You can make delicious barbecue in your slow cooker. Throw in some chicken thighs and a homemade barbecue sauce and come home to delicious Slow Cooker Shredded BBQ Chicken.
If I have a go to meal, Slow Cooker Shredded BBQ Chicken is it. We have eaten this for dinner so many times since school started. I love the ease of this recipe and the flavor is just like slow cooked barbecue. To say it is a child-friendly meal, is a total understatement. My little one asks for it for dinner. Yeah! It’s a winner, winner, chicken dinner!
I first made this recipe for a friend who had recently had a baby. I made a batch for her family for dinner and one for mine. We all loved it so much it is on heavy rotation on Tuesday nights. My little one has horse riding lessons so dinner has to be ready when we get back from the lesson. In the winter, it is going to be fantastic to still have the flavor of barbecue without having to freeze outside using the grill. There will be no barbecue deprivation in our house this winter.
There are even times I skip browning the chicken and just throw it in. I haven’t really noticed much taste difference. You probably could use breasts but the chicken will be drier. I hate dry chicken – yuck! We are a chicken thigh eating family. The extra calories are not worth having a cardboard tasting piece of chicken for dinner. I’ll save the chicken breasts for a quick saute or something like that. Take out your slow cooker and make a fantastic BBQ dinner for your family. There will be tons of smiles and thank yous!
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- 1 ½ lbs. skinless, boneless chicken thighs
- 1 tsp. olive oil
- 3 tsp. BBQ seasonings, divided
- 1 cup ketchup (I use Simply Heinz)
- ¼ cup light brown sugar (not packed)
- 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce ( I used low sodium)
- 1 tbsp. cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp. yellow mustard (I used Guldens)
- 1 tsp. liquid amino or liquid smoke
- 1 tsp. ground red pepper, optional
- Sprinkle both sides of chicken with 2 tsp. BBQ seasonings.
- Heat oil in large skillet and brown chicken on both sides, about 3-4 minutes per side.
- Place on the bottom of a slow cooker.
- In a small bowl, mix together ketchup, 1 tsp. BBQ seasonings and the rest of the ingredients. Pour over chicken.
- Cook on high for 1 hour. Reduce heat to low and cook 3 to 4 hours.
- Take chicken out and shred with 2 forks. Put back into slow cooker and mix into the sauce.
- Serve on rolls.
adapted from Southern Living Slow Cooker Cookbook Happy Healthy Eating,
But wait there is more! Check out these other healthy slow cooker meals: