Grab one rotisserie chicken and re-purpose it into THREE different meals that all use similar ingredients. Today: BBQ Chicken Salad, BBQ Chicken Tacos, and BBQ Chicken Flatbread
Hey everyone! I am so excited to introduce you to a NEW SERIES on Chelsea’s Messy Apron: “3 Meals with 1 Rotisserie Chicken”. The idea is this, I’ll be taking a rotisserie chicken (you know the ones you can buy pre-cooked and ready-to-eat in the store?) to create 3 different meals. Each meal will be unique, but the group of 3 meals will all share a similar theme…for example today we’re focusing on BBQ Chicken. If you’ve been following my blog for any period of time you’ve likely noticed that I try to make recipes that taste great, are easy (and quick!) to make, and don’t break the bank. What better way to do this than with pre-cooked chicken you can use in three separate meals that ALSO use similar ingredients?
Each time I introduce a new batch of meals I’ll aim to accomplish the following:
- An assembly time of 10 minutes OR LESS for every meal (considering the chicken has been shredded ahead of time)
- Recipes will use common, every-day ingredients
- Each meal will generally feed a family of 4 (2 adults + 2 kids), but will be easy to scale up for larger families
- I’ll include a free grocery list to make purchasing the ingredients for the meals simple
- Similar ingredients will be used for each meal in a given group, so food waste can be minimized (remember that cilantro you bought for just one meal? Now you’ll get to use it for three meals!)
- Each meal will have it’s own photo and its own recipe card (perfect if you just want to make one of the recipes, but not all 3!)
So with that, let’s get right to the recipes. At the top of this post is a quick video overview (1 min) of these three recipes and below is an image and recipe for each. At the very end of the post is the shopping list.
If you get a colossal-sized rotisserie chicken and grab every piece of meat off of it you should have around 5-6 cups total of shredded rotisserie chicken. You’ll use about 2 cups per meal 🙂
BBQ CHICKEN SALAD
BBQ Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1/3 of 1 full colossal-sized rotisserie chicken (about 2 cups shredded chicken)
- 1 large head romaine lettuce (about 6 cups), chopped
- 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 3/4 cup canned corn, drained
- 3/4 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 cup shredded 4-Cheese Mexican Blend (or Shredded Cheddar Cheese)
- 1/4 cup red onion, diced
- 1/3 cup tortilla strips
- Guacamole
- 3/4 cup bottled SPICY Ranch Dressing
- 3-4 tablespoons Honey BBQ sauce
- Optional: hard boiled eggs*
- Freshly Chopped Cilantro, Fresh lime wedges, optional
Instructions
- Coarsely chop the lettuce. Wash and VERY throughly dry the lettuce (salad spinner is great here).
- In a large bowl (or just throw together on individual plates), place the chopped lettuce. Top each plate with equal amounts of shredded rotisserie chicken. Add halved cherry tomatoes, corn, black beans, cheese, red onion, and tortilla strips in equal parts to each plate.
- Add a big scoop of guacamole to each salad.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the spicy ranch and honey BBQ sauce (start with 3 tablespoons, taste, and add the 4th if desired).
- Add the dressing to each plate (to eater's preference) and if desired, add freshly chopped cilantro and fresh lime.
- *For some extra protein, you can add some chopped hard boiled eggs (for no extra prep, you can buy pre-boiled hard eggs)
- Enjoy salads immediately after dressing. Do not dress anything you'll have leftover (and do not add tortilla strips to anything you'll have leftover)
Video
BBQ CHICKEN TACOS
BBQ Chicken Tacos
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, optional
- 8 white corn or miniature flour tortillas
- 2 cups shredded 4-Cheese Mexican Blend, Shredded Cheddar Cheese, OR crumbled Cotija Cheese
- 2 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
- 2 cups shredded chicken
- 3/4 cup black beans drained and rinsed
- 1/4 cup red onion, diced
- 1 cup pre-made guacamole
- 1/2 cup corn, optional
- 3/4 cup bottled SPICY Ranch Dressing
- 3-4 tablespoons Honey BBQ Sauce
- Optional: fresh cilantro, fresh lime wedges
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- **OPTIONAL for extra delicious tortillas**Pour a 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable oil in a small skillet and heat on medium high heat. Place down a tortilla and sprinkle with about 1 tablespoon of Mexican blend or cheddar cheese. Heat until the bottom of the tortilla is slightly toasted, and the cheese is melted, about 1 minute. Remove the tortilla to a paper-towel lined plate and sprinkle with salt. Repeat with remaining tortillas, adding more oil to the pan as needed.
