19 Shredded Chicken Recipes to Make Every Dinner Easier

There's a lot to love about shredded chicken: It's simple to cook (and difficult to overcook), it's an easy way to get dinner on the table, and it's an economical way to make your protein go the extra mile. In these 20 shredded chicken recipes, chicken thighs and breasts serve as the foundation for soups, casseroles, tacos, nachos, and several very flavor-packed salads. Keep reading for our diverse collection of easy-to-cook, easy-on-the-wallet meals that every cook should know.

Gỏi Gà Bắp Cải (Vietnamese Chicken and Cabbage Salad)

Serious Eats / Vy Tran

This classic Vietnamese salad of tender chicken, crunchy cabbage, sweet carrot, pickled onion, fresh herbs, and crispy toppings is best served with a gingery sauce.

Gỏi Gà Bắp Cải (Vietnamese Chicken and Cabbage Salad)
Pancit Bihon (Filipino Rice Noodles)

Serious Eats / Rezel Kealoha

Pancit—a noodle dish with vegetables, seafood, and/or meat—is everyday fare in the Philippines, but it's also commonly served at birthdays, holidays, and celebrations since noodles symbolize long life.

Pancit Bihon (Filipino Rice Noodles)
Dak Juk (Korean Chicken and Rice Porridge)

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Warm, comforting, and deeply satisfying, this Korean rice porridge is perfect for when you're sick—and when you're not.

Dak Juk (Korean Chicken and Rice Porridge)
Nicaraguan Arroz con Pollo

Serious Eats / Qi Ai

This deeply savory version of chicken and rice gets studded with smoked sausage, ham, olives, capers, carrots, and peas.

Nicaraguan Arroz con Pollo

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Curry Chicken Salad

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

If you’re a fan of chicken salad and curry powder spice mixes, this recipe is for you. It’s fragrant, flavorful, and perfectly spiced, and it has just the right amount of mayo to bind all the ingredients together while letting the textures of crisp scallions and chewy raisins shine.

Curry Chicken Salad
Pesto Chicken Salad With Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

This chicken salad gets its vibrant flavor from bright basil pesto. Speckled with chopped sun-dried tomatoes, every bite is pleasantly tangy, and it makes for a great easy lunch or mid-afternoon snack.

Pesto Chicken Salad With Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Hashweh (Palestinian Spiced Rice and Meat)

Serious Eats / Mai Kakish

Spices bloomed in ghee add complexity to this celebratory Palestinian dish, a stuffing that can be used to stuff a whole animal, or enjoyed on it's own.

Hashweh (Palestinian Spiced Rice and Meat)
Maftool (Palestinian Wheat Pearls in a Vegetable, Chickpea, and Chicken Stew)

Serious Eats / Mai Kakish

This recipe involves caviar-sized pearls made of whole wheat served in a brothy stew with onions, chickpeas, butternut squash, and tender chicken.

Maftool (Palestinian Wheat Pearls in a Vegetable, Chickpea, and Chicken Stew)

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Summer Nachos With Tomatoes, Corn, Chicken, and Cheese

Serious Eats / Emily and Matt Clifton. Emily and Matt Clifton

Nachos don't need to be overloaded with heavy ingredients. Here, we make use of the bounty and flavors of summer to create a dish that celebrates all the things we love about warm weather eating. The result is a pile of nachos loaded with sweet corn, juicy tomatoes, pickled radishes, tender chicken, and cheese in two forms.

Summer Nachos With Tomatoes, Corn, Chicken, and Cheese
Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Here, blue cheese, shredded chicken, and Frank's RedHot are straddled by two melted layers of Monterey Jack—all the spicy, meaty, funky, cheesy flavors of a bar food classic, translated into the ultimate comfort food.

Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Easy One-Pot Chicken Tinga (Mexican Shredded Chicken Stew)

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Smoky and spicy, this is the ultimate one-pot taco filling. Bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts are shredded and combined with tomatillos, plum tomatoes, and chiles in adobo.

Easy One-Pot Chicken Tinga (Spicy Mexican Shredded Chicken)
Buffalo Chicken Puff Pastry Waffles

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

This recipe involves shredded chicken, Frank's RedHot, and blue cheese, all rolled up into puff pastry and cooked on a waffle iron. If you like Buffalo wings, you are guaranteed to like this variation on our puff-pastry waffles.

Buffalo Chicken Puff Pastry Waffles

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Thai-Style Spicy Chicken, Banana Blossom, and Herb Salad

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

This salad hits every note with tender chicken, crunchy banana blossom, rich fried aromatics, and a dressing that's bright with chile and lime.

Thai-Style Spicy Chicken, Banana Blossom, and Herb Salad
The Best White Chili With Chicken

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Here, tender chicken and white beans are bound in a creamy, fresh green chile sauce and topped with shredded cheese.

The Best White Chili With Chicken
Bang Bang Ji Si (Hot and Numbing Sichuan Chicken Salad)

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Sous vide is the modern way to make this Sichuan classic, without the banging.

Bang Bang Ji Si (Hot and Numbing Sichuan Chicken)
Easy Creamy Chicken Enchilada Soup

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

This chicken enchilada soup features a rich and creamy broth, plenty of melted cheese, and the spicy, toasty flavor of chiles. Little nubs of sweet corn and black beans fill each spoonful, along with tender bits of shredded chicken.

Easy Creamy Chicken Enchilada Soup

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Smoky Pulled Barbecue Chicken

Serious Eats / Joshua Bousel

Smoky, juicy, tender, and flavored with a carefully calibrated homemade sauce, this pulled barbecue chicken is way better than just about any version we've ever had before.

Smoky Pulled Barbecue Chicken
Ultimate King Ranch Chicken Casserole

Serious Eats / Yvonne Ruperti

This Tex-Mex dish is called King Ranch chicken casserole, which consists of a layered enchilada/lasagna-like blast of seasoned chicken, corn tortillas, shredded cheese, cream of chicken soup, and cream of mushroom soup.

Ultimate King Ranch Chicken Casserole
Shredded Chicken Salad With Gochujang Dressing

Serious Eats / Shao Z.

This chicken salad is anything but bland and boring. The chicken is slowly poached in an aromatic mixture of water, sake, and ginger until it's tender and easy to pull apart. To make the salad, the shredded chicken is tossed with watercress, lettuce, cucumber, and onion, then drizzled with a sweet, spicy, and tart gochujang dressing.

Shredded Chicken Salad With Gochujang Dressing

19 Shredded Chicken Recipes to Make Every Dinner Easier (and More Delicious)

Ultimate King Ranch Chicken Casserole

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