What Are the Best Pre-Cooked Chicken Options for Quick Meals?
If you’re here, you’re a fan of chicken and — most likely — of the pre-cooked, eat-and-run variety. Whether you enjoy the different unbreaded grilled products or an assortment of breaded strip, tender and nugget varieties, the best pre-cooked chicken options for quick meals are sought-after by many. Chicken lovers all have their favorite choices, so see if you find yours in the following list.
Best All-Around: John Soules Foods
At John Soules Foods, its experts have found an excellent balance between tasty seasonings, marinades and the chicken itself. It provides pre-cut and pre-cooked products that make microwaving, oven baking, or skillet meal preparation quick and efficient. John Soules’ all-natural products are available in retailers across the U.S. and include several succulent pre-cooked chicken and beef options. Your selections cover a variety of easy-to-make meals, meaning you can experiment with new recipes.
Besides enjoying a hearty John Soules-assisted dinner, the resealable packaging means you can keep unused portions for future cooking to cater to light breakfasts, lunches or snacks. With everything from Fajita, Rotisserie and Blackened sliced chicken to Hot Honey BBQ chicken bites, Southern Style chicken strips, and chicken tenders on the John Soules Foods white meat product list, you’re assured of pre-cooked chicken to suit every occasion, with healthy options to suit any dietary demands.
Pre-Cooked Chicken Options
| Bites | Yes | Diced | Yes |
| Fillets | Yes | Gluten-Free | Yes |
| Nuggets | Yes | Organic | Yes |
| Patties | Yes | Popcorn | Yes |
| Sandwiches | Yes | Sausages | No |
| Sliced/Pulled | Yes | Strips | Yes |
| Tenders | Yes | Wings | No |
Best Organic: Perdue
Perdue has a reputation for providing innovative chicken products while doing its bit for the environment, animal care and the people it employs. With over a century in operation, the company supports the local Salisbury, Maryland, community and economy through collaboration and charitable efforts. The regional partnerships with its grain and poultry farmers ensure an undisputed organic standard in the Perdue product range.
Look out for the Perdue Simply Smart range of organic pre-cooked chicken, including its gluten-free Breaded Chicken Tenders and Nuggets. The whole-grain Chicken Breast Nuggets made with non-GMO ingredients are perfect for dipping or adding to your favorite salad. With Perdue’s reputation for organically certified goodness and its experience in delivering chicken products of unquestionable quality, it’s worth looking out for in stores near you.
Pre-Cooked Chicken Options
| Bites | Yes | Diced | Yes |
| Fillets | Yes | Gluten-Free | Yes |
| Nuggets | Yes | Organic | Yes |
| Patties | Yes | Popcorn | Yes |
| Sandwiches | No | Sausages | No |
| Sliced/Pulled | Yes | Strips | Yes |
| Tenders | Yes | Wings | Yes |
Best Gluten-Free: Applegate
With gluten affecting so many, the escalating focus on gluten-free products means many food brands are doing what they can to include wider options — none more so than Applegate and its pre-cooked chicken. Its proactivity means the New Jersey business helps gluten-intolerant consumers have a wider selection of pre-cooked chicken products for those urgent occasions requiring quick meals.
Applegate provides consumers with six different gluten-free breaded chicken and chicken strip alternatives among its Organics and Naturals ranges. These include organic and gluten-free chicken nuggets, regular and family-sized nuggets, and breast tenders. If you prefer unbreaded chicken, the skillet or microwave-prepared gluten-free Applegate Naturals Grilled Chicken Breast Strips will likely suit you well and can be found in most grocery stores, including Whole Foods.
Pre-Cooked Chicken Options
| Bites | No | Diced | No |
| Fillets | No | Gluten-Free | Yes |
| Nuggets | Yes | Organic | Yes |
| Patties | Yes | Popcorn | No |
| Sandwiches | Yes | Sausages | Yes |
| Sliced/Pulled | No | Strips | Yes |
| Tenders | Yes | Wings | No |
Best Grilled Chicken: Trader Joe’s
Trader Joe’s — a Monrovia, California-headquartered grocery chain store — might be the most unusual addition to this list. It isn’t chicken-specific, but purely based on its many succulent pre-cooked grilled chicken options, it warrants inclusion. The stores cater to those looking for easy-to-prepare alternatives, from Grilled Chicken Strips to Grilled Lime Chicken Breasts and its Teriyaki Chicken Bowl.
Trader Joe’s is a renowned name in many types of quick meal products, not only chicken. It also provides pre-cooked breaded chicken alternatives for those who enjoy crispy varieties, including Organic Chicken Nuggets and Hot and Spicy Chicken Wings, which both crisp up to a golden brown finish. Your pets will undoubtedly enjoy the Trader Joe’s Crispy Chicken Chips as a treat.