- Assemble your tacos! Top each tortilla with even parts lettuce, shredded chicken, cheese (use whatever you like or have leftover from one of the other meals!), black beans, red onion, guacamole, and corn (if you have it leftover or desired).
- In a small bowl, whisk together the spicy ranch and honey BBQ sauce (start with 3 tablespoons, taste, and add the 4th tablespoon if desired). Top tacos with the sauce.
- Add a squeeze of lime and sprinkle with cilantro and salt & pepper if desired and enjoy immediately.
BBQ CHICKEN FLATBREAD
BBQ Chicken Flatbread
Ingredients
- 2 Store-bought flatbreads (We use and LOVE StoneFire)
- 1 cup Honey BBQ Sauce
- 1 and 1/2 - 2 cups shredded 4-Cheese Mexican Blend
- 1/3 cup red onion thinly sliced
- 1 can (8 ounces) pineapple tidbits
- 2 cups Shredded rotisserie chicken
- 1/3 cup cilantro coarsely chopped
- Optional: salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray.
- Spread the BBQ sauce evenly over both flatbreads. Sprinkle both evenly with cheese and then with onions. Top with pineapple tidbits and the shredded chicken. Bake 8-10 minutes or until cheese is completely melted (Do not overbake or the flatbreads will get hard). Remove and top with fresh coarsely chopped cilantro. Add salt and pepper if desired.
- Cut into wedges and Enjoy immediately!
SHOPPING LIST:
Shopping List
Ingredients
Meat
- 1 Colossal-Sized Rotisserie Chicken or 2 smaller/regular sized rotisserie chickens
Produce
- 2 large heads of romaine (6 cups for salad, 1-2 cups for tacos)
- 1 pint fresh cherry tomatoes
- 1 very large red onion
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro
- 3-4 limes
- 1 container (15 ounces) pre-made guacamole
Dairy
- 2 bags (8 ounces EACH) Mexican blend cheese (I love Sargento off the block)
- Optional: hard boiled eggs (for extra protein for the salad)
Canned Goods/Herbs
- 1 can (15 ounces) sweet corn (fire-roasted corn is delicious!)
- 1 can (15 ounces) black beans (or you'll need about 2 cups cooked black beans)
- 1 can (8 ounces) pineapple tidbits
Dressing Aisle
- 1 bag tortilla strips (for salad, optional)
- 1 bottle (24 ounces) SPICY Ranch Dressing
- 1 bottle (18 ounces) Honey BBQ Sauce (we like Baby Ray's or Kraft for these recipes)
Bread
- 1 package small flour or corn tortillas
- 2 large/regular-sized Stonefire Nanna flatbreads (or similar flatbreads)
Recipe Notes
First BBQ CHICKEN SALAD is so delicious and testy Love this! I will try this. also another two recipe is awesome!!
So happy you liked it! Thanks for the comment 🙂
As we are empty nesters, I am always looking for simple, delicious meals for us. This trio is exactly what we can enjoy.. Thank you… :O)
So happy to hear that! 🙂 I hope you love these meals!
This was a stroke of genius; I live alone and end up with frozen chicken in my freezer waiting for a recipe exactly like this one. Thank you so much. 🙂
Oh I’m so glad to hear that!! I hope you love the recipes 🙂 Thanks Surya!
Fantastic idea! All the dishes look so good…..
chicken flatbread will be my first to make. Pinned. Thanks for a great post!
What a terrific idea. It’s funny but I am going to be out of town for a few days and I told my 20 year old daughter that she could cook dinner and do a post on my blog. She said that it would be a picture of a rotisserie chicken. I’ll give her these 3 recipes and tell her that she will be set for 3 days! Thank you for sharing. I love your blog.