Turn Leftover Rotisserie Chicken Into This Cozy, Old-School Casserole

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Taking no more than an hour to prep with ingredients you can probably pull from the fridge or pantry, it's no wonder so many people — especially those from the South — have fond memories of the humble, but super-filling poppy seed chicken casserole. All it takes is some shredded chicken, a quick cream sauce made from a good can of condensed soup (like Campbell's Cream of Chicken) plus a bit of sour cream, and of course, poppy seeds, and you've got a comforting classic that can bring everyone to the table, then send them off satisfied. But rather than making it from scratch, if you've got a rotisserie chicken leftover from the other night's dinner, the good news is you can have your casserole ready in half the time.

Since it's already cooked and seasoned, there's no need to tend to raw chicken breasts or filets on the stove — just shred and reheat what you have. It's one of the easiest ways to stretch that plump bird you brought home from Costco or Walmart and make sure nothing in the kitchen goes to waste.

Obviously, leftover rotisserie chicken will taste very different from a version made from fresh-off-the-stove chicken breasts. Typically, it'll be on the salty side, so if you have a habit of giving the dish a sprinkle of salt to season, you may want to be a bit more conservative with it. As such, we recommend holding off until you get to taste it, then you can salt to adjust. Texturally, since it's leftover, the chicken can taste a bit dry in your casserole since it's the second time it's cooked — a lot of the original juice won't be there. The fix should be simple enough: Add extra sauce to mask the dryness.

If you're afraid that the heaps of seasoning (which includes a lot of spices and herbs, according to the labeling on the Walmart rotisserie chicken) it can actually lend extra depth to the casserole. The only exception is if the chicken's extra-smoky (like in the case of Publix rotisserie chicken, as our reviewer had found out), the taste might clash a little bit with the cream sauce and poppy seed. In that case, you can balance it out by adding more cream and leveraging its richness to cut through the BBQ-esque notes. That'll make for a dish that feels equal parts classic and comforting — exactly what this leftover-based poppy seed chicken should be!