There is a longstanding myth that rotisserie chicken is universally unhealthy. While this is often believed to be a fact, it’s untrue: store-cooked rotisserie chickens can be just as healthy as one made at home. Just check out the ingredient list the same way you would check anything else you buy.
We love store-cooked chickens for a few reasons. They are often less expensive than a raw chicken. Stores use them as bait to get you through the door and often put them next to other, more expensive, impulse buys. They are already cooked, taking time out of our busy evenings. A pre-cooked rotisserie chicken can be a wonderful way to keep heat out of your kitchen in the summer months! Anything that cuts down the amount of time we have the stove or oven pumping heat into our houses is a boon in our minds! And, finally, you can use them as an ingredient.
Tomorrow is officially National Rotisserie Chicken Day. The holiday was founded by Boston Market Restaurants back in 2015. You don’t have to go out to celebrate. Instead, grab a chicken from the store and either enjoy it for dinner or, better yet, use it to make one of these fantastic dishes! A whole chicken will let you try out more than one of these four great recipes!
Taquitos are small, rolled tacos. This version is absolutely nothing like the frozen ones you will find in the grocery store’s frozen section because the tortilla is replaced with a tasty, crispy cheese shell. Filled with chicken, peppers and onions, you get all the flavors of fajitas in a taquito form that you will love! A serving has 354 calories, 1.7 grams of carbs and 0.4 grams of fiber. Get the recipe.
We love chicken salad, but it’s not always the healthiest of menu options. This has less mayo than most chicken salad recipes. We like it because it’s a little lighter for the summer. The recipe isn’t actually written to be intentionally low-carb; it just is. It calls for a teaspoon of sugar. Feel free to swap that out for a non-caloric sweetener of your choice to cut the carbs down more. We really enjoy the flavor of this dish overall which is why we included it even though it isn’t “technically” a low-carb recipe. Even with the sugar, the way it is written, a serving has 151 calories, 6.9 grams of carbs and 0.9 grams of fiber. Get the recipe.
Curries can take a lot of work. This one takes out the step of cooking the chicken. It calls for the spice garam masala, but you can use allspice and a little extra cumin in its place. While curries often take a longer time to cook, this meal will be ready in 30 minutes! That lets you enjoy a curry in the middle of the summer. A serving has 304 calories, 7.2 grams of carbs and 1.7 grams of fiber. Get the recipe.
This one-dish meal is a snap to prepare and cook, and you only use one baking dish, so clean-up is easy too! Using frozen cauliflower makes it so that this meal cooks in just 20 minutes so your oven won’t be warming your house for too long, even though you’ll enjoy a delicious baked meal! It’s delicious and creamy with a bread-free crumb topping! A serving has 326 calories, 7.5 grams of carbs and 3.4 grams of fiber. Get the recipe.
We hope these recipes give you some ideas for how to use a rotisserie chicken. Often we just eat it as it comes with side dishes, but it really does make an excellent ingredient and can be a fantastic shortcut in the kitchen!
