14 Leftover Chicken Recipes For Quick & Easy Dinners

Some nights, the prospect of having to make dinner feels like too much work. On these nights, leftovers are a great option. But let's be honest, who wants to eat the same thing night after night? In these cases, taking leftovers and repurposing them is a quick, easy, and cost-saving solution for a delicious dinner.

One of the ingredients we love to repurpose the most is chicken. Whether you roasted a chicken, made a crockpot chicken dish, bought a rotisserie chicken, or ordered takeout, leftover chicken can be easily transformed into something new. And the best part is you can impart complex flavor and moisture that can otherwise be lacking from leftover chicken.

We scoured the Daily Meal archives for some of our favorite chicken recipes. While some specifically call for using leftover chicken, others include instructions for cooking fresh chicken as part of the recipe. Believe it or not, these recipes can easily be adapted to accommodate your leftovers with just a few simple tweaks. 

To adapt this recipe for leftover chicken, cut the ingredients for the teriyaki sauce in half. Marinate your green beans in the ¼ cup of teriyaki sauce and place them on the baking sheet. Skip marinating the chicken in the teriyaki sauce, or it will be too salty. Instead, try brushing the tops of the leftover chicken pieces with the teriyaki sauce like a glaze to barely coat it and infuse it with some of that umami flavor.

Bake as recommended until the green beans are tender but not mushy. Serve this meal with plain white or brown rice and garnish with chopped green onions and toasted sesame seeds. To save even more time on clean-up, line your baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Recipe: Sheet Pan Teriyaki Chicken

This recipe can easily be converted to utilize leftover chicken. While the recipe calls for thigh meat because it is typically more moist than breast meat, you could just as easily use leftover breast meat. Whichever you choose, cut the chicken into roughly one-inch chunks. These chunks of chicken can subsequently be breaded as instructed and fried.

Finish the dish as suggested with the homemade orange sauce and zest. Serve with chopped green onions and plain white or brown rice to round out the meal.

Recipe: At-Home Takeout-Style Orange Chicken

This recipe for chicken and rice is quite simple to adjust. Eliminate the first step, which involves cooking the chicken thighs in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Skip to the second step, which is to sauté the aromatics and carrots. Rather than using olive oil, we recommend starting with ½ tablespoon of butter combined with ½ tablespoon of olive oil to obtain some of the richness lost from the lack of burnt chicken bits in the pan.

Proceed with the recipe as written, taking care not to overseason your dish with salt. You can always add salt at the end of cooking as needed. Add the leftover chicken to the rice and broth. The chicken will reheat while the rice cooks through.

Recipe: 1-Pot Chicken And Rice

Using leftover chicken for this recipe takes advantage of a concept known as post-marinating. Marinating raw meat in an acid causes the protein molecules to bind to one another, pushing any residual moisture to the surface of the meat. The result tends to be somewhat desiccated and tough on the inside and squishy on the exterior. By marinating the chicken after it has been cooked and then heating it through, you can achieve a better flavor and texture.

The key is to reduce the amount of salt by half. Allow the chicken to marinate for approximately 15 minutes before searing. The flavors of this dish would make for the perfect accompaniment to a Mediterranean-inspired side dish like a creamy orzo.

Recipe: Easy Lemon Chicken

This is yet another recipe that can easily be converted to accommodate leftover chicken. Eliminate the third step, which involves cooking the chicken in sesame oil. You will add the diced, cooked chicken toward the end, along with the sauce and cashews, to reheat it.

Since you have eliminated the sesame oil from the beginning of the recipe, you can garnish with a hint toward the end or toss in a few toasted sesame seeds to get that intense, nutty flavor. You won't need much more than white or brown rice or noodles to round out this meal.

Recipe: Easy Chicken Stir-Fry

To use leftover chicken in this recipe, start by eliminating the first couple of steps, which involve cooking the chicken, and begin by sautéeing the mirepoix. The key to making this dish work with leftovers is to substitute the fat rendered from the chicken. While you can purchase chicken fat commercially, if you do not want to keep this on hand, we recommend using a combination of ½ tablespoon of unsalted butter combined with ½ tablespoon of olive oil.

Once you bring the broth to a boil, skip ahead to step ten. The aromatics will finish softening while the dumplings cook. Add the leftover shredded chicken at the very end, allowing the chicken to cook for about three minutes to reheat.

