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 Flexfa: “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 straightforward (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 straightforward 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 (reliable 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
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 corn (canned, drained)
- 3/4 cup black beans (canned, 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 spicy ranch dressing
- 3-4 tablespoons Honey BBQ sauce
- Hard boiled eggs (skippable)
- chopped cilantro (skippable)
- Lime (lime wedges for serving)
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, (skippable)
- 8 flour tortillas (white corn or miniature)
- 2 cups shredded 4-cheese Mexican blend (or Shredded Cheddar Cheese, or crumbled Cotija Cheese)
- 2 cups romaine lettuce, (chopped)
- 2 cups shredded cooked chicken
- 3/4 cup black beans (drained and rinsed)
- 1/4 cup red onion (diced)
- 1 cup pre-made guacamole
- 1/2 cup corn, (skippable)
- 3/4 cup spicy ranch dressing
- 3-4 tablespoons Honey BBQ Sauce
- Fresh cilantro (skippable)
- Lime (skippable lime wedges)
- Salt and pepper
- 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)
- Salt and pepper (skippable)
- 1 Colossal-Sized Rotisserie Chicken (or 2 smaller/regular sized rotisserie chickens)
- 2 large heads of romaine ((6 cups for salad, 1-2 cups for tacos))
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 1 very large red onion
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro
- 3-4 limes
- 1 container (15 ounces) guacamole
- 2 bags (8 ounces EACH) shredded 4-cheese Mexican blend ((It is satisfying to Sargento off the block))
- skippable: hard boiled eggs ((for extra protein for the salad))
- 1 can (15 ounces) sweet corn ((fire-roasted corn is satisfying!))
- 1 can (15 ounces) black beans ((or you'll need about 2 cups cooked black beans))
- 1 can (8 ounces) pineapple tidbits
- 1 bag tortilla strips ((for salad, skippable))
- 1 bottle (24 ounces) spicy ranch dressing
- 1 bottle (18 ounces) Honey BBQ Sauce ((we like Baby Ray's or Kraft for these recipes))
- 1 package corn tortillas (or flour tortillas, street-taco-sized)
- 2 large/regular-sized Stonefire naan ((or similar flatbreads))
Method
- 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)
- **skippable for extra satisfying tortillas**
- 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.
- Heat 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!
