Costco Rotisserie Chicken – Four Meals

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Are you one who lines up in Costco’s butcher shop waiting for the delivery of hot, fresh rotisserie chicken?  Well, if you are (like we are) here is what I did with the recent purchase of a Costco rotisserie chicken.  I made four meals!

Why Costco Chicken?

Frankly, I don’t love chicken and I love grocery store rotisserie chicken even less.  But.  Sometimes.  It’s so dang convenient.

And then.  I never like the way they are seasoned.  And they are usually kind of old and shriveled by the time they make it to our table.

Appetizing, no?

Ummm. no.

But the Costco chickens are different.  They are cooked perfectly every time.  They seem to have no seasoning, and if they do, it’s not something weird or strong.

Ok, maybe they use a lot of salt.  Yum!

And further why?  They are 8 bucks and we use it for several meals.

Today I’m going to share four of the meals we got from our last purchase.

Now, as far as servings go, there were far, far more than four – but using the chicken in these separate ways really worked out.

Meal One

Roasted Rotisserie Chicken, Baked Potatoes and Green Beans

This one may be pretty obvious, but fresh out of the container breast meat, a baked potato (quickly baked on the “Air Fry” mode in the countertop oven and steamed green beans make for what we call a fancy meal around here.

And if we’re having it for an early lunch, we’ll have more chicken later in the evening.

Time to get serious and start shredding this poor guy.  Note:  I say a little prayer of thanks over the chicken.  I should really be a vegetarian.

The thing is, with such a huge chicken, we get sick of it and it’s just wrong to throw it away.  So separating it into completely different tasting recipes gets the whole thing used up.

But of course, I destroy the kitchen and use every pot I own by the time it’s over.  But it’s worth it.

Meal Two

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

I prefer white meat, so for this recipe, I shreded about 2 cups of breast and popped the rest of the chicken back in the fridge.

Here’s the recipe I used.

Meal Three

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Now is the time to get out the stock pot, simmer the chicken for about an hour with ½ onion, diced, a stalk or two of celery and water to cover it all (I used about 8 cups).  I add a bit of pepper, but no additional salt.

After an hour, remove the chicken from the pot and strain the broth twice to remove as many small bones, gristle and boiled vegetables as possible.

Follow my favorite recipe for chicken tortilla soup or any other recipe you prefer. I usually make this soup in the crockpot, but this day, I simmered on the stovetop for about an hour.

If necessary, place broth into a fat separator and pitch the fat that rises to the top.

Carefully pick the meat from the carcass and discard bones and skin. 

At this point, I had about 5 cups of shredded meat left and divided it equally.

Half the chicken and half the broth went into my tortilla soup recipe. 

Note:  If the broth tastes too watered down, or you need to add more water for your soup, use chicken bouillon (I use Better Than Bouillon) one teaspoon at a time until it’s rich enough.

Hub had one bowl and the rest when right into the freezer so he didn’t get sick of it.

Meal Three

Chicken Noodle Soup

The other half of the shredded chicken and broth went into another pot with carrots, potato and another stalk of celery for chicken noodle soup.

The Mueller is my go-to chopper for soup because the uniform pieces means everything gets done at the same time.

Boil egg noodles per package directions and add to each bowl so they do not get soggy nor soak up all the broth.  Frankly, with the potatoes in this recipe, noodles are completely optional and won’t be missed if you want to skip this step.

Two bowls of this and then off to the freezer went the rest.

Chilly nights when nothing will do but a bowl of hot, homemade soup and voila!  Magic.

Wrap Up

A recent blog find, Costcuisine does a really nice job reviewing Costco’s food and beverages.  I’m glad I found them.

I hope this inspires you to find a way to use up all the rotisserie chicken next time you make a Costco run.