Ready for another good chicken dinner? These leftover chicken breast recipes are epic ideas and inspiration for what to make tonight!
Having some leftover chicken breast is a standard for homes around the world.
Chicken breast is a super versatile meat, though, so you can feel free to use it in any of these dishes to make sure you don’t waste any.
So, without further ado, let’s talk about what to do with leftover chicken breasts.
Bear in mind that these cooked chicken breast recipe ideas are a total crowd-pleaser—like the tasty Chicken Carnitas and Chicken Alfredo Bake.
Also, #28 is a must-try!
This recipe makes use of rotisserie chicken, but we’re sure that any chicken would be ideal.
The combination of pineapple, pomegranate, and spice is a wonderful thing!
Try finding some of your favorite hot sauces to dunk your carnitas in – you won’t be disappointed!
This is a divinely tasty meal that’s ready in no time.
We love seeing a great option for a flavorful dinner that you can make in fifteen minutes—it makes weeknight dinners that much easier.
The best way to boost this ranch pizza a little would be to make your own ranch dressing at home.
While it’s a little involved for a fast dinner, it would be a wonderful way to make a tasty delight for yourself on a day when you feel like going the extra mile.
This is a great recipe as it makes use of a classic cooking technique to quickly and simply generate a filling meal.
At the most basic level, you simply need to add precooked chicken to a skillet with shawarma spices.
You’ll end up with wonderfully spiced and herby chicken in no time.
To boost this recipe, find some great yogurt sauce!
This simple recipe is a great way to cook for a surprising group of friends and family that all come over at once.
You’ll be able to easily please many mouths and bellies by whipping up a creamy, cheesy, decadent feast.
Quesadillas are a great way to use up leftovers since tortillas are so versatile.
These quesadillas are not only a great way to use up precooked chicken, but they’re a great way to balance texture, flavor, and price.
To switch up these quesadillas a little, we’d suggest trying out a few different types of cheese.
There are a million options out there, though melting ones will work best – try gouda since that melts particularly well.
Butter chicken is a creamy, rich dish that is perfect for using up leftover chicken since the sauce is where the flavors of the meal lie and not the meat itself.
Pair your leftover chicken with a simple jarred sauce and a pizza base, and you’ve got a delicious meal ready to go!
These simple Sheet Pan Chicken Nachos are a great way to get rid of your leftovers by feeding a crowd.
We love that they make use of salsa and cheese alongside your leftover chicken to boost your nachos out of this world!
We’d suggest making these nachos with your leftover chicken when you’re hosting a game day at your house.
There’s no better way to feed a crowd of hungry sports fans than with some loaded nachos!
This is perhaps the most classic option on this list—make a basic pie out of your leftover chicken.
By sauteing some tasty veggies, adding your leftover chicken, plenty of gravy, and some mashed potato, you can make an easy dinner that will feed the whole family.
This is a highly customizable recipe that makes use of the simple flavors of mayo and sour cream to create a pasta salad that you can make your own.
We really love that you can add whatever you might like to this, from bacon (as the recipe suggests) to some diced olives for a salty kick.
This is a great example of the way that making a dish a little easier can be a great way to eat it more.
This recipe doesn’t call for pastry or any such crust on your meal, leading to a skillet packed with chicken, veggies, and delicious goodness.
11. Chicken Chili
Chili is a great meal to eat when you’re looking for a hearty, filling, and a rich option to delight the senses.
When your chili comes together in barely a few minutes using leftover chicken, though, it makes the meal even more wonderful.
Combine this recipe with some sour cream and a few tortilla chips!
12. Chicken Patties
Crispy on the outside and tender in the center, these little patties are a wonderful way to use up some leftover chicken.
This is another recipe that called for rotisserie chicken, though any precooked chicken will work great.
Try these with some mashed potato for a simple and easy-to-devour dish on any weeknight.
Tetrazzini casserole is a relative unknown in the world of food, but we’re sure you’ll adore it all the same.
The effortless combination of chicken, a smooth and rich sauce, and perfectly cooked pasta leads to a wonderful meal that’s impossible to refuse.
To boost this dish out of this world, try sprinkling a few pieces of bacon on top before baking it—the salty boost is something else!
This rich, hearty soup is more like a traditional stew than anything, and therein lies the tastiness.
It’s rich, well-spiced, and packed with beans, chicken, and veggies to make sure that you’re satisfied.
Chicken Tikka is a British Indian Restaurant classic dish, and for good reason—the spices are divine, and when it’s made well, it’s easy to see why an Indian takeout is a national favorite in the UK.
This dish is a fusion between amazing Indian and sharp, fresh Greek to lead to an interesting and moreish meal.
This is a masterful twist on classic lasagna.
It perfectly balances the richness, creaminess, and decadence of traditional lasagna with the warming, sharp spice of buffalo chicken.
The true high point of this recipe is the precooked chicken, which is delightfully tender and gently cooked to ensure that it simply falls apart in your mouth.
This is a great option for a fast dinner—it comes together in as little as thirty minutes!
The reason you can so easily throw this together is that your leftover chicken simply needs to be shredded, before being tossed with the remaining ingredients.
It’s simple, easy, and utterly divine.
Leftover chicken is a wonderful option to make some great enchiladas—it’s so easy to use and even easier to make it taste amazing!
The tenderness of the chicken means that your sauce can easily permeate it, bringing spice and richness to every morsel.
The best part of this recipe is surely the tortillas.
Try making them yourself for a quick, stress-relieving way to knead your frustrations away.
A delightfully simple breakfast, this is a great way to use chicken to give you a powerful boost first thing in the day.
