21 Rotisserie Chicken Recipes To Add To Your Dinner Rotation

Rotisserie chickens are a major source of business for grocery stores, as an estimated one in two Americans purchased one in 2017, while 623 million were sold in the U.S. in 2020 alone. They are so popular with consumers that grocery stores are willing to take a financial hit for the sake of the traffic that these deliciously seasoned, ready-made birds generate. Costco, for example, makes one of the most beloved rotisserie chickens on the market. It's such a big draw that the grocery giant has accepted an annual estimated loss of $30 to 40 million over its resolutely cheap chicken because they more than make up for that loss with the other goods rotisserie chicken shoppers buy once they're through the doors.

Pricing competition between stores means that you can often find rotisserie chickens that are cheaper than raw chickens. Buying rotisserie chicken is also a no-brainer for many consumers because it's a lean and filling source of protein that can be included in a wide range of recipes. To many, if you're looking for a quick meal, buying a rotisserie chicken is like purchasing restaurant-quality entrees for the whole family, but at a fraction of the price. With our rotisserie chicken love affair burning stronger than ever, we've rounded up some of our favorite rotisserie chicken-based recipes so you can explore the full potential of this deli section staple.

The major stumbling block when making chicken salad is the chicken. When lunch rolls around, most of us need something that we can make quickly instead of spending an hour and a half roasting an entire bird.

Using meat from a rotisserie chicken is the fastest way to make a chicken salad short of purchasing pre-sliced cubes of meat. Plus, with buttery avocado and a creamy Dijon dressing, this salad gives restaurants a run for their money and only takes six minutes to make.

Recipe: Simple Rotisserie Chicken Salad

Italian-inspired recipes are crowd-pleasers, and when they only require a casserole dish, they can prove to be slam dunks for the cook, too. These stuffed shells are chock-full of rich ingredients like ricotta, parmesan, and mozzarella, but the rotisserie chicken gives them the umami flavor and hearty meatiness they need to be truly filling and nourishing.

When assembling the dish, sandwich the shells between layers of creamy, garlicky sauce, add some fresh basil for serving, and marvel at the results. Whether you're serving your picky eater kids or a group of sophisticated adults, this dish is bound to delight. 

Recipe: Creamy Chicken Stuffed Shells

Regardless of your thoughts on turkey, it's no secret that, for many diners, the best part of Thanksgiving dinner is the array of side dishes. Stuffing, with its buttery, bready, herby deliciousness, is up for contention as the best of the bunch. This recipe celebrates the dish in a big way, promoting it from a supporting player to the main character.

To make a main dish out of stuffing, recipe developer Patterson Watkins created a chicken-based casserole using rotisserie chicken, cream of mushroom soup, stuffing mix, eggs, and sour cream. It's just as good as it sounds.

Recipe: One-Pan Chicken And Stuffing Casserole

Slow cookers and chicken stock are a match made in heaven. Even when you make chicken stock on the stovetop, it needs at least an hour to cook, though more is better in order to extract as much flavor as you can from the chicken bones, herbs, and vegetables. In short, the longer you leave it, the tastier it will be.

When you use a slow cooker, you can let the ingredients steep for hours without having to worry about checking the pot every half hour to ensure nothing is burning. This uses the leftovers from a whole rotisserie chicken — set aside the shredded meat for another recipe on this list!

Recipe: Slow Cooker Chicken Stock

When you hear that a recipe only has five ingredients, you might assume that the results will taste just as simple as that list, but in this case, the result is anything but. These tacos are made with Costco rotisserie chicken, mashed avocado, fresh pineapple, corn tortillas, and salsa.

It can be challenging to make tacos at home that taste just as delicious as the ones you buy at restaurants and food trucks, but this recipe is the real deal. Quick and straightforward, it's easy to make but so full of delicious flavors and satisfying textures that you'll feel like a professional.

Recipe: 5-Ingredient Costco Tacos

If you saw the finished product of this chicken ramen recipe, you would be forgiven for thinking that it had taken hours to make. But thanks to some masterful strokes of efficiency from recipe developer Ksenia Prints, it only takes half an hour.

Three store-bought broths, one rotisserie chicken, some colorful veggies, and generous portions of ginger, garlic, sesame oil, and soy sauce create a dish that is bursting with flavor and color. To take the impressive results to even greater heights, top each bowl with chopped scallions, julienned carrots, a soft-boiled egg, and a fresh jalapeño.

Recipe: 30-Minute Chicken Ramen

The best chicken tacos have one thing in common: deliciously spiced, perfectly cooked chicken. While this might be easier said than done, it doesn't have to be a time-consuming and ultimately unsatisfying endeavor. With this recipe, you'll be able to repurpose a rotisserie chicken with a carefully calibrated spice blend to produce restaurant-quality tacos in less than 45 minutes.

The spice blend consists of salt, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, smoked paprika, and chili powder, but chef and recipe developer Laura Sampson notes that you can always adjust the ratios to suit your taste.

Recipe: Easy Chicken Tacos

Making enchiladas takes time, so you want to make sure that your efforts will lead to tasty results. This recipe does, and also uses as many pre-made ingredients as possible to shorten the process to just 30 minutes without losing the punchy flavors you've come to know and love from this dish.

You'll need canned green chiles, black beans, rotisserie chicken meat, salsa, tortillas, enchilada sauce, and shredded cheese. Assembling each enchilada is the most laborious part of the process, but with pre-made ingredients, it's still relatively quick and painless. Make sure you have all the fixings ready before you serve.

Recipe: Easy Chicken Enchiladas

Soups are a great way to blend some of your favorite foods. For example, rotisserie chicken and chips and salsa. It doesn't seem like the meaty entree would go well with the classic appetizer pairing, but thanks to the innovation of recipe developer Jaime Shelbert, it does.

Rotisserie chicken makes the process faster and adds some ready-made spice to the mix, while a blend of cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, and salsa verde leaves your palate with nothing to be desired. As if that wasn't enough, there is also a healthy dose of kale in there to boost color, flavor, and nutrition.

Recipe: Salsa Verde Chicken Tortilla Soup

Chicken pot pie is one of those meals that will always hold a special place in our hearts. It's comfort food that can thrive at a fancy dinner party and as a microwave meal for a solo movie night. It's rich, satisfying, and may even remind you of happy family gatherings from your childhood.

It is also, sadly, time-consuming to make. At least until you discover this 30-minute version from recipe developer Stephanie Rapone. Made with squares of puff pastry and rotisserie chicken shreds, it doesn't involve the careful rolling out and transferring of paper-thin crust onto the pie, making this all the better.

Recipe: 30-Minute Chicken Pot Pie