Chicken Stuffed Avocados with Mushrooms & Blue Cheese

These chicken stuffed avocados will surprise you with their flavor-packed simplicity. All you need is some leftover cooked chicken and you have the beginnings of a perfect meal.

This recipe was originally published on March 4, 2014, and was republished in September 2020 to add better quality photos, re-test the recipe, and add more helpful tips.

One this that is great to have in your fridge is some leftover chicken. Something lightly seasoned that can be turned into all kinds of other meals. It’s also a great way to use leftovers from a roast chicken (or even turkey). You can turn that one roast into dishes you can enjoy all week long.

Quick meals with leftover chicken are especially great for lunches. It’s great to be able to quickly whip together something filling and tasty when you are at home. Or even for a light supper when you don’t have a lot of time in the evening. I am all for eating foods that are normally “snacks” or “appetizers” as my meal. It’s too bad my husband doesn’t like that as much as I do.

Once you have cooked chicken, there is so much you can do. Whether you plan on serving a crowd, or just yourself, there are lots of options. You can mix it in to some chicken pinwheel wraps, make a macaroni salad a little heartier, or make a chicken salad and serve it on some apple slices for a gluten free option.

I would happily eat any of these for lunch or dinner, but sometimes you want something a little warmer. And I will never turn down some avocado. One of my experiments with leftover chicken became this wonderful gem of a recipe, packed full of flavor and served in a creamy avocado boat. 

How to prevent avocados from browning

Avocados go brown fast! Haven’t you had that disappointing moment of using half the avocado, then coming back to the fridge later and the other half is all brown and dry. They are still perfectly edible, but they certainly don’t look appetizing. 

Of course, the first way to prevent browning is to eat the whole avocado right away. Which is certainly tasty, but rather limiting. Instead try squeezing some acid on any exposed avocado. A bit of lemon or lime juice squeezed or brushed on a sliced avocado will make it last much longer. 

This is the same trick you can use with apples or pears. The acids in lemon and lime juice are a great natural way to preserve food, and keep it looking beautiful longer.

Preparing ahead

Now, if you are planning on serving these as an appetizer at a party, or maybe you are doing some meal prep for your week, you’ll want to know how to make this ahead of time. The key is to make everything in stages. Keep all the components separate then put them together in the oven at the last minute.

The main thing to make ahead of time is the chicken and mushroom mixture. Cook it up before keeping it in a sealed container in the fridge. You just want to keep the blue cheese crumbles and the avocados separate.

If you want to go a step further, you can prep your avocados by cutting them in half and removing the pit. Then brush a little lime juice on each half to prevent browning. Even better if you can take two avocado halves and press them together again after brushing them with lime juice. I don’t recommend leaving them like this for too long though, or they will start going brown no matter what.

It’s amazing what you can make with some plain cooked chicken. Quick meals like these chicken stuffed avocados are a perfect use of leftovers. You can pack so many flavors into a light but filling meal using just this simple meat base.