Chicken recipes for fresh ingredients and leftovers
Choose a chicken dinner by what is already in your kitchen: raw chicken for tomato pasta or lemon rice, safely stored cooked chicken for wraps or soup.
Choose a recipe for what you have
Chicken and white bean tomato stew
A spoonable chicken and cannellini bean stew that needs no separate rice or pasta. Add the beans near the end so they keep their shape.
Chicken, mushroom and pearl barley pan
Pearl barley slowly absorbs stock around chicken and mushrooms. Its gently chewy texture makes this a different one-pot meal from a rice dish.
Leftover chicken, pea and potato cakes
Firm chilled mash and shredded cooked chicken make six soft-centred pan cakes. A flour coating helps them hold together without a breadcrumb station.
Leftover chicken and sweetcorn baked potatoes
Crisp-skinned potatoes filled with hot chicken, sweetcorn and a little Cheddar. Bake the potatoes before reheating the filling so the leftovers are heated just once.
Warm chicken and vegetable couscous
A quick couscous bowl with courgette and safely stored cooked chicken. Heat the chicken separately and thoroughly rather than relying on warm couscous to reheat it.
Chicken and tomato pasta
Use raw chicken breast with tinned tomatoes and dried pasta for a sauce-based supper.
Lemon chicken, rice and peas
Choose this when you have raw chicken, dry rice and peas; the lemon pan juices dress the rice.
Chicken and pepper traybake
Roast raw chicken breast with peppers and potatoes; start the potatoes first so everything finishes tender.
Leftover chicken and cabbage wraps
For safely chilled cooked chicken, cabbage and carrot bring crunch to warm wraps.
Leftover chicken and vegetable soup
Turn safely stored cooked chicken, a leek and carrot into a broth with small pasta shapes.
Before choosing your meal
Start by checking whether your chicken is raw or already cooked. These recipes use different methods; do not swap one for the other without changing the cooking process.
With raw chicken, prepare vegetables first and keep boards and utensils separate from ready-to-eat food. Follow the full recipe's temperature checks, not the suggested time alone.
For leftovers, storage comes first. Use chicken chilled within 2 hours and within 48 hours of cooking; reheat only once until steaming hot throughout. If its history is uncertain, choose a meal without it.