Rotisserie Chicken Lunch Ideas

Special thanks to Boston Market for sponsoring today’s post and for providing a great deal for busy families!

I love using rotisserie chicken in recipes because it saves so much time! I recently stumbled upon a great deal on a rotisserie chicken ($1.99!) so I snagged the deal and used the chicken for a full week of lunches. Today I’m sharing those rotisserie chicken lunch ideas with you.

 

Rotisserie Chicken Lunch Ideas

If I don’t have dinner leftovers I can warm up for lunch, I tend to skimp on lunch or make poor choices. I’m not a huge fan of deli meat and salads are unfulfilling unless they are loaded with protein.

It’s amazing how my lunch options open up if I have a rotisserie chicken on hand! All of a sudden, I have a versatile, ready-to-eat protein.

This one simple ingredient provides dozens of options. Here are some of my favorite rotisserie chicken lunch ideas:

Salad

Eating salad for lunch is such an easy way to incorporate healthy greens into your diet. Unfortunately, salad usually isn’t a satisfying lunch for me. Topped with slices of rotisserie chicken though, and all of a sudden salad becomes a real meal!

Here are some of my favorite quick and easy lunch salads:

• Caesar – Leftover rotisserie chicken, romaine lettuce, croutons, Parmesan, and Caesar dressing
• Southwestern – Leftover rotisserie chicken tossed in taco seasoning and lime juice, romaine lettuce, avocado, tomato, black beans, corn, creamy cilantro or southwest ranch dressing
• Greek – Leftover rotisserie chicken, romaine lettuce, sliced red onion, black olives, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, Greek salad dressing
• Cobb – Leftover rotisserie chicken, mixed greens, hard boiled egg, crumbled bacon, avocado, green goddess dressing
• Asian – Leftover rotisserie chicken, romaine lettuce, mandarin oranges, sliced almonds, wonton strips, sesame ginger dressing
• Fruit – Leftover rotisserie chicken, mixed greens, mandarin oranges, fresh berries, walnuts or pecans, poppyseed dressing

Wraps

If I have to eat on the go, I prefer to pack a sandwich wrap. Usually, I’ll just make one of the salads above and wrap it in a tortilla.

You can also spread your dressing, cream cheese or hummus on a tortilla and layer on your favorite ingredients.

Sandwich

I’m not a huge fan of deli sandwich meat. Too much bologna as a kid, I guess. But give me some rotisserie chicken and sandwiches all of a sudden have new appeal.

I could enjoy a week’s worth of chicken sandwiches and not get tired of them since there are so many different versions. For example:

• Traditional chicken salad (even better on a croissant!)
• Buffalo chicken (shred the chicken, toss in buffalo wing sauce, spread blue cheese dressing on bread)
• Chicken, tomato, lettuce and avocado
• Hawaiian chicken (BBQ sauce, pineapple slice, on a Hawaiian roll)
• Pesto chicken with sliced tomato (really good on sourdough bread)

Chicken Pasta Salad

This is hands-down one of my favorite lunch dishes and it’s so easy to make when the chicken is already cooked! There are lots of different recipes for chicken pasta salad, but you can see my favorite recipe here.

Chicken Bowl

I love all of the rotisserie chicken lunch ideas above, but nothing is as satisfying to me as a nice, hot meal. But making a hot lunch takes time, UNLESS you start with already cooked rotisserie chicken! Like salad, bowls are easy to tailor to any flavor by changing up the ingredients and sauces.

There are plenty of recipes for chicken bowls, but I tend to just pull a bunch of veggies out of the fridge or freezer (frozen broccoli is one of my faves), add some cooked rice or quinoa if I have it. Then, I stir in a sauce and microwave for 1-2 minutes.

Great Deal on Rotisserie Chicken

Earlier I mentioned that this post was inspired by a great deal I got on a rotisserie chicken. Well, you can get the same great deal too!

Boston Market is currently offering a whole rotisserie chicken for just $1.99 with the purchase of any Family Meal. I snagged the deal on a particularly busy weeknight when my only dinner choices were to grab fast food or have the family eat dinner at 9 pm.

A Boston Market Family Meal was the perfect solution since it was as close to a home cooked meal as I could get and it cost about the same as I would have paid for fast food (and was ready just as quickly too!). Our Boston Market even has a drive through and the option to order online.

 

Not only did I get this amazing homestyle meal that fed my family of six, we had enough leftovers for my husband to bring to lunch the next day. Plus, I had one whole rotisserie chicken left that I used to make lunch all week.

 

 

I hope you found some lunch inspiration in the rotisserie chicken lunch ideas above! I’d love to hear your own clever ideas for using rotisserie chicken to make lunch prep easier. Please share your ideas in the comments!