10 Quick Recipes To Make With Costco's $5 Rotisserie Chicken

Between work, school schedules, and household chores, there's often little time to make dinner. One way to put a satisfying meal on the table fast: Start with a super-cheap rotisserie chicken. As costs rise on everything else, major chains like Costco are refusing to budge on the price of the birds — in Costco's case, just $5 for a 3-pound chicken — because they lure customers into stores to make other purchases, too. If you can resist that temptation, here's how to save time and money by using a rotisserie chicken — one of Costco's most beloved prepared meals — as the base for these simple, satisfying dishes. 

Related: 12 Healthy Meal Hacks for Hectic Households

The blogger behind Katie's Cucina knows her way around a rotisserie chicken. She stretched a Costco rotisserie chicken to four meals: chicken pot pie, chicken soup, and two days of buffalo chicken flatbread. One day she made a flatbread for dinner, and the next day she served one as an appetizer when entertaining guests. Here, a Greek-yogurt Buffalo sauce drizzle over top makes a perfect complement.

Recipe: Katie's Cucina

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What's better than a grilled cheese sandwich on a chilly evening? A grilled-cheese sandwich with a twist. This chicken, avocado, and tomato grilled-cheese delight is delicious and easy. Just heat up leftover rotisserie chicken, mash up an avocado with spices, slice a tomato, and put it together with cheese slices, mayo, and bread. Grill it up in a skillet and dig in.

Recipe: Marla Meridith

Related: 19 Ways to Make an Ordinary Grilled Cheese Extraordinary

It doesn't get much easier than throwing all the ingredients — even uncooked rice — into one pot, and that's exactly what this wonder recipe does. With minimal prep time and even less cleanup time (remember, just one pot), this recipe is simple as well as satisfying.

Recipe: Cakescottage

Related: 40 Cheap and Easy One-Pot Meals

Do you like making takeout recipes at home? Fans of chicken fried rice will love this easy dish. It combines rice, vegetables, egg, and rotisserie chicken with the traditional sesame oil and soy sauce to make an authentic chicken fried rice dish that is healthier and better than takeout.

Recipe: Rachel Schultz on Homemaking

Related: 21 Takeout Meals Made Cheaper at Home

Pack on the protein with this fun chicken salad recipe. Easy and delectable, the tangy combo of creamy yogurt, apples, and grapes is perfect for lunch or dinner on the go. Keep it low-carb by using a bed of lettuce instead of bread, or go the more traditional route and serve it on croissants.

Recipe: MyFitnessPal

Related: 22 Quick and Easy Cold Salads for People Who Hate Lettuce

No recipe needed here. Simply heat up some rotisserie chicken, toss it with a packet of taco seasoning, and serve it on a warm tortilla shell. Add any other fillings of your choice, such as rice, black beans, green chilies, salsa, cheese, sour cream, and taco sauce.

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Salad is a perfect complement to rotisserie chicken, and this scrumptious chickpea chopped salad is no exception. The five-minute prep time makes this good-for-you salad even more desirable. You may have many of the ingredients already on hand: rotisserie chicken and chickpeas, of course, plus romaine lettuce, corn, avocado, tomatoes, cilantro, cheese, and a dressing of choice, such as barbecue.

Recipe: Ambitious Kitchen

Related: 50 Easy Salads to Make the Most of Summer Produce

Comfort food at its finest, a hearty and good-for-you pot pie is a classic chicken recipe made much easier with shredded rotisserie chicken. This version uses refrigerated pie crusts, and although the recipe calls for fresh vegetables, you can take the easier route of using frozen.

Recipe: Spicy Southern Kitchen

It doesn't get much easier than these hearty baked barbecue chicken sandwiches. Just shred some leftover rotisserie chicken, mix with barbecue sauce to taste, load up hoagie buns, and sprinkle with cheese. Bake them in the oven and voila. Be sure to serve the sandwiches with a pickle.

Recipe: Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom

Ditch the canned chicken noodle soup and go with an easy, home-cooked soup. Vegetables, noodles, and leftover rotisserie chicken combine to make a hearty soup that leaves everyone feeling satisfied and is said to boost the immune system. The recipe tells how to make the stock from scratch, but that's not necessary. Just substitute low-sodium chicken broth from the store to save time.

Recipe: Greatist

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