Someone donated a bunch of very large cans of chicken to my friend that still rehabs wildlife. She gave gave some to me. When I opened it, it reminded me of tuna. I know everyone doesn't share my food "weirdnesses", but I had no intention of eating it. Maybe if I was starving and had nothing else, but I wasn't and didn't. My cats loved it.

I use it to make chicken salad and the stuff I buy is very good! Drain and roughly chop the chicken. Add chopped celery, halved red seedless grapes or dried cranberries, sliced almonds, and/or whatever additions you prefer. Then dress it.... I like some dijon mustard and mayo. Then I serve it on a bed of vegetables, like rough chopped romaine, sliced cucumbers, sliced red peppers, etc.

chicken salad ... or noodle soup

I was going to suggest the same - chicken salad. Chicken and rice, chicken and noodles, chicken enchiladas - any place you might want cooked chopped chicken.

Truthfully, I did the same as you. I bought some, then couldn't think of a way that was exciting to try it. With an extended 'best by' date, I gave it to our food bank. It's just too easy to cook thighs, or buy a Costco rotisserie chicken if I need cooked chicken meat for something.

And I LIKE canned tuna and salmon when its been raw packed, so I don't know why my imagination fell so short with the canned chicken.

Thanks, marilyn_c. I don’t know that I have heard of “food weirdnesses.” I’ve seen friends, often guys, make some pretty wild concoctions. Or, my DH would love to eat fried bologna. I think that is disgusting. Do you dislike canned tuna? In water? In oil? Some tuna is not appetizing. but if you have had access to bushels of delicious Gulf shrimp, I cannot blame you if that’s all you everwanted to eat. I feel that way with seafood from New England. I could eat endless lobster, shellfish, haddock, striped bass, punctuated by Chicken and some pork and beef. Lots of vegetables and fruit.

(How are your possums doing?)

Speaking of possums - if you can't think of anything you'd like to cook with, I'll bet they'd appreciate that chicken meat...

Thanks for the suggestions. I am ”afraid” that I will waste it if I open it and it smells like wet dog (retriever) or something like liver-worst and old hay.

I have my own idiosyncracies, I guess. I’ll start a new thread sometime.

So, I guess the idea for someone like me would be to prepare it with some spices, piquant enhancements — so chilies, garlic, ginger, mustards, celery hearts, olives ….

Maybe if I act soon. Kitchen pantry inventory includes:

Wheat burrito wrappers, jalapeños, some other fresh chili that looks hot, olives, onion, pepperjack cheese, maybe some cheddar, feta, parmesan. Maybe sour cream. I think some jar of salsa verde. Maybe avocados, but they might have gone south.

That might get me started on enchilladas, but then, would I kick myself for not defrosting some boneless chicken thighs or boneless chicken breasts? Would tha canned store brand chicken be a real tumble down?

Honestly, if it's anything like the canned chicken I've had, it's best in something with a creamy/juicy sauce, as it can be a bit dry - IMPE.

You can make spicy enchiladas with it.l; Here's how I make them:

Yucatecan Style Chicken Enchiladas

• 3/4 to 1 pound cooked (preferably poached) chicken or turkey meat, chopped
• 2 tbsp chicken fat (or combination of chicken fat, butter, olive oil)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 2-3 Serrano peppers, minced
• 1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes
• 2 tbsp cumin
• 2 tbsp Ancho chili powder
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp vegetable soup base
• 1 tsp chicken soup base
• 2 tbsp achiote paste (ground annatto seeds)
• 1 cup chicken stock, as needed
• 12-15 corn tortillas
• (optional) grated cheese (Monterey Jack, Swiss, or Jarlsberg)

If you have poached your chicken meat, you will have a nice broth to use for thinning the sauce later, and you will probably have chicken fat that you can use for the roux. I poach the chicken the day before and save the broth separately and extract the fat from the top of the broth. Chop the meat and set aside. If you have bones, you can add them to the broth and simmer for an hour or so.

