Use pre-cooked shredded chicken to make these easy dinners in no time! Keep bags of chicken ready to go in your fridge or freezer as an essential kitchen shortcut.
If I had to list the #1 most-used dinner shortcut in all my meal prep, it would be to use pre-cooked shredded chicken as the building block for easy family dinners in less time.
Peek inside my fridge on any given day and you’re almost sure to find a bag of pre-cooked chicken waiting in my fridge or freezer to be stirred into one of these easy casseroles, sandwiches, soups, or for topping a homemade pizza in a pinch.
Looking for some fresh chicken inspiration?? Here are my top favorite chicken recipes for busy nights:
The Best Shredded Chicken to Use
I’ve been stocking up on rotisserie chickens from Costco since I first got my membership card when my oldest was just a baby.
I love to shred them and stash the meat in my freezer for a busy night shortcut.
However, if you don’t want to use a rotisserie chicken, you can make your own shredded chicken in the Instant Pot in just 15 minutes!
Chicken Soups
When you don’t have time to make a fully from-scratch chicken soup, using pre-cooked shredded chicken makes these easy chicken soups even faster!
It is the perfect short cut for making chicken pot pie soup or my faster matzo ball soup.
Spend your prep time chopping vegetables for my red chicken chili or Tuscan chicken soup and then just stir the cooked chicken in at the end.
Chicken Sandwiches
You could use shredded chicken in many different sandwich wraps. Add it to a simple Caesar salad mix and wrap it in a tortilla for a chicken Caesar salad wrap, for example.
Otherwise, use it as the base for your favorite chicken salad. My cranberry chicken salad is a spicy spin on the classic recipe. Tuck it inside a store bought croissant for a delicious sandwich.
I also love to make these creamy chicken pesto sandwiches and pop them in an air fryer for an easy dinner.
Chicken Salads
Cooked chicken is an excellent addition to a tradtional green leafy salad, but it also pairs really well with a variety of pasta salads, too.
Whether you like fresh and fruity like my chicken pasta salad with grapes or want to add it to my yummy strawberry feta salad or you like things hot and spicy like my buffalo chicken salad or this crunchy Thai chicken salad, there’s always a great way to use it for a healthy lunch or light dinner.