6 Awesome things to do with a Rotisserie Chicken

I love to cook and I love to bake. My husband works a rotating schedule so I only really have to cook dinner 50% of the time. And, when I do, I try to make wholesome, balanced meals pretty much from scratch.

But then sometimes life gets in the way and I don't have time to make something that takes more than 20 minutes. Enter the Rotisserie Chicken.

They're a staple in our house. Our local ShopRite sells organic ones for around $6. They're such a quick, tasty option that we end up eating them, in some form, very often.  When I first started buying them, we'd have rice and veggies as side dishes every.single.time. Jon got sick of that really quickly and so I got creative. I googled looking for ideas but many were things that involved curry or some fancy ingredient that I neither had nor liked. (Like this recipe which calls for hominy. What the heck is hominy!?)

So, here are my favorite, realistic, easy things to do with a rotisserie chicken.

1. Make a knock-off Thanksgiving dinner with it. Have stuffing, veggies and serve with cranberry sauce. YUM!

2. Chicken Pot Pie -- Shred the chicken, mix with 2 cans of creamy soup (I like cream of celery and cream of potato) and 10-12 oz of frozen veggies. Pie crust on the bottom and the top...bake for an hour at 350 and you've got yourself an easy and awesome meal.

3. Chicken Quesadillas -- Get your favorite tortilla. Shred the chicken, throw in some shredded cheese and anything else you like (olives, tomatoes, green chiles) and put it in a hot frying pan till it's browned on each side. (I don't add any olive oil to the pan, but you can.) Serve with sour cream!

4. Apple Cranberry Chicken Salad -- Shred the chicken, cut up the apples, sprinkle some cranberries and your favorite crumbly cheese over a bed of lettuce. Add some balsamic vinaigrette and you've got a really tasty, really healthy meal.

5.  Chicken Tacos -- Shred the chicken and prepare tacos as you normally would. We like avocado, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and sour cream with ours.

6. Spinach & Chicken Pasta Bake  This is one of our favorite recipes. Someone gave it to me on at my bridal shower 4.5 years ago and it's become a staple. I use 12 oz of pasta instead of 8 so we have more!

So tell me...what else do you do with Rotisserie Chicken?