Recipe: Comforting Chicken And Dumplings

For this recipe, start by reheating your chicken. The best way to retain moisture using breast meat or pieces that have not been breaded is to reheat them on the stovetop. Add ¼ cup of chicken stock or water and your chicken to a skillet and bring to a boil. Cover with a lid, and reduce heat to a simmer. The chicken should reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit in six minutes or less, depending upon the size of the cut.

Continue with the recipe in step three, boiling the pasta and making the sauce. Once the pasta and sauce are done, top with your reheated leftover chicken, and voilà, dinner is served.

Recipe: Creamy Chicken Alfredo Pasta

This delicious Thai dish is also quite simple to adjust when using leftover chicken. Skip step two and start by sautéeing your garlic and broccoli in the oil. For best results, we recommend using an oil with a high smoke point, like avocado, peanut, or canola, rather than olive. Never leave garlic alone in a hot wok for longer than a second or two, or it can quickly burn. You will want to add the cooked chicken pieces at the very end to reheat it before serving this dish.

For a kick of heat, add a teaspoon of prik nam pla to the sauce before incorporating the cooked noodles. To garnish, top with sliced green onions and chopped peanuts for a hint of crunch.

Recipe: Chicken Pad See Ew

This luscious Indian-inspired dish will benefit from post-marinating leftover chicken by helping to tenderize and infuse the chunks of meat. We recommend marinating as instructed, eliminating the salt from the recipe to accommodate any residual salinity in the leftover meat. You can adjust the salinity at the end of cooking as needed. Once marinated, cook the leftover chicken for about six minutes to reheat it. Continue with the recipe as instructed.

Serve this dish hot over fragrant steamed basmati rice. You might also want a hunk of garlic naan to help sop up some of the luxurious sauce.

Recipe: Classic Chicken Tikka Masala

This elevated casserole-like skillet dish is super easy to convert as a vessel for using up leftover chicken. All you will need to do is cut your chicken into chunks and skip step three, which involves cooking the chicken. Proceed with the recipe as written, adding the leftover chicken to the skillet before topping with the crumbled butter crackers and baking to golden perfection.

While you could serve this dish with rice, we think it would work even better with whipped sweet potatoes. Not only are they nutritious, but the color will pair beautifully with the velvety cheese sauce and verdant broccoli.

Recipe: Skillet Chicken Divan

These easy chicken enchiladas already use leftover chicken, infusing the shredded meat with smoky spices and a jar of salsa verde. The best part is this recipe can be on the table in under 45 minutes. If you want to incorporate heat, try substituting the Monterey jack cheese with pepper jack cheese.

This dish is best served with black beans, rice, guacamole, and pico de gallo. And for the adults wanting to turn this into Mexican fiesta, whip up a batch of Margaritas.

Recipe: Salsa Verde Green Chicken Enchiladas

This casserole recipe combines the best of two worlds — spaghetti with meat sauce and chicken parmesan. In this case, if you plan to use leftover chicken, all you need to do is skip steps three and four, which involve cooking the chicken and cutting it into chunks.

Once your ingredients are prepared, combine them with your leftover chicken chunks and finish the dish as instructed, topping it with mozzarella cheese, the panko bread crumb mixture, olive oil, and aluminum foil before baking. If you'd like to brown the top, remove the foil for the last five minutes of baking. To round out this meal, serve it with a simple green salad.

Recipe: Parm-Style Chicken Spaghetti Casserole

This oozy Tetrazzini dish comes together as written using leftover chicken. Where it chooses to take its time is to slow cook fresh mushrooms rather than taking a shortcut using canned cream of mushroom soup. The result is far more depth of flavor to satiate those umami cravings.

Once baked, this recipe is pretty much a one-dish meal. That said, we think it would best be rounded out with a lovely salad, like a simple Caesar or a caprese, if fresh tomatoes are in season.

Recipe: Traditional Chicken Tetrazzini

The best thing about using leftovers for this dish is that this glaze would be perfect on any reheated chicken. All you need to do is skip straight to step three. Once you simmer the glaze, place your leftover chicken onto a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and brush liberally with the glaze on both sides. Then bake for 10 minutes to reheat the chicken and caramelize the glaze.

These would make for a tasty appetizer for a party, but alone wouldn't be a complete meal. We'd suggest pairing them with some white or brown rice and broccoli or asparagus that you stir fry in some of the leftover glazes.

Recipe: Sticky Cantonese Barbecue Baked Chicken Wings