Melt the fat (or butter and oil) in a large saucepan, and add the flour to make a roux. When the roux is a pale brown, add the minced onion and cook a bit more so that the onion will become soft and the roux turns a light brown. Then add the peppers and stir to combine. Add the canned tomatoes, including all the liquid, and blend. Add the cumin, chili powder, oregano, soup bases (in place of salt), and achiote paste. Stir until blended. Reduce the heat and add sufficient chicken stock or water to make a thick sauce. Using a stick blender, purée until fairly smooth, or at least until tomato pieces are fully incorporated – you may have some onion pieces that do not get puréed, but this is okay. Remove about 1/3 of the sauce to reserve and add the chopped chicken or turkey meat to the rest of the sauce.

Spoon about 2-3 tbsp of the reserved sauce into a 6”x10” (or similar size) baking dish, and spread fairly evenly, along the bottom and sides. Heat the tortillas on a covered plate in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time, turning them and restacking them so that the center ones are top and bottom. Once they are soft, spoon a bit of chicken filling into a single tortilla, roll it into shape, and place it in the baking dish. You can stack them tightly or else make two loose layers. If you make two layers, put a bit of reserved sauce in between the layers. At the end, add all remaining sauce to the top and spread evenly. Add grated cheese, if desired.

Cover the pan with foil and bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes, or until they are hot.

my locl opossums would also eat any less than yummy Enchiladas. But if I don’t like the canned chicken, I can invite my less picky DH to have the rest. I can donate good, unopened cans to a Food bank.

We often have things like fish skin (from haddock or salmon), cheese, yogurt (opossums don’t care if things are fresh), spoiled milk made into cheese, any expired dairy. I used to make elaborate meals for them — chopped cheese and meat scraps mixed with chicken bones, skin, powdered milk, sweet potato, eggs, any waste from steamed lobsters or clams. I ear everything on a lobster, pick out body meat, legs, some tomalley (liver). But give the fat, weird fleshy stuff, roe, some tomalley (liver) to opossum, and deep bury compost the rest. Mix in sunflower seed too (calcium).

The only problem, is that sometimes raccoons come and scoff up the meal. I definitely do not want most other wild animals around. In the summer the opossums don’t need any meals. Marilyn_c told me they will catch and eat small mice, so that is good to know.

We also bought it during the pandemic. DH likes it. To me, it tastes like a mild tuna fish.

Give it to a food bank.

You can make chicken chili. Not bad. I buy it for my emergency food (earthquake) and donate it to the yearly food drive for the food banks. Canned meat is always appreciated. I get it at Costco. It is actually pretty good but I like to have it to donate.

Thanks, carolb and Lars.

I avoid eating the chicken pieces in canned soup — dry and like sawdust. So if is is like that, I will pass and make Lars’ yummy looking recipe with real feshly cooked chicken.

I’ll have to shop for some of the ingredients. Now I am craving those enchiladas.

Mors and partymusic, thanks. PM that chicken salad sounds good.

I’m happy to see this thread. I too bought some canned chickern during the pandemic and now don’t know what to do with it. So far i think there are some good suggestions to try.

We have bought it at Costco (kirkland brand) and honestly it's totally fine. We just use it like tuna (celery and onion and mayo). . It's very mild tasting. It's similar to tuna but much much milder tasting ( and barely has any odor). It's really good! We had forgotten about buying it and hadn't for a while but recently bought it. In fact we had some within the last week and we both remarked how we enjoyed it. Partymusics suggestion sounds great to me.

For sure a foodbank would be happy to receive it, but I would say give it a try. Chicken salad is the way to go

In my opinion it's a little dry and needs a cheesy sauce or other sauce like in enchiladas.

I could have written the preceding comments of salonva. We buy it occasionally as a stand-in for tuna, not wanting to eat tuna more than the recommended every 10 days or so (for mercury reasons).

The Costco chicken product is mild and inoffensive. Not as tasty as tuna or chicken salad made from the real thing but it's fine. Add chopped green onions to how we make it.

I also agree, I can't tell the difference between canned chicken and tuna. Both have about the same texture. A pasta salad with chunks of canned chicken is pretty good! Link to general recipe

It's a refreshing Summer lunch or great dish to bring to a potluck.

Thanks for the additional comments. To show my appreciation, I’ll share my ginger-curry chicken salad recipe.

