad: chopped chicken with celery, arugula, gem lettuce, baby tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes and parsley, dressed with olive oil, balsamic, lemon and Dijon rather than mayo. If you want the chicken really fine, almost shredded, an electric hand mixer will do it in seconds. Do keep the dressing separate if you're making it ahead, or the leaves go sad. And if you're not a celery person, my substitutes for celery post has a few swaps that work here.
21. The Best Chicken Salad Without Celery
Also five minutes, also built on pre-cooked chicken, and this is the creamier of the two. I've swapped the celery out for radish and green onion so you still get the crunch, and the dressing is mayo, Dijon, honey, paprika and lemon. It's very good by the spoonful straight from the bowl, but I also love it stuffed into focaccia, spooned into lettuce cups, or stirred through cold pasta. If you like a sweet note in your chicken salad, chopped grapes or dates are lovely in it.
22. Vietnamese-Inspired Summer Salad
A vermicelli noodle salad rather than a leafy one, and one of my favorite things to eat in summer. Julienned cucumber and carrot, loads of mint and cilantro, and a proper nuoc cham style dressing made with fish sauce, lime, rice wine vinegar, sugar and bird's eye chili. The recipe marinates thin strips of chicken and fries them for two minutes a side. With leftover chicken, slice or shred it and let it sit in a spoonful of the dressing for a few minutes before it goes on the plate.
Simmer It Into Something Warming
Cooked chicken and a simmering sauce are a natural match, as long as you add the chicken near the end rather than letting it stew. All three below give you something to spoon over rice, noodles or mash.
23. Korean-Style Chicken Stew
Inspired by dakdoritang, and one of my favorite things I made last year. It's got gochujang and gochugaru, with kimchi for tang, plus eggplant that goes silky and button mushrooms for texture. Rather than potatoes in the stew, I serve it over a silky mashed potato, which I'd highly recommend. Build the whole thing as I've written on the recipe card, then stir your cooked chicken in for the last few minutes instead of simmering it for fifteen. The sauce is punchy enough that nobody will guess.
24. Speedy Thai Peanut Chicken Curry
Red Thai curry paste, peanut butter, fish sauce and coconut milk. Peanut and coconut together is another one of those fat-plus-liquid combinations that makes leftover chicken taste brand new. One thing worth knowing: normally the chicken marinates in curry paste before it's browned, and that's where a lot of its flavor comes from. With cooked chicken, toss it in a spoonful of the curry paste before it goes into the sauce, then let it warm through for two or three minutes rather than the usual eight to ten. As I say on the recipe, you really don't want to overcook it or it goes dry.
25. French Onion Soup Chicken Casserole
I lived in France when I was younger, so this one is pure nostalgia for me. Four onions caramelized slowly, beef stock and white wine, then the whole thing topped with slices of baguette and grated gruyère and put under the grill until molten. Cooked chicken goes in when you add the stock, so it just warms through while the sauce thickens.
The Same Trick With Leftover Turkey
If you've come here after a holiday roast, these three leftover chicken recipes are where I'd start. Two of them swap straight over to chicken with no changes at all, and the third works too, you just use chicken stock instead of the carcass broth.
26. Homemade Leftover Turkey Ramen
Homemade ramen is honestly one of the recipes I make most. This one uses the whole bird: the carcass goes in a pot with salted water and simmers for one to two hours to make the broth, then you build a peanut butter and chilli oil tare, fry the leftover meat with ginger, garlic and soy, and pile it up with a jammy egg, shiitake, carrot and cilantro. The long bit is entirely hands-off. And if you've got a chicken carcass rather than a turkey one, it works exactly the same way, or just use chicken stock and skip straight to the ten-minute assembly. Use brown meat if you have it, it stays much moister.
27. Sweet Chilli Turkey Quesadilla
Fifteen minutes, and the homemade avocado drizzle is irresistible. Shredded leftover meat fried with red onion, garlic and sweet chilli jam, packed into a tortilla with mozzarella and Red Leicester, then fried until golden and served with a blended avocado, lemon, olive oil and chili flake sauce. Works with leftover chicken exactly as written, and the darker the meat the better since it holds its moisture.
