The Key to a 15–Minute Dinner? Enter the Humble Rotisserie Chicken.

Lean on our Kitchen’s roast chicken for a parade of fuss-free winter dinners.

Roast chicken is a dinnertime hero. And when you can get one without having to do the work of roasting it yourself, it’s a total game-changer (at least, that’s what our kitchen team says). The beauty of a roast chicken is that it’s a meal on it’s own, dished up with bread and salad. But by getting creative with flavors and textures, your humble roast chicken can be transformed into a string of unique and easy dinners. Give your roast chicken some culinary yoga and you can easily stretch this staple into the backbone of pasta nights, hearty 15-minute soups, cozy indoor picnics, midweek family flatbread parties, and more.

15-Minute Winter Soups

The last few weeks of the year can feel like a mad dash. When your already full calendar starts to look like it may be burst and time and temperatures are low, soup comes to the rescue. One-pot soups cut down on dishes, and with a few tricks, they take just minutes to throw together.

• Heat pre-made chicken stock and simmer canned white beans and a fat pinch of cumin, then stir in a few handfuls of baby kale and shredded rotisserie chicken.
• Give your favorite ready-to-heat soup (we love Nona Lim) some heft by adding shredded rotisserie chicken.
• Bonus: serve sliced roast chicken, shredded cheese, parsley, and toasted pumpkin seeds on the side so everyone can customize their soup to taste.

Hand-Held Chicken Dinners

Abandon the fork and knife for a night. Handheld dinners mean less cleanup,more fun, and leftovers that can be repurposed as an on-the-go lunch the next day.

• Grilled sandwiches: Add protein to a classic grilled cheese or other grilled sandwich with shredded rotisserie chicken. Layer on some greens or slices of fruit (green apples work well here) and toast it up in a pan or in the oven if you’re making multiple.
• Quesadillas: This is as easy as tortillas, cheese, and shredded rotisserie chicken, served with a salad. Spike yogurt or sour cream with lime to serve on the side, along with avocado and salsa. Or, skip the pan altogether and serve these ingredients in separate bowls for a build-your-own chicken taco night ready in 5 minutes.
• Chicken flatbreads: Pre-made pizza dough is the ultimate shortcut to flatbread night. With shredded rotisserie chicken as the topping, weeknight flatbread is even more feasible. Don’t bake the chicken in the oven though: add it to the flatbread at the end or in the last two minutes so it doesn’t dry out.

Hearty Mix-n-Match Salads

The options for a hearty dinner salad or durable packed lunch are endless, and boil down to a simple formula that you can riff on:

Shredded or sliced rotisserie chicken + cooked grain or legume + veggie + cheese + toasted nut

Looking for ideas? Here are some of our favorites:

• Mix chicken with cucumbers, lettuce, chickpeas, and hummus thinned with lemon juice and toasted pita on the side.
• Toss the chicken with couscous and roasted butternut squash and parmesan.
• Farro, feta, pre-cooked beets, and toasted walnuts shine with warm chicken on top, all tossed together with just a bit of olive oil and vinegar.
• Or throw together orzo, chicken, kale, and parmesan, with salt, olive oil, for a twist on pasta salad.