My ginger curry chicken salad

For about 4 cups of tender chopped poached chicken (I lightly salt water, poach chicken thighs or breast until done, no more. Allow chicken to cool, then trim of all fat or cartilage. Tear or chop (or both) into small 1” pieces. Irregularly torn chicken pieces catch more of the mayo-sour cream curry dressing and are more flavorful.

Micro-dice pliable candied ginger (if hard you can moisten it to soften), 2 - 3 Tablespoons (or to taste)

1/4 Cup of white wine or orange juice (or cider) to plump the ginger and raisins. Careful just to toss the raisins so that you don’t muddy the chicken salad.

1/2 Cup of raisins plumped in a Tablespoon of wine (or liquid)

2 teaspoons or curry powder (to taste)

Mixture of mayonnaise, sour cream and Greek yogurt to your liking. (I play the amount by ear, but at lest 1 cup, maybe 1.5 C or more.

Freshly ground black pepper to your taste

I do not add salt.

Combine the mostly mayo, sour cream, yogurt with the curry powder and ground pepper.

In a bowl, combine the chicken pieces, curried mayor-sour cream-yogurt curry dressing. Add the bits of plumped candied ginger. Toss to combine. Lastly add the plumped raisins and gently combine.

The poached chicken pieces may seem to thirstily absorb the dressing. You can add a bit more mayonnaise or sour cream. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes or an hour to allow for maximum flavor development.

This is good served on artisan bread or a croissant.

I developed this recipe after eating a delicious curried chicken salad at a small deli in Acton, Massachusetts in the 1980s. I began reverse engineering it as soon as I got home.

Caveat: I make this by taste and feel and don’t know as I ever delineated the exact proportions. If anyone makes this, I’d like to know if you liked it. I poach the chicken so that it will be moist and not want to drink in too much of the dressing.

Curry sounds good. I hadn't thought of that. Toss in some of those excess cuc chunks from the other thread.

I bought some of that just like you did.

I am not usually a fan of such things, but I have quite enjoyed it and have bought that six pack at Costco a couple of times since.

It makes a nice chicken salad and I also make a quick skillet meal of it by tossing it in to some manner of sauce and do use the broth in the can. Usually goes over rice or open faced sandwich. It it pretty versatile. If I drain it to make a chicken salad I always save the broth in a little container in the fridge or freezer. It makes that perfect little bit of fun stuff to add to something here or there.

You can use it much like you would tuna. I remember commodity goods that used to be given out with food programs back in the 70. One of the things was a large can of chicken like this. I was so good and was meant to fed a family.

I see someone mentioned making a curry kind of thing out of it. I have done that, too. Just any kind of sauce that you think you like.

I, too, purchased the pack of canned chicken at Costco. I have used 1 can and it truly did not smell or taste like tuna to me. It may have reminded me in appearance of canned tuna, but not in scent or taste. To me, it was not dry at all. Used it to make a quick, unplanned for chicken and dumplings just winging it. We were well satisfied with the dish.

My daughter makes delicious buffalo chicken dip with it.

It would depend on what you mean as canned chicken. Is it the whole chicken in a big can or just one of the smaller flat cans. As a child my mom would purchase the big can then drain it. Usually tossed in something like noodles or pasta shells. Sometimes added carrots and onions to make a soup. I remember there was very little meat on the chicken but my mother may have eaten some of it before we came home from school. The meat I remember it as being very soft and the flavor was in the broth. I also remember it being extremely salty but then we only salted food at the table.

The smaller flat cans can be use like you would tuna, I purchased an emergency can in 2020 and finally ate it last year by just adding things I would normally add to tuna salad if I had them available. Different brands I have had on my emergency shelf differed in flavor, texture, and amount of liquid in the can. The cooked in can always had too much liquid to solids.

FWIW, I use boneless, skinless canned salmon to make a salad with mayo, a little bit of Dijon mustard and Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning - a salt free seasoning blend that's like Mrs. Dash.

I avoid tuna, so I also sub canned salmon for tuna in a tuna style casserole.

When I make chicken salad, it's usually cubed leftover roast chicken breast meat, a little salt, chopped apples, raisins, mayonnaise and curry powder. If I have celery, sometimes I add that as well.

