Roasted Chicken Redux

Whether you are too busy during the week to cook, or you are only feeding one or two people, a roasted chicken can be very versatile.  You can cook planned  leftovers by roasting a chicken with gravy, potatoes and carrots for Sunday  dinner; just cook extra!  Try doing 2 chickens while you have the oven on.  Alternatively, you can pick up rotisserie chickens from your local
market.  Then you will be able to create all kinds of meals to get you through the week.  Many of these ideas can also be done with a pork tenderloin or any other large protein you might cook, like a whole fish or a  beef roast.

VEGGIE & CHICKEN HASH - Cut up peppers and onions (do extra!) and sauté them in a pan.  Add a jalapeno if you like.  Cube half your leftover roast potatoes and chicken, add to pan, season and serve with a fried egg on top.

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP - Cut up your leftover carrots along with some onions and celery (do extra!).  Saute in a pan.  Add shredded chicken meat, heat through.  Remove half of your veggies and chicken and save.  Add chicken broth and cooked noodles; season.  You can do variations on this - for example use rice noodles and add soy sauce and sesame oil and top with green onions for an Asian Soup.

CHICKEN POT PIE - To the veggies and chicken you saved from the soup, add gravy and your leftover cubed potatoes, along with some peas.  Place in single serving casserole dishes and top with puff  pastry.  Bake.

CHICKEN PASTA - Take those extra peppers and onions you saved when making the hash, add sliced mushrooms, chopped chicken and pasta sauce (marinara, pesto, alfredo, etc).  Save half of this, and toss the rest with pasta. Variation - use fresh raw veggies and a pesto or healthy dressing to make a cold pasta  salad.

CHICKEN PIZZA - Take the pasta sauce you  saved, put on individual prebaked pizza crusts, top with shredded cheese, and bake until the cheese melts.  Like BBQ pizza?  then save some of the chicken when you make...

BBQ CHICKEN MEAL - Add  BBQ sauce to shredded and also to a can of white beans.  Put the chicken on
buns.  Mix up some coleslaw using preshredded slaw  mix.

CHICKEN CURRY - Dice and sauté onions.  Add curry powder, shredded chicken and canned coconut milk.  Heat through until slightly thickened.  Cook basmati rice.  Save half of the rice and  serve the curry on the other half.

CHICKEN FRIED RICE - dice and sauté onions.  add some of your leftover carrots, peas, the cold leftover rice, diced leftover chicken, soy sauce, sesame oil, bean sprouts and a chopped scrambled egg.

WHITE CHILI - dice and sauté onions and peppers, add green chili sauce, shredded chicken, a can of white beans and chicken broth as needed for consistency. Mash half the beans to thicken.  Season with cumin and salt and pepper.  Serve with a lime wedge.  Save half and turn into...

BURRITOS (or tacos, etc) - Take your leftover chili, place on a tortilla, sprinkle with cheese and roll up!  OR
you can place the chili in individual casserole dishes, top with cornbread batter and bake for a chili pie.


The possibilities are  endless!!!

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