Taking home a rotisserie chicken and eating it straight from its clamshell container breaks every COOK90 rule (except the one about taking a pass). And I know it’s tempting, but you really don’t want to do that—even when COOK90 is over. Those birds, they’re a bait-and-switch. They look good, they smell great, but they’re usually dry, tough, and chronically underseasoned.
So we don’t eat rotisserie chickens on COOK90. We cook with them. We put them in the same category as smoked salmon or tofu: just another fully cooked protein that you use in salads and stir-fries.
Epicurious editor Anna Stockwell is a master when it comes to this. She developed three dinners that start with a rotisserie chicken, and those recipes were so popular that a year later she developed three more. All six of those recipes are here in the following pages. Included is one recipe that involves cutting up the bird, tossing it in a Dutch oven with greens and tomatoes, and braising it in white wine and chicken broth—a flawless way to infuse the bird with flavor, make it juicy again, and finally make the chicken taste as good as it looks and smells.