Leftover chicken burgers are a great way to use up any leftover cooked chicken. This easy, delicious and healthy recipe will help save you money too!
Folks, these leftover chicken burgers are so tasty!
I'm a huge believer that you can get so much flavour and better recipes from less ingredients, and in particular any leftovers you might have.
Just like with my quick healthy turkey burgers recipe. Less is more!
So I called these burgers "leftover chicken burgers", and not just simply "chicken burgers" because I made them using up chicken meat from a leftover roast chicken.
However, you could equally and easily enough make them from a couple of cooked and chopped up chicken breasts though!
The idea for these leftover chicken burgers came to me recently when my other half went on holiday to the U.S.
She went for 2 weeks to celebrate her friend's 40th birthday.
Not being content with the fact I could cook all my favourite foods that my other half hates (like pork chops!), I decided I would challenge myself to see how frugally I could live!
So I decided I would buy a chicken, roast it and see how long it would last and how many leftover chicken recipes I could get out of it!
The large chicken, which I bought from a well known British supermarket starting with "A" only cost me just over £3.00.
Not only was I able to conjur up this excellent leftover chicken burgers recipe, but a whole load of other meals too.
My first meal was a roast chicken dinner.
Then, with the leftover chicken I was able to make my easy chicken soup, a leftover chicken stir fry and my chicken caesar salad from it.
The juices from the roasting tin were made into chicken gravy, which I've frozen to use on Christmas Day.
Even the bones were boiled up to make a delicious chicken stock!
I was brought up never to waste any food. There's always a way to use up any leftovers. Just as I've proved in this chicken burgers recipe made from a leftover roast chicken. I hope this inspires you to do the same too!
Your Questions About How To Make Leftover Chicken Burgers
- What can I substitute if I don't have any leftover roast chicken? You could grill couple of chicken breasts then shred them using two forks. Or even just use pre-cooked chicken breast meat from your supermarket.
- Can I make these chicken patties in advance? Yes. Follow the recipe to stage 4 (below) then put the patties in the fridge for a couple of days until ready to pan fry them.
- What's the best way to re-heat these burgers? If frozen I reheat them in my oven for about 15 minutes at 180C Fan. Otherwise if they're from the fridge just quickly reheat them over a medium heat in your frying pan.
- What can I serve with these leftover chicken burgers? I just serve them in some burger buns with salad. But you could easily omit the burger buns and serve them on their own with some green vegetables, mashed potato or salad.
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Leftover Chicken Burgers Recipe
These leftover chicken burgers make for an excellent quick healthy meal!
They contain less saturated fat than beef burgers and they're low on calories too, at just 244 calories per burger!
I’d love to hear what you think of my recipe in the comments below and please do rate my recipe 5* if you like it! 🙂
Leftover Chicken Burgers Recipe
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 6 Spring Onions finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 200 g cooked chicken finely chopped
- 75 g breadcrumbs
- 1 large egg beaten
- 1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a small pan and gently sauté the spring onions and garlic until soft, about 2 minutes. Don’t let the garlic burn.
- Place cooked chopped chicken, half of the breadcrumbs, egg, wholegrain mustard and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the sautéd spring onions and garlic. Mix well.
- Place the remaining breadcrumbs on a plate.
- Using your hands form the chicken mixture into 4 patties and coat each patty with the remaining breadcrumbs.
- Fry the chicken patties in the remaining oil in a non-stick frying pan for 3-4 mins on each side until crisp and golden.
- Serve in burgers buns with iceberg lettuce leaves on the bottom and sliced tomatoes on top.
Katerina
I love the idea of making the most of any food or ingredients you have and using up as much of it as you possibly can! It sounds like you did absolutely amazing with a humble grilled chicken. All the meals sound absolutely scrumptious and these burgers look great! What a wonderful challenge you gave yourself!
Neil
Thanks Katerina. Yes I enjoyed giving myself a challenge. I enjoyed more eating all the food! 🙂
David @ Spiced
What a fun experiment to see how long that roast chicken would last. It sounds like you made quite a few yummy dishes (and I assume we'll be seeing some more of those soon??)! I love a good burger, and the idea of using roasted chicken as the base sounds delicious. Sign me up for this one. Also, I hope you stayed (mostly) out of trouble while Lynne was over here in the States!
Neil
Just working on a few final tweaks to the Leftover Chicken Recipe David and that will be posted sometime soon! I was pretty boring when Lynne was in the States. Just pottering about the house and enjoying getting the TV to myself and a few lie-ins!
mimi rippee
Oh interesting! I expected ground chicken, but this is a very smart idea. Sort of like making salmon burgers with cooked salmon. Brillliant!
Neil
Thanks Mimi. Mmmmm Salmon Burgers. Haven't made them for a while. Thanks for reminding me. Ha ha! 😉
Marissa
I'm always looking for fresh ways to use up leftovers. This is such a fun (and delicious!) way to enjoy leftover chicken. Thank you for the inspiration!
Neil
You're welcome. I had fun making these burgers. I will confess to you though Marissa that I put too much salt in my first batch and almost made them inedible. 😆
Laura
Like you, Neil, I hate to waste any food. So many people don’t have enough, we should never waste. It’s tough though. What I love about this recipe is you didn’t use ground chicken. It’s never occurred to me to use non-ground chicken or turkey to make a burger. This is brilliant! Where has it been all my life? Definitely a keeper - thanks!
Neil
We absolutely agree 100% on why we should never waste any food. Some people don't have enough so it would be wrong to not use up all that we have.
I haven't had a chance to try this recipe properly with roast turkey. I will be doing that with leftover roast turkey at Christmas. But it works great with a grilled chopped up turkey breast.
Ben|Havocinthekitchen
I love your saver's attitude, Neil. Unfortunately, when it comes to cooking (I'm much better managing other parts of our budget), I'm not that good. Often, my husband crosses out items from the grocery list saying: "We have this!", "You still haven't used those 5 packages we got", "Are you absolutely sure you need this?" It could be a little annoying but helpful indeed!
And these chicken burgers are a great example of some delicious food without having to spend a lot of (extra) money. Perfect!
Neil
Thanks Ben! Well at least you've got your husband there to stop you buying things you already have. That's where the 2 of you work together to save money. Lynne isn't bothered about what's in the cupboards or fridge so it's up to me to manage that part. I don't mind though, I've always been frugal! 🙂
Glad you like my recipe and hope you get a chance to make it sometime!
Val
A few queries before I try these: Would I be right to assume that the breadcrumbs used are fresh rather than packet versions? Do they stick OK to the burgers without any additional egg? Having cooked the garlic and spring onions I can't see where you use them. Do they just go in with the chicken mixture after cooling off? Approx. how many burgers would you expect this quantity to make?
Neil
Hi Val. Yes the breadcrumbs are fresh. A couple of slices of stale bread in a blender should give you enough breadcrumbs. As per the recipe card instructions I only use one egg and that works for me fine so I don't use any additional egg. But you may need to. Depending on what size of egg you use. I use one large egg. Mix the spring onions and garlic in with the chicken in step 2. Sorry if that wasn't clear, updating that now. The recipe card is correct in that you should get 4 servings from this. So 4 burgers.