Leftover Chicken Pastil Recipe

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In theory, it is great to have leftovers. Cooking takes a lot of effort, so it should be a welcome relief to not need to do it every day. But certain foods just don't keep all that well. Especially if you are someone that likes to shop and cook in bulk, it is not uncommon to find yourself in a situation where you have way too much prepared food that you are, frankly, very tired of eating. Fortunately, there are recipes out there that work wonders with leftovers, like this Filipino favorite, chicken pastil. (It might not have made our list of Filipino dishes you need to try, but odds are it'll end up on your list.)

If you find yourself with a bit of leftover chicken — be it the remnants of a Sunday roast or simply too many prepared chicken, rice, and broccoli meals — this leftover chicken pastil recipe, from developer A.J. Forget, is your ticket to a revamped chicken dinner. All you have to do is whip up a quick sauce, drop all of that shredded leftover chicken in, and then toss it over some steamed rice.

With a handful of ingredients and a few minutes at the stove, you can transmute those boring leftovers into something truly exquisite. Ginger and garlic give the chicken an aromatic punch, while soy sauce and oyster sauce add layers of salt and umami. The heavy dose of turmeric adds a delicious earthy flavor, and vinegar and sugar round things out with a touch of sour and a touch of sweet. All together, it's a dish that might just have you cooking a bit of extra chicken next time too.

For this recipe you will need coconut oil, onion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, oyster sauce, turmeric, pepper, bay leaves, sugar, white vinegar, and shredded chicken. Once you have all of these ingredients together, you are only a few minutes from an excellent meal.

Bring a pot or large skillet to medium heat and add the coconut oil.

Add in the onion, garlic, and ginger. Cook the vegetables for around 5 minutes, until softened and nicely fragrant.

While the vegetables are cooking, add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar, turmeric, pepper, sugar, and bay leaf to a bowl. Stir to combine.

Pour the sauce into the pot and simmer for 3 minutes.

Add the shredded chicken to the pot, stir to combine, and simmer for 3 minutes, or until warmed through.

Remove from heat and serve over rice with boiled eggs and sliced cucumber, if desired.

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This recipe is not a fickle one. It is just about as simple as it gets — quick sauce, shredded meat, serve over rice. Really, you can use just about any chicken that you've got, so long as it is shreddable. Even if your leftovers are quite dry, this recipe works wonders. Just like a bit of broth is the ticket to rescue dry chicken, even the driest of leftover chicken breast gets a new life with this delicious sauce.

If you have a roast chicken that's been sitting in the fridge for a few days after a big meal, that's the ticket. Some grilled chicken thighs that didn't get eaten on the weekend, that will work just fine too. You can even pick yourself up a rotisserie chicken at the store to save some time. Or, if you have a few chicken breasts in the fridge that need to be cooked, just poach the chicken with some aromatics before shredding, and you'll have an even more flavorful dish.

Different types of leftover chicken will give slightly different results, but all will be delicious, as this recipe is honestly mostly about the sauce. Some pastil recipes call for cooking the chicken in the sauce for a long time, but especially for things like leftover rotisserie chicken, that can turn the meat to mush. In this recipe we're really just cooking the sauce and then dropping the shredded chicken in to warm up and take on all that lovely flavor.

Kitchen tasks like shredding meat can be divisive. On the one hand, it is a simple task that could really probably be accomplished without any instruction. There are, in fact, some who believe that you should shred chicken with your hands, caveman-style. But there are many other methods out there, each with its own proponents. In addition to your hands, a set of forks or meat claws can be a simple method. 

Using your hands is probably the simplest of the bunch. When it comes to using your hands, however, you want to make sure you shred the chicken at the best possible time: while it is warm, but not too hot to touch.

Using two forks or a set of meat claws is similarly simple. This method does require tools, but nearly everyone has a pair of forks in their kitchen, and all you have to do is stick them in and drag them in opposite directions. As you pull, the meat will separate into lovely shreds.

If that all sounds like too much work, your food processor can also be a hands-free solution to shred chicken. Just use the paddle attachment rather than the blade, so that you don't end up pureeing it. A similarly easy viral hack for shredding chicken uses a hand mixer. There are plenty of methods out there, and as long as the chicken comes out nicely shredded, it's all in your hands.

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