Looking for ways to simplify dinner after a long day? A rotisserie chicken can save you time and effort while providing a delicious and versatile base for many meals. Here are 10 quick and easy weeknight dinner ideas that will get dinner on the table in no time!
1. Rotisserie Chicken Salad
One of the fastest options, just toss shredded rotisserie chicken on top of a bagged salad, add your favorite dressing, and you’re done!
2. Chicken Wraps
Wrap up your rotisserie chicken with some fresh veggies, hummus, or dressing for a light and satisfying meal.
The easiest version chicken wraps is to take the directions for rotisserie chicken salad above and place it in a rolled-up tortilla, pita, or lavash. This works well with chicken Caesar salad; you can also go with a combination of chicken, hummus, and lettuce; make a club with mayo, lettuce, tomato, and bacon if you have it; or do one with tzatziki, peppers, crunchy romaine, tomatoes, and slightly warmed chickpeas, like these pre seasoned ones from A Dozen Cousins or the harissa lemon ones from Heyday Canning. You can use whatever you have in your fridge that vaguely goes together. Wraps, unlike burritos, can be served cold, making this a nice low-effort meal.
3. Chicken Burrito Bowls
Combine chicken with rice, beans, salsa, and cheese for a customizable and hearty bowl.
You can take the chickpea chicken wrap from above, warm it up a bit more, stick it in a bowl, and call it dinner. During the pandemic when groceries were weird I made infinity bowls with whatever we had on hand. A Dozen Cousins and Fillo’s have great Cuban black beans that can be paired with the rotisserie chicken and some rice; if you don’t have a rice cooker or Instant Pot, a lot of flavorful rice dishes (like this kind from Trader Joe’s or this one from A Dozen Cousins) can be steamed in the microwave. Top with some salsa, cheese, and peppers and onions if you have them, and you’ll have a restaurant-quality burrito bowl.
4. Chicken Quesadillas
Shred the chicken, add cheese and veggies, and cook in a skillet for a quick and cheesy dinner.
Chop or shred the rotisserie chicken into small pieces and mix with cheese (along with fresh peppers, if you have any) to make a quesadilla in under five minutes. Top with salsa and sour cream; plain Greek yogurt works great as a sour cream stand-in if you don’t have any. I don’t expect you to have guac or even acceptable avocados at the ready, but if by some miracle you do, this is the moment to use them.
5. Chicken Pizza
Top a store-bought pizza crust with shredded chicken, peppers, onions, and garlic for a savory dinner in minutes.
Seasoned chicken on a pizza, especially when paired with some peppers and onions and a lot of garlic, is a great weeknight flavor combination. You can use a premade pizza crust, or roll out a bag of prepared pizza dough from the store, or even add these toppings to one half of a frozen cheese pizza (since at least one of the kids is inevitably going to opt for a plain cheese pizza, and you can’t win ’em all).
6. Stir-Fry with Rotisserie Chicken
Add shredded chicken to your favorite stir-fry for a protein-packed, quick-to-make meal.
You can add shredded or sliced rotisserie chicken to any stir-fry you make on the stove, either one composed of your own fresh veggies and sauce or one that you’ve prepped from a bag. However you make your stir-fry, it’s a good way to use up some of that hoisin sauce.
7. Chicken and Veggie Paella
Mix rotisserie chicken with pre-cooked rice, frozen veggies, and spices to make a flavorful one-pan meal.
8. Chicken Soup
Using the bones, make homemade chicken stock, then add the meat and some veggies for a hearty, comforting soup.
Remember in the preparation step when I told you to make chicken stock? If you did, now’s the time to use it. Or just use store-bought stock; it’s fine. The first time I got COVID, I had a bunch of frozen broth and rotisserie chicken on hand, so I made chicken noodle soup with whatever else I had in the kitchen: chopped-up baby carrots, random egg noodles, etc. It was pretty good, but then I lost my appetite because COVID sucks. Anyway, not having to cook chicken when prepping a scratch soup saves a lot of time, which is great not only when you’re sick, but when you’re in the throes of a new school year.
9. Rotisserie Chicken Tacos
Simply heat the chicken, add taco seasoning, and serve with your favorite toppings like salsa, lettuce, and cheese.
10. Chicken Dip
Shred rotisserie chicken and mix it with cream cheese and your favorite sauce for a quick and savory dip.
My kids are most likely to eat rotisserie chicken with a side of barbecue sauce or sometimes ketchup. I like any number of other dips, and, who knows, maybe a kid will accidentally eat a vegetable if it’s served along with some interesting sauces. Bottled marinades are your friend here: they can create any number of two-ingredient dips that your kids can taste test with their poultry like they’re judges on an episode of Chopped. To infuse extra flavor into the chicken itself, you can toss it with some marinade and heat it on the stove before serving.
Conclusion
Rotisserie chicken is your best friend for quick and easy weeknight meals. With these simple ideas, you can have dinner on the table in no time without compromising on flavor or nutrition!
