Cookerati

Last weekend we grilled chicken, lots and lots of chicken. We didn’t have any guests, it was just us, but since the grill was going we put it to good use.  We had a lot going on this week, precooking the chicken on the grill save prep time for dinners. There are plenty of ways to use chicken in a meal. To prepare the barbecue chicken I peeled off the skin first, put a rub all over it and then place it in a container of barbecue sauce.  We stuck it all on the grill and let it slowly cook.  The barbecued chicken was perfect for dinner, juicy and tasty with a little bit of a barbecue kick.  Delicious. The rest of the chicken was placed into a covered container and put in the fridge.

There are many ways to use grilled chicken as a short cut for your meals:

Sandwiches – Grilled chicken could be used either cold or hot for your sandwich.

• Barbecue chicken – peel chicken, combine it with more barbecue sauce.  Heat it up and put onto a bun. If you have some caramelized onions, throw that on too.
• Mayo or mustard based cold chicken sandwich –  Place lettuce and tomato on bun, top with chicken and may or mustard
• Melt cheese over chicken, place on bun top with lettuce, tomato and your favorite secret sauce.

Salads – One of my favorite ways to use cold chicken.

• Green Salad with chicken -  Plate up greens, some cut up veggies – tomato, green pepper, cucumber, etc.  Top the garden salad with chicken and some dilled havarti and your favorite dressing.
• Chicken salad – Peel or dice chicken into small pieces, add diced green onion, grapes, celery, walnuts, and a mayo dressing.  Toss in your favorite herbs for a nice flavor boost.
• Chicken and strawberries salad – Place greens on a plate (spinach greens would be great), throw on peeled chicken, sliced strawberries, mandarins, sliced pecans, and a raspberry vinaigrette.

Hot dinners – Using pre cooked chicken can make dinner preparations come together quickly.

• Peel the chicken from the bone and heat it up in spaghetti sauce.  Throw over the top of cooked spaghetti.
• Add to a cheese sauce and pour over a baked potato – top with crumbled cooked bacon and grated cheese.
• Throw the chicken in pot, heat up with barbecue sauce and throw over top of some macaroni and cheese.

It’s great how many thing you can do with pre-grilled chicken.  What do you do with yours?