Thursday, August 20, 2009

Creative Thursdays: Pulled BBQ Chicken


Let me start by saying that you have to make this recipe!! In a total of 10 days, I have made this recipe twice!! I love when a recipe uses minimal ingredients, is super simple to throw together, and then yields a wonderful outcome. It really doesn't get any better! I owe a huge thank you to two wonderful food bloggers. Thank you to Lisaloo, of One Step at a Time, who first posted this recipe here. The ease of this recipe caught Monica's attention over at Lick the Bowl Good, and she posted the recipe on her blog here. I would like to give you both this award:
I chose this recipe for Creative Thursdays because it only uses two ingredients: frozen chicken breasts and barbecue sauce! Yes, I said frozen chicken!! Using the frozen chicken is great for people like me who always forget to thaw out meat for dinner the night before. I usually always have frozen chicken breasts in my freezer that I have bought in bulk and rewrapped. Barbecue sauce is another great staple around my house that I almost always have on hand. But, why stop there? I think this recipe would still work with many other sauces, both homemade and jarred. For instance, my husband and I both love chicken with buffalo sauce. Why not use buffalo sauce? I'm willing to bet there are a wide variety of sauces that would be perfect with this chicken. Why not try teriyaki, lemon pepper, honey mustard, salsa or even just plain chicken broth. Serve the chicken on a bun as a sandwich, or put it over rice or who knows what else. I think the possibilities are endless, and that's what makes this recipe so great!!

Pulled BBQ Chicken - adapted from Lisaloo at One Step at a Time & Monica of Lick the Bowl Good

4 frozen chicken breasts (I had boneless, skinless chicken breast)
1 - 18 oz bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce (make sure you love the flavor, whatever you chose)

Place the frozen chicken in the crockpot and top with sauce (making sure the sauce covers the chicken). Let cool on low in crockpot for 8-12 hours. Remove chicken from crockpot and let cool slightly before shredding. After shredding, return to pot and let cook another couple hours.

Notes: I have made this recipe twice now using jarred barbecue sauce. Each time I have let the chicken cook on low for around 8 hours. The chicken is very tender at this point and will break up easily or hold it's shape if removed with a spatula. Although I enjoy shredded chicken and pork, I prefer it to be in chunks. After it cools a bit I break the chicken breasts into chunks and serve on a roll or over rice. Yesterday I made some garlic bread, topped it with hot pepper cheese and put the chicken on the roll. It was really, really good!!

I can tell you that next time I will be experimenting with buffalo sauce and I will be sure to post my results. If I am successful with the buffalo sauce, then I can definitely see a lot of experiments with this recipe. It's what I would refer to as WIDE OPEN, which is also how I refer to my two year old : )

Be sure to check out both Lisaloo and Monica's sites above to see how they enjoyed the chicken. They both have wonderful blogs that you are either already enjoying or will enjoy in the future.

I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas for this recipe! I'm willing to bet that there are some great ideas using this concept!!

Enjoy : )

14 comments:

  1. This recipe proves what I always say: the best recipes are the simplest. This looks like it made an awesome sandwich!

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  2. Thanks for the award :) I used a bottle of terriyaki sauce, then we shredded and served it over rice, yummy. Your sandwich looks wonderful! :)

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  3. I venver used a different kind of sauce, it never donned one me, but I have thought about using pork or beef!

    This sandwich is killing me. I can almost taste the crunchy garlic bread with the saucy chicken the melted cheese- oooh!

    Awesome job!

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  4. I am so trying this out, boneless or bone in did u use??

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  5. Donna- I used boneless & skinless chicken breasts. I don't usually mess with the bone- LOL!!

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  6. Perfect! I love simple, delicious recipes that take no time to prepare. And that looks amazing!

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  7. I had this on my list of things to make from Monica's blog..I hope to try it very soon! Looks sooooo good!

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  8. Yummy! I actually just bought some tofu "pulled chicken" in BBQ sauce--but homemade is always SO much better! I would definitely add a dash of ketchup to it for a nice little kick. But then again, I add ketchup to everything :-) Thanks for sharing this!

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  9. I love pulled pork and make it in the crockpot, but I'm going to make some chicken. I'll use boneless, skinless thighs since we both love dark meat. Thanks for an easy recipe!

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  10. Fantastic sandwich!! Thanks for the blog award, you are very kind.

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  11. Anything that easy has to be a winner. I put frozen pork loins into the crock pot too and they do the same thing.

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  12. Wow! It can't get much easier than that, can it? Frozen chicken??? I'm going to have to give that a try!

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  13. That looks delicious!!!Simple, but great!

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