We love that this comes together in only 20 minutes, and offers food-lovers an easy way to use up some tortillas that are about to go stale.
The best thing about this recipe has to be the fried egg on top—it’s a smooth, creamy addition to a great breakfast!
Fried rice has long been a wonderful way to use up different ingredients, from seafood to veggies.
Using leftover, pre-cooked chicken for fried rice is a great idea.
Since you’ll be able to reintroduce moisture and flavors in the pan, leading to a crispy and delightful option in no time.
Far from being simply the thing you opt for when ill, Chicken Noodle Soup can be a wonderful boost to your diet at any time.
Using some leftover chicken means that the soup doesn’t take hours to come together, so you can feel free to make it quickly, even on a weeknight!
This recipe also calls for rotisserie chicken, though any precooked chicken will be perfectly fine.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned while making this list, it’s that a casserole is a great way to use up some leftover chicken.
So many different leftover chicken breast recipe ideas make a great casserole!
This casserole, though, is one that we particularly like for the combination of cheese and black beans—it’s something truly sensational!
This soup is a wonderful twist on the restorative classic.
We love that there are so many bright colors in the pot, from the green of the lime to the red of the chilies.
The combination of coconut with the other flavors in the pot is something wonderful, and sure to cure you of even the worst cold!
24. Chicken Pasta
This recipe calls for roast chicken, but it would certainly work for any precooked chicken.
There’s something incredibly elegant about different pasta dishes made with basic items like stock and cream—this option is no different.
This spicy treat is a delight after a long day!
Chinese cuisine is a wonderful option when you’re a lover of heat.
There are so many Chinese dishes making perfect use of spicy ingredients.
This recipe’s really easy, coming together in 30 minutes or less!
26. Chicken Skillet
Another thirty-minute meal, this option goes for some more classic flavors to complement the rich saltiness of the chicken.
For example, orzo, carrots, and peas are combined with sour cream and parmesan to make a filling, hearty, and pleasantly straightforward meal.
To give this an interesting twist, try serving the meal with a small dollop of pesto.
While this might sound odd, pesto has a tendency to enhance the other ingredients in this dish, leading to a complex and floral meal.
Greek salad is a wonder of cuisine—so simple and yet so complex in terms of flavors, textures, and freshness.
We love the addition of pre-cooked chicken, here, since you can introduce your herby, rich goodness from the previous night into a brand new meal.
For this dish, consider spending a little extra to get some really top-quality feta cheese.
Premium feta will be salty, creamy, and perfectly rich all at once, without you having to do anything more than drain it.
28. Chicken Salad
There’s nothing quite so easy as a chicken salad, which means that an awful lot of people make the mistake of allowing their chicken salads to be boring.
Not in this case, though!
Instead, this chicken salad combined grapes and almonds with your leftovers to make a wonderfully unique option.
We love this on sandwiches or even within a croissant—it’s delightful, and it’s impossible not to make the second portion of it.
This bake is a really great option for those evenings when you’d love a hearty midweek dinner, but you aren’t looking to spend hours standing over the stove.
This dish features a simple combination of thinly sliced potatoes and some diced, pre-cooked chicken to allow you to make a creamy, delightful plate of food.
We love the use of cornflakes as a topping here—it’s so simple, and yet so unexpected too!
The thick, creamy succulent nature of gnocchi can only be surpassed by one thing, serving them in a thick, creamy broth that’s impossibly not to slurp from the bowl when you’re done cooking.
This recipe can take a little longer than some of the others on this list, up to 40 minutes, but it’s worth it for a simply divine meal that will please anyone and everyone.
The bottom line
The simple fact of the matter is that leftover chicken can, and perhaps should be used again to make a wonderful meal for your family.
What these cooked chicken breast recipes show us is that there aren’t just one or two options to use up leftovers, instead, there are dozens!
We hope you enjoy at least one of these recipes for leftover chicken breasts—we think they’re spectacular.
Want more leftover chicken ideas? Unlock Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Dip and Rotisserie Chicken Salad!
Check out 27 Genius Leftover Chicken Recipes and 11 Chicken Breast Recipes Ideas, too!
30 EASY Ways To Use Leftover Chicken Breast
You can use these 30 Leftover Chicken Breast Recipes to create many munch-worthy meals for the whole family!
Ingredients
- Chicken Carnitas With Jalapeno Pineapple Salsa
- Chicken Bacon Ranch Flatbread Pizza
- Chicken Shawarma Pita Wraps
- Chicken Alfredo Bake
- Chicken Quesadillas
- Butter Chicken Pizza
- Sheet Pan Chicken Nachos
- Chicken Cottage Pie
- Chicken Pasta Salad
- Chicken Pot Pie Casserole-No Crust
- Chicken Chili
- Chicken Patties
- Chicken Tetrazzini
- Tuscan-Style Chicken Soup
- Chicken Tikka Gyros
- Buffalo Chicken Lasagna
- Chicken Enchilada Skillet
- Chicken Enchiladas
- Smoked Chicken Chilaquiles
- Chicken Fried Rice
- Chicken Noodle Soup
- Fiesta Chicken Casserole
- Thai Coconut Curry Chicken Soup
- Chicken Pasta
- Chinese Chili Chicken Stir Fry
- Chicken Skillet
- Greek Chicken Pasta Salad
- Chicken Salad
- Chicken And Potato Bake
- Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Instructions
- Scroll for your favorite recipe from our list of Leftover Chicken Breast Recipes.
- Pick out the ingredients needed for the dish.
- Cook then enjoy immediately!
- Comment your thoughts on our Facebook page!