At least once a month (sometimes weekly) I buy a giant bulk pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts and cook them up in my slow cooker to use throughout the week/ month in other meals. Thanks to the help of my slow cooker and stand mixer all of this requires almost no effort on my part to have a head start on many days of dinners. Cooked shredded chicken is a great time saver that allows me to assemble many dinners in less than 30 minutes.
To cook the chicken I grease a slow cooker, add my cooking ingredients, place the chicken breasts on top, spooning some of the sauce over them and cook on low for 4-6 hours until the breasts easily shred when pulled with a fork. Do not overcook the chicken or it will become dry. Then I shred the chicken using the paddle attachment on my stand mixer (or you can use 2 forks if you don’t have a stand mixer). Once the chicken is shredded I refrigerate and freeze it in 2 cup portions based on when I’m going to be using the chicken.
My sauces for cooking the chicken vary depending on how I’m going to use it. My go to is simply 1-2 cups of jarred salsa in the slow cooker. If I want a more versatile chicken then I’ll do some combination of lemon juice, white wine, garlic and/ or dijon mustard. Or for an Asian twist I’ll do soy sauce, honey, sriracha, ginger and garlic.
Click the links below to see my favorite ways to use up the cooked, shredded chicken once I have it on hand.
Brown Rice Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya
Char Siu Seasoned Chicken (make a sauce like I did with the pork and combine with shredded chicken and serve over rice)
Black Beans Corn and Rice Casserole (with added chicken)
