A roast chicken is one of the best-value meals there is, especially if the leftovers become another dinner or two. Here’s how to make the most of it.
Store it safely first
- Strip the meat off the bones once it has cooled, and get it into the fridge within one to two hours of cooking.
- Keep it covered and eat it within two days.
- Reheat it only once, until it’s steaming hot all the way through. Or use it cold in salads and sandwiches.
- Want longer? Freeze it in portions on the day you cooked it.
Seven next-day dinners
- Chicken and leek pie: soften leeks in butter, stir in flour, then stock and a splash of milk to make a sauce. Add the chicken and top with ready-rolled puff pastry or mash.
- Chicken fried rice: cold rice, chicken, frozen peas, eggs and soy sauce in a very hot pan.
- Quesadillas: chicken, cheese, sweetcorn and a little chilli between tortillas, fried until crisp.
- Quick chicken curry: make the sauce from our curry guide and add the cooked chicken for just the last few minutes, so it heats through without drying out.
- Noodle soup: homemade stock, ginger, garlic, noodles, greens and shredded chicken.
- Caesar wraps: chicken, crisp lettuce, parmesan and a garlicky yoghurt dressing in a toasted wrap.
- Creamy chicken pasta bake: pasta, chicken, spinach and a cheesy sauce, baked until bubbling.
Don’t waste the carcass
The bones make wonderful stock for soups, risottos and gravy. Our stock guide shows how. If you can’t make it straight away, freeze the carcass and make stock another day.
Plan the leftovers from the start
If you know you’ll want leftovers, roast a slightly bigger bird, or two at once — the oven is on anyway. Planned leftovers turn one cooking session into two or three meals.
Log leftover chicken in CulinaryFlow’s Leftover Tracker with the date it was cooked, and get next-day meal ideas — or send it straight to AI Cook.