28. Festive Turkey Flatbreads
The dough is just two ingredients. Self-raising flour and Greek yogurt, kneaded for a minute, and that's it. You stuff each one with cranberry sauce, brie and chopped leftover meat, seal it like a parcel, roll it flat and dry fry it in a pan with no oil at all. Chicken works just as well as turkey here. If you like the idea, I've got a whole collection of flatbread recipes built on the same two-ingredient dough.
My Leftover Chicken Recipes Cheat Sheet
You made it. Here's the shortcut I promised: work out what's actually in your container, and this will tell you which leftover chicken recipe to cook!
| If you've got... | Make this | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Five minutes and zero patience | Chicken salad without mayo, chicken salad without celery, or a pizza wrap | Under 10 mins |
| Breast meat that's gone dry | Either chicken salad, or the Thai peanut chicken curry. Fat and moisture bring it back | 5 to 30 mins |
| Thigh meat | Chicken paprikash noodles, the filo pot pie, or the Korean-style chicken stew. Thigh holds up best when reheated | 40 to 45 mins |
| The carcass as well as the meat | Homemade ramen. Simmer the bones for the broth, it's almost entirely hands-off | About 2 hours |
| A craving for noodles | Teriyaki chicken udon or lemon chicken ramen. Both are quick, both take shredded or sliced chicken at the end | About 20 mins |
| Four people to feed | Chicken and broccoli pasta bake, Marry Me Chicken Pie, or the Thai peanut curry | 30 to 40 mins |
| A ripe avocado too | Venezuelan arepas, or the sweet chilli quesadilla with the avocado drizzle | 15 to 40 mins |
| Cranberry sauce and cheese left over as well | Festive flatbreads. Two-ingredient dough, no oil in the pan | About 25 mins |
| Something to prove | Venezuelan arepas. Nobody expects them and everybody asks me for the recipe | About 40 mins |
FAQs
Almost anything, honestly. My go-tos are shredding it into a bowl of ramen, folding it through creamy orzo, or piling it into arepas with avocado. It also works beautifully in a pot pie, a quick quesadilla, or a cold chicken salad. The trick is picking a dish with sauce or broth so the chicken stays juicy.
If it's gone dry and a bit tight in the fridge, don't try to serve it solo. Give it fat and moisture instead. A mayo-based chicken salad, a coconut curry, or a creamy pasta sauce will all bring it back. Shredding it small helps too, since it soaks up more of whatever it's sitting in.
My French onion soup chicken casserole is the one I'd start with, since the chicken just warms through in the stock while the sauce thickens. The chicken and broccoli pasta bake is a bigger job but feeds four properly. And if you want something with a lid on it, my chicken pot pie with puff pastry is mostly assembly once the chicken is already cooked.
Usually yes, with one change. Skip the step where the chicken cooks, and add it near the end instead so it just warms through. It works best in anything saucy: curries, soups, pasta bakes. It works less well where the recipe relies on the chicken browning in the pan for flavor.
One Last Thing
If you've read this far, here's one last piece of advice: start roasting a bigger chicken than you need. My convection oven roast chicken is the one I make every few weeks, and the whole reason I make it that size is so I've got a container of shredded chicken to work through for the rest of the week.
I really hope you find a few leftover chicken recipes here that inspire you. If you make any of these, come back and let me know how it went. And if you want to keep this list somewhere useful, save it to Pinterest so it's there next time you're staring at a container of chicken wondering what on earth to do with it!
More recipe collections you might like: my soup recipes from around the world, 15 ramen noodle recipes, 24 best sandwich recipes, and 17 Korean dishes I make on repeat.
Always see my recipes in Google
One tap adds Myriad Recipes to your preferred sources, so my recipes show up more often when you're hunting for dinner ideas.
Leave a Reply