Meals with safely stored leftovers
Choose a meal for cooked chicken, mash, broccoli or rice by its storage history first, then the ingredients you have.
Choose a recipe for what you have
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.
Savoury vegetable bread bake
Stale bread and safely stored cooked broccoli become a savoury egg-and-milk bake with a golden Cheddar top.
Leftover chicken and cabbage wraps
Crunchy cabbage wraps with safely stored chicken reheated just before assembly.
Leftover chicken and vegetable soup
Warm chicken in broth after cooking the vegetables and pasta.
Vegetable and egg fried rice
Use cooked rice only when it has been cooled quickly and refrigerated for no more than 24 hours.
Before choosing your meal
Leftovers must have been cooled and refrigerated promptly. Most cooked leftovers should be used within 48 hours; cooked rice has a shorter 24-hour limit and should be cooled ideally within 1 hour.
Reheat only once until steaming hot throughout. Combining leftovers with fresh ingredients does not restart their storage clock.
Raw ingredients are not interchangeable with cooked leftovers. Follow the specific recipe, and discard food whose storage history is uncertain.