Pre-Cooked Chicken Options
| Bites | Yes | Diced | Yes |
| Fillets | No | Gluten-Free | No |
| Nuggets | Yes | Organic | Yes |
| Patties | No | Popcorn | No |
| Sandwiches | No | Sausages | Yes |
| Sliced/Pulled | Yes | Strips | Yes |
| Tenders | No | Wings | Yes |
Best Community-Driven: Foster Farms
Foster Farms‘ chickens are cage-free, organic and vegetarian-fed, meaning pre-cooked options are all sourced from quality breeding. The Northern California enterprise is community-driven, using local labor and produce to feed its chickens. Employees’ families receive frequent scholarships and endowments at local tertiary education institutions, and Foster Farms also donates to a charity in Central Valley, California.
What are the best pre-cooked chicken options for quick meals? The Take Out Crispy Wings in classic Buffalo Style and Sweet Chipotle BBQ flavors are very popular. Both come with a complimentary sauce for basting or using once prepared, which you can do in a conventional oven, convection oven or air fryer. Alternatively, consumers are huge fans of the Foster Farms Crispy Strips in Buffalo Style, which are well worth trying.
Pre-Cooked Chicken Options
| Bites | No | Diced | Yes |
| Fillets | Yes | Gluten-Free | Yes |
| Nuggets | Yes | Organic | Yes |
| Patties | Yes | Popcorn | Yes |
| Sandwiches | No | Sausages | No |
| Sliced/Pulled | Yes | Strips | Yes |
| Tenders | Yes | Wings | Yes |
Most Transparent: Bell & Evans
Bell & Evans is the oldest branded chicken company in the United States, going back to 1894. It is also the most transparent, with its website detailing the whole process from its Pennsylvania base — breeding, feeding, transporting and processing — until the product reaches store freezers. This openness gives consumers insight into what they eat when buying Bell & Evans pre-cooked chicken products.
Thanks to its options ranging from traditional and parmesan-flavored meatballs to frozen burgers, tenders, nuggets and breasts, there’s a decent choice of meals to prepare quickly in the oven, slow cooker, or by air or deep frying. With organic and gluten-free products supplementing its product list, Bell & Evans’ transparency makes the brand a natural choice for more discerning chicken lovers.
Pre-Cooked Chicken Options
| Bites | No | Diced | Yes |
| Fillets | Yes | Gluten-Free | Yes |
| Nuggets | Yes | Organic | Yes |
| Patties | Yes | Popcorn | No |
| Sandwiches | No | Sausages | No |
| Sliced/Pulled | No | Strips | No |
| Tenders | Yes | Wings | No |
Best Traditional: Tyson Foods
The Tyson brand has been producing and processing chicken products since 1972. With frozen skinless chicken, crispy, fully cooked items and lots more in between, this Arkansas native has a product range that caters to breaded and unbreaded meals, sandwiches, and snacking.
The pre-baked Original Chicken Breast Sandwich and Slider meals come frozen for easy oven, microwave, or air-frying, while Tyson Foods’ frozen Grilled & Ready Fully Cooked Fajita Chicken Strip options provide a skillet option filled with Mexican flavor.
A pack of Restaurant Style Caribbean Style Crispy Wings is perfect for a pre-dinner snack with friends. The Original Chicken options let you remember when you first tasted pre-cooked chicken. You might know Tyson Foods is currently under investigation in the U.S., but that takes nothing away from its longevity in providing traditionally tasty and succulent pre-cooked chicken options for many decades.
Pre-Cooked Chicken Options
| Bites | Yes | Diced | Yes |
| Fillets | Yes | Gluten-Free | Yes |
| Nuggets | Yes | Organic | Yes |
| Patties | Yes | Popcorn | No |
| Sandwiches | Yes | Sausages | No |
| Sliced/Pulled | Yes | Strips | Yes |
| Tenders | Yes | Wings | Yes |
Best Chicken Sausage: Simple Truth
Did you think you’d see a pre-cooked chicken sausage on this list? Simple Truth is the private label of natural and organic foods sold exclusively at Kroger grocery stores. Like the fresh classics it provides, its pre-cooked chicken sausages are organic, gluten-free and certified humane. Being a Kroger product, you can find your favorite Simple Truth sausage meal countrywide.
The fully cooked chicken products — which come in flavors like Chicken Sausage Patties with Sundried Tomatoes and Basil and Chicken Apple Maple Sausage — provide a different but delightful taste sensation. Warm them in the microwave or cook them further on the griddle. With the option not readily available through many other brands, you’ll do well to find a better chicken sausage anywhere in the U.S. Simple Truth has devised a winning and original formula for its pre-cooked chicken sausage products.
