Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Chicken

This easy Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Chicken is a fantastic meal for hectic weeknights. This simple recipe only takes around 10 minutes to be ready and is great for pulled BBQ sandwiches and other things. You can also freeze leftovers.

Why You’ll Love Our BBQ Shredded Chicken

This is a recipe for a dump-and-go dinner. Put everything in your crock pot, cover it, and leave. Come back and shred the chicken, then let it sit in the sauce until you’re ready to serve. It doesn’t get easier.
The chicken is very juicy and soft. Adding apple cider vinegar and olive oil to the chicken will make it moist and easy to shred. I don’t always like chicken in the crockpot since it sometimes dry out a little, but this recipe has changed everything.
Very easy to freeze. Make two batches and store one for another hectic night. You can freeze this for about three months in a container that won’t let air in.
Perfect for weeknights when you’re busy! You can make this in the morning and have it ready for whoever is ready to eat. This is great for meal prep or if you know you’re going to have a busy night of practices, events, and more. You don’t have to stand over the fire to feed the whole family!
There are many ways to serve. You may use regular hamburger buns, but there are many other ways to make them. We love to serve this pulled chicken on toasted brioche buns, as a lettuce wrap, as tacos with slaw on top, as BBQ chicken nachos, on top of salads, and more. Think outside the box, right?

Things You Need for the Recipe

For this pulled chicken recipe, boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs are best. The chicken thighs will be less likely to fail since they are less lean and will keep more moisture. But I still think the chicken breast works really well!

Red bell pepper: The bell pepper gives some vegetables and a little crunch, but you don’t have to add it if you don’t want to. If you want, you can also use a green bell pepper.
onion: a little onion that has been cut up very finely. We usually use yellow onions, but red onions work too.
For seasoning, I mix garlic powder, chili powder, smoked paprika, onion powder, ground mustard, salt, and pepper to produce a spice rub. If you don’t have smoked paprika, normal paprika will do. I don’t always add cayenne for heat, but sometimes I do.
Use your favorite BBQ sauce for this. We normally use Stubb’s original or Sweet Baby Ray’s but the best way to change this recipe is in the barbecue sauce, so feel free to use any that you enjoy! You may even use homemade BBQ sauce if you have one you like!
olive oil: I have made this recipe without the olive oil and found that the chicken just wasn’t nearly as moist and tender. I think this is the secret ingredient so don’t skip it!
Worcestershire sauce: just a touch rounds out the flavor.
apple cider vinegar: helps tenderize this shredded BBQ chicken as well. Keeps it extra juicy and tasty!

1 ½-2 lb chicken breast, boneless skinless chicken thighs work too
1 red pepper, tiny diced
1 small onion, small diced
¾ tsp garlic powder
¾ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp ground mustard
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp cracked pepper
1 ¼ c BBQ sauce, separated
1 T olive oil
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Instructions

Place the red pepper and onion on the bottom of crock pot. Place the chicken breasts on top.
Whisk together the spices, salt and pepper and cover the chicken on both sides, massaging into the chicken.
Mix together 1 cup of BBQ sauce, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce. Cover the chicken completely with the mixture.
Close the lid and turn the heat down low for 6 to 8 hours or up high for 4 to 6 hours.
You can shred the chicken once it has reached 165°F inside and is starting to fall apart easily. Using two forks, pull the chicken into shredded bits. You may either take it out of the crockpot or leave it in.
Place the shredded chicken back in the crockpot and let it to simmer in the sauce until ready to serve.
Before serving, whisk in the remaining 1/4 cup of BBQ sauce.

Shredded BBQ Chicken Recipe Tips

Use thawed chicken versus frozen. Frozen chicken can take a long time to reach to the correct internal temperature. It can potentially induce food borne disease if utilizing frozen meat.
Use chicken that is uniformly sized. Pound the chicken to keep it the same size if one piece is significantly bigger than the others. This will help the food cook evenly.
A crockpot liner might help you clean up more easily. I don’t really like using crockpot liners since I think they change the flavor of the food a little bit. But they can definitely assist with cleaning up, so go ahead and use one!
Some individuals like to use an electric hand mixer to shred their chicken. This is another wonderful choice when shredding, however I find the forks work so effectively that there is no need to get it out.

Storage

Store leftover BBQ pulled chicken in an airtight container for about 3-4 days in the refrigerator.

To freeze, let the chicken to cool completely first. Place in a freezer safe container or freezer bags and freeze for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw thoroughly before heating for optimal results.

Ways to Vary This Recipe

We love this Slow Cooker BBQ chicken as is, but there are plenty of ways too to vary it!

add pineapple or a dash of pineapple juice
add sliced bacon
toss in a diced jalapeño or diced green chiles
a splash of your favorite hot sauce
sprinkle in some brown sugar
vary the BBQ sauce or use a homemade sauce

What to Serve with this Slow Cooker Shredded BBQ Chicken

Most of the time we serve some form of potato side dish with this dinner. This Cajun Potato Salad or these Parmesan Roasted Potatoes are good picks. Our very favorite alternative for sweet potatoes is this recipe for Crispy Smoky Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries.

If you are up for heating up the grill, try this Street Corn with Garlic Feta Butter. You can make the corn in the oven as well if you are not up for grilling!

This feels like picnic cuisine thus one of our favorite side dishes for a picnic is spaghetti salad! Try this Simple Lemon Zucchini Pasta Salad, Caprese Tortellini Pasta Salad or Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad!

Chips. You can never go wrong with some chips on the side!

A salad is always a wonderful option as well. This Strawberry Goat Cheese Arugula Salad would be excellent, just avoid the chicken!

Nutrition Information

Nutritional information is supplied as a courtesy only and should be taken as an estimate rather than a guarantee. Ingredients can fluctuate and Lemons + Zest offers no assurances to the correctness of this information.

Nutrition
Calories: 270kcal, Carbohydrates: 28g, Protein: 25g, Fat: 6g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 3g, Trans Fat: 0.01g, Cholesterol: 73mg, Sodium: 957mg, Potassium: 654mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 22g, Vitamin A: 963IU, Vitamin C: 29mg, Calcium: 36mg, Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, thus should only be used as an approximation.