An Actually Good Rotisserie Chicken Meal Plan

Plus My Favorite Chicken Salad

Can $10 of rotisserie chicken feed two adults for a week? Yes. It can, easily! This week’s meal plan muses on ways to feed yourself for a week with the humble rotisserie chicken. Candidly, I’ve never had success with rotisserie chicken. I’ve had high ambitions of feeding myself all week with one, but either got tired of eating chicken or realized I didn’t actually like rotisserie chicken that much.

Carolina Gelen mentioned the three stages of getting a rotisserie chicken in one of her recent reels and what she said resonated. According to Gelen, stage one is the excitement you feel when you’ve just purchased the chicken. Stage two is the leftovers, when you’re using cold chicken to make something else, and stage three is fatigue: when you’re just tired of eating rotisserie chicken.

While I can’t promise you won’t feel any chicken fatigue after following this meal plan, I can promise you a delicious leftovers stage. In this meal plan, I developed recipes that’d make a rotisserie chicken actually edible for a week. No warmed-over chicken flavor! No sad, soggy chicken situations!

While the meal plan is available to paid subscribers, free subscribers will get a sneak peek at the menu and a free recipe from the plan. Whatever kind of subscription you have, I’m grateful you’re here! If you find even one meal idea that’s useful to you, I’m ecstatic.

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The Low-Down on This Meal Plan

This meal plan is designed for you to use as much or as little of it as you’d like! Everything is included in a printable PDF so you can print them out (if you’d like) and use the recipes throughout the week without having to navigate back to Substack!

Included in this meal plan are:

• The menu

• Organized grocery list

• Ingredient prep list to save you time throughout the week

• Printable recipes

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My Favorite Chicken Salad with Pita

Makes about 6 servings

I have tasted so many variations of chicken salad in my life. Whenever I try a new chicken salad, I pick out what I love about it and add it to my recipe. This is my current version. Apples add crunch, dried cranberries add sweetness, red onion adds color, crunch, and a bit of bite, and Old Bay adds a Maryland touch. Greek yogurt makes it lighter than fully mayo-based chicken salads. With rotisserie chicken, this comes together quickly. Here, we eat it with pita, but it’s great on its own or with crackers!

My Favorite Chicken Salad with Pita | Photo by Brogan Dearinger

Ingredients

• 3 cups shredded rotisserie chicken

• 2 ½ cups plain Greek yogurt

• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise

• 1 cup dried cranberries

• 1 cup red onion, diced (about ½ of a medium red onion)

• 1 medium apple, cut into ½” cubes (Granny Smith or Pink Lady are my favorites to use)

• 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning

• Salt and pepper, to taste

• Romaine lettuce, shredded, for serving

• 2 pitas, for serving

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients but the salt and pepper, lettuce, and pitas in a large bowl. Once combined, taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

2. Serve with pita and shredded Romaine lettuce.

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The Menu

This week’s menu uses Mediterranean-inspired flavors to make rotisserie chicken something you’ll be excited to eat all week. Find all of the recipes in the printable PDF below.