Pre-Cooked Chicken Options
| Bites | No | Diced | No |
| Fillets | No | Gluten-Free | Yes |
| Nuggets | No | Organic | Yes |
| Patties | Yes | Popcorn | No |
| Sandwiches | No | Sausages | Yes |
| Sliced/Pulled | No | Strips | No |
| Tenders | No | Wings | No |
Best for Kids: Earth’s Best
The fully cooked and breaded Earth’s Best Frozen Chicken Nuggets for kids are enough to get the Vermont-based organic children’s food brand on the list. While pre-cooked chicken options hardly dominate its extensive range, the crispy, crumbed exterior and juicy, tender meat of the chicken nuggets make them a must for parents seeking tasty goodness for their young ones.
Earth’s Best only has four other chicken options — two being Chicken Casserole and Chicken Pot Pie purees, with the Frozen Chicken Fries being another wholesome and tasty pre-cooked meal or treat. Finally, a gluten-free version of the popular chicken nuggets completes the Earth’s Best chicken product list. Despite the limited number of products, the enterprise has invested time and effort to ensure kids love them and parents return for more.
Pre-Cooked Chicken Options
| Bites | No | Diced | No |
| Fillets | No | Gluten-Free | Yes |
| Nuggets | Yes | Organic | Yes |
| Patties | No | Popcorn | No |
| Sandwiches | No | Sausages | No |
| Sliced/Pulled | No | Strips | No |
| Tenders | No | Wings | No |
Quick Pre-Cooked Chicken Meal Options
Buying your pre-cooked chicken is easy, but what fun and innovative recipe ideas will spruce up your succulent and tasty tenders even more?
1. Garlic Butter Chicken Tenders
Ingredients
- Olive oil — neutral oil will also do
- Butter
- Lots of garlic — preferably fresh, or 1.5 teaspoons of jarred garlic to represent each clove
- Four to six chicken tenders
- Italian seasoning, paprika, salt and pepper
- Parsley or basil leaves
Method
- Add olive oil and a tablespoon of butter to a skillet.
- Place the tenders into the skillet and season with paprika, salt and pepper.
- Cook for three minutes per side.
- Melt another tablespoon of butter in the skillet.
- Add the garlic to the tenders and cook until you smell the garlic.
- Season with the Italian herbs and cook for another minute per side.
- Deglaze the skillet by adding two tablespoons of water, scraping off the flavored pieces stuck to the pan.
- Garnish with basil leaves or parsley and serve while hot.
Don’t overcook the garlic or the chicken tenders. If you’re making a sauce, use the deglazed layer on the skillet as your base for the best flavor. The whole process should take around 15 minutes.
2. Chicken Tender Sauté
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- Butter
- A cup of diced onion
- A cup of diced red bell pepper
- A tablespoon of minced garlic
- Three cups of loosely packed baby spinach
- A quarter cup of sour cream
- Eight chicken tenders
- Salt and pepper
Method
- Add the olive oil to a large sauté pan and then the butter to melt.
- Sauté the onion, scallion whites, bell pepper and garlic for three minutes.
- Nestle the tenders on the pan bottom for browning and cook for two minutes per side.
- Add the scallion greens and spinach, with salt and pepper. Stir to mix for a minute or two until the tenders cook through and the spinach wilts.
- Remove from the heat and mix in the sour cream.
Try to remove the white membrane from each chicken tender before cooking. Add further salt and pepper to taste and serve with rice to add extra appeal to this quick and easy meal.
3. Chicken Tender Parmesan
Ingredients
- Olive oil, salt and pepper
- One 24-ounce jar of marinara sauce
- Sliced mozzarella cheese to suit
- Six to eight chicken tenders
- Fresh basil
Method
- Add some olive oil to a large skillet.
- Pour in the marinara sauce, heat it and then add the tenders.
- Top each tender with the mozzarella cheese and broil for a minute or two or until the cheese melts.
- Garnish with fresh basil.
Serve this easy-to-make meal over spaghetti.
There are many delightful recipes to try with different pre-cooked chicken ingredients, or you can heat them on their own to include in platters or as delicious snacks.
Get Yourself the Best Pre-Cooked Chicken Options for Quick Meals in a Pinch
Whichever pre-cooked chicken brands and styles you prefer, you’ll find the perfect quick meal between them. Use specific recipes or add eggs, chips, vegetables, or another option to supplement a meal — the result will likely be succulent and filling. Plus, you won’t wait long for your dish to be ready.