Crockpot Shredded Chicken
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Crockpot shredded chicken is the perfect make ahead recipe. It will give you tons of possibilities and it’s prepared in the slow cooker with very little work. This recipe makes quick dinners so amazingly easy.
Things just seem to get busier and busier no matter how hard I try and busy leads to not having 30 minutes to cook dinner or time to shop for ingredients. That lands us in a drive thru. I didn’t realize how much we were having fast food until we looked over our statements. It was like every other day for 2 weeks.
That is when I decided I had to take more time to pull together some make ahead items. So that way, on those insanely busy days I could still manage dinner and feel good about it. I have made this make ahead crockpot shredded chicken recipe 3 times in the last month and I have to tell you it has come in handy so many times, I can’t even count.
Crockpot Shredded Chicken
This Saturday we spent all afternoon and evening at the park. Munchkin and her friends were riding mini ATV’s, Chad was flying his drone and playing frisbee with the guys and I was taking in some mommy time and holding down the fort while I got in some great conversation with friends.
Before we knew it, we couldn’t see 5 feet in front of us and it was almost 8 o’clock. So, we headed home and unloaded the crew. I had a hungry group on my hands and nothing planned for dinner. I reached in the fridge and pulled out a container of shredded chicken and whipped up some of the best sandwiches we have ever had.
Crockpot Shredded Chicken
Try These Tasty Ideas:
- Serve shredded chicken on a sandwich with cheese. Add to a pasta salad or a vegetable salad for an easy dinner.
- Toss shredded chicken in our Chick Fil A tortilla soup copycat for a quick and easy meal.
- Add to Simple Italian Style Mac and Cheese for a fabulous hot dinner in 20 minutes.
Enjoy!
With love from our simple kitchen to yours.
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Other favorite crockpot dinner recipes:
Simple Crock Pot Buffalo Wings
The Best Ever Simple Crockpot Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Crockpot Shredded Chicken
Ingredients
- 5 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, to taste
Instructions
- Add chicken to crockpot and top with remaining ingredients. Stir and cover. Cook 6-7 hours on low or 3 hours on high. After 5 – 6 hours (or about 2 1/2 hours on high) use 2 forks to pull chicken apart and submerge into cooking liquid. If chicken does not pull apart easily it is not ready to pull apart. If this happens. Allow 30 minutes to cook and try again.
- Taste and add an additional 1/2 teaspoon salt IF NECESSARY (it will depend on how salty your chicken stock is). Allow to cook 1 more hour on low (1/2 hour more on high).
- Serve and enjoy or portion out for future use.
Donna’s Notes
Nutrition
All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe’s nutritional value will vary depending on the ingredients used, measuring methods, and portion sizes.
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Loving this! I love my slow cookers to pieces (yes, plural; I own 4!). The only thing I'd add is that it really pays to know your slow-cookers… mine largest one (a Rival) cooks hot and I know from sad experience that cooking 5 pounds of chicken breast for longer than 6 hours yields really dry, mealy chicken every time. Anyone who is unsure of theirs or new to slow cooker cooking should probably use an instant-read thermometer to start checking for doneness (which I believe is internal temp of 165*F) at the 6-hours-on-low mark, especially given the need to cook the chicken for the additional hour after shredding. 🙂
best advice EVER! all kitchens sold have an instant read thermometer…walmart has them for not so much dinero
I just read my comment above…duh! Sold should read SHOULD! Sorry…btw, my chicken is simmering now in the slow cooker with all the spices suggested..smells outstanding!
I like the way you think ahead!! Simple recipe with lots of uses. Pinning it!
@Sarah. I have had the same experience cooking chicken breasts on low for long periods of time. I found better results for chicken breasts cooking them on high for shorter periods. The low cooking temp is better suited for chicken thighs. The extra fat in the thighs help prevent the chicken from drying out during the prolonged cooking times. -my 2 cents…
Three times in the last month? I've got to try this recipe. My family loves chicken and I love my crockpot!
Got a ? – confused on "high" directions, you say…
Cook… 3 hours on high.
After… 3 on high use 2 forks to pull chicken apart
Should it be 2 hours – then shred – cook 1 more hour [for total cooking time of 3 hours]?
Just curious – thanks!
Hi Sandy,
Yes the high times would be a total of 3 hours on high. After 2 hours shred chicken using 2 forks. Then continue to cook for another 1/2 hour on high.
Enjoy!
Thanks for sharing
This turned out great after 4.5 hours on low (my old crockpot runs hot I think). I doubled all the seasonings, shredded the chicken with my stand mixer, and poured about half the remaining juices onto the chicken before splitting into Ziploc bags.
This chicken really did turn out great. I will be using this all week for lunches!