BBQ Pulled Chicken

I love using the slow cooker. The idea that you can do the prep work in the morning, then relax or run errands, and with little effort your meal is ready a few hours later. Unfortunately, most slow cooker recipes have cooking times of 10 hours or less. During the week, I am away from home for more than 10 hours so it's not ideal. That's why most of my slow cooking is done over the weekend.

I was in a BBQ mood, but we don't have a grill. Hmmm what to do? BBQ slow cooker pulled chicken! Small list of ingredients, not much work--perfect.

I added frozen chicken to my slow cooker while I whipped up the sauce from BBQ sauce, Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire. I poured the sauce over the chicken, closed up my slow cooker, and did my own thing for about three hours.

After three hours on high, I shredded the chicken. This was, by far, the most labor intensive part of the meal. My slow cooker is not very large, so I shredded the chicken in a bowl and added it back to the slow cooker.

After the shredding, I let everything cook for another hour on low.

Then it was time to eat! Since it was so nice out, we dined on our balcony. I made pulled chicken sandwiches using, you guessed it, pulled chicken and a toasted bun. To complete the meal, I also served up maple baked beans (Harris Teeter organic brand) and macaroni salad (recipe forthcoming).

Gratuitous BBQ pulled chicken shot:

The chicken turned out fantastic! Even better, it made quite a bit of chicken so we were able to eat leftovers for several meals, including a BBQ chicken pizza (post also forthcoming). Since we're only a household of two, the recipe may have made a bit too much, so I might use 1-2 less chicken breasts but keep the sauce ingredient quantities the same.

Adapted from Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken Barbecue and reviewer comment

5 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1 (18 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce

1/2 cup Italian salad dressing

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Place chicken in a slow cooker. In a bowl, mix 2/3 of the barbecue sauce, Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the chicken.

After cooking for 2.5 to 3 hours on High, shred the chicken breasts and mix into sauce.

Cook for an additional hour on Low. Mix in remaining BBQ sauce before serving

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