I imagine canned chicken would be fine in all of those.

I buy it from Costco as an emergency food also. It is good in this 7 Can Chicken Taco Soup. This soup would be good as an emergency meal if you have a way to heat it and wash the pan afterwards.

Following and it may still be needed this fall.

I wouldn't regard it as an indistinguishable substitute for freshly cooked chicken. It isn't as flavorful or tasty. We don't have an "emergency" food supply, we regard it as more a last resort convenience when we're lazy. For our desire to not eat tuna too often, we could always just wait instead of using an ersatz stand-in.

I don't dislike canned tuna. I didn't care for canned chicken because it didn't remind me of regular chicken. It also was pink in color, which for me, was off putting . I like poached chicken very much. I don't like it boiled to the extent that it is over cooked though.

The canned chicken that I was given may not have been representative of all canned chicken. It originally came from a food bank and was close or past the expiration date, which is why it was given to the rehabbers. She also received a large quantity of canned food, and she gave me several cans of canned pears and fruit cocktail. I used it to go on top of the yogurt i feed to the possums that I feed....to keep the barn cats from eating it. It was a lesser quality than what you might find with Delmonte or Libby and all the canned food was under a different label...like for food that would be distributed to food banks.

When I say I have food weirdness....that is just me explaining that I am picky about what I eat. I don't eat very much (almost none) canned food. I don't eat anything cooked very much. Of course I don't like undercooked chicken, but I don't want it cooked to the point it is dried out. Color and texture of food is very important to me...so that is what I mean when I say I am weird about food.

Sounds right.

I looked out back last night and spotted a 10” long joey opossum eating some cheese we put out. So sweet.

I bought some of the Costco Kirkland too and did read it is the best canned chicken. Idk, I'll save it and if I ever need it, it's there, but I don't see using it unless a dire situation.

I use canned chicken in a chicken wild rice casserole which was given to me by two church ladies during my late husbands's struggle with cancer. It became our very favorite casserole and is dead easy to make for pot luck meals.

It only resembles tuna in that it is a canned meat product. I am glad that it doesnt taste or smell like tuna since I hate tuna. It is not the same as a freshly stewed chicken, either, but it does not pretend to be. It is what it is.

I am not drawn to things like this normally but we did decide that it was something that we would enjoy once in a while for a quick lunch or skillet dinner. I buy a pack of it every few months or so.

No. It is not like fresh cooked chicken and that is ok. It's possible to make it in a way that is palatable. I sometimes use food like Hamburger, Chicken, or TUna Helpers a s a way to get a quick meal without going to a lot of trouble or spending the money to eat out. It's not gourmet, but it's really not that bad either. It can be doctored up with fresh vegetables, different spices, etc.

About the emergency food, we are supposed to keep at least three days worth of food that could be eaten in event of an emergency situation. My family has been through several emergency situations in the last 25 years. We've been through, ice storms, blizzards, major power outages, and hurricanes. I keep food on hand that we could eat without cooking if needed. I prefer cooked food. When we had the power outage for several days in February 2021 because of the freeze, I was still able to cook because I had a gas stove. We had running water longer than most people and I filled up tubs for flushing and had sufficient drinking water on hand. I cooked out of my freezer and whatever I had on hand. We could have eaten straight from the can if needed.

When I rotate my disaster supplies, I use canned chicken in soups and chowder.

Chicken Veggie Rice Soup - A box of chicken broth, a can of chicken, a handful or so of uncooked rice, 2 handfuls of dehydrated soup veggies and garlic powder to taste. Bring to a boil then simmer until veggies and rice are tender.

Chicken Corn Chowder - A box of chicken broth, a can of chicken, a can of corn or Copes corn, a few tablespoons of bacon bits and dried onion and some instant mashed potato flakes to thicken. DD likes to add powdered cheddar cheese as well. If you rehydrate the onions and Cope's Corn before making the chowder, this chowder can be ready as soon as it is heated through. If you use Copes corn straight from the pouch, add 2 more cups of water or broth.

The 7 Can Chicken Taco Soup sound delicious. I am adding it to my list.

I think the taco soup sounds pretty good too.

I think it does, too. Have copied and pasted into a Word document.