Slow Cooker Shredded Barbecue Chicken

A very simple and delicious recipe with only 2 ingredients, cooked in a slow cooker.  Great for parties, gameday, or weeknight dinners.

Repost of original from 09/2013 minor editing, tweetable, pinnable image 770 views 0 +1s.

I was first introduced to this recipe when I was in college (what better place to have some easy recipes up your sleeve).  This recipe is perfect for a simple dinner.  It's also a crowd favorite at parties and perfect for gamedays.  This is a great recipe for beginner cooks or anyone who doesn't have a lot of time to prepare dinner.  The ingredients are added to a slow cooker and can cook while away at work.  I don't know anyone who doesn't like this chicken it pleases even picky eaters.

SlowCooker Shredded BBQ Chicken| 2ingredient simple dinner  [Tweet this]

Slow Cooker Shredded Barbecue Chicken

Servings:  6

Ingredients:

2-3 pounds boneless chicken
2 cups barbecue sauce

That's it.  Seriously, only 2 ingredients.

Place your thawed chicken in the bottom of a slow cooker.  Pour about 2 cups of your favorite barbecue sauce on top (enough to cover the chicken).

Turn the slow cooker to low and cook for about 5-8 hours until chicken is cooked.  Using 2 forks shred the chicken right in the cooker and mix well with the sauce.

Put the chicken on a bun and serve with sides of your choice.  It's great with slaw or Moroccan Raw Carrot Salad.

I like to make homemade buns (try Best Burger Buns) and barbecue sauce, but this recipe works great with store bought too (and it is that much simpler).

Make plenty, you can use much chicken as you like just make sure you use enough barbecue sauce to cover it because people will go back for seconds.

Enjoy.

Recipes mentioned in this post:

Classic Barbecue Sauce

Moroccan Raw Carrot Salad

Best Burger Buns

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Guinness Smoked Brisket

Slow smoked brisket seasoned with a dry rub and sprayed with Guinness.

Do you ever just crave barbecue?  I sure do.  Over the weekend, I had one of these cravings so I talked my husband into seeing what kind of meat he could find on sale.  I was hoping for a pork butt for some easy Slow Cooker Carolina Barbecue, but there wasn't one on sale so he brought home brisket.  I like brisket barbecue too, but usually prefer it smoked, which my husband was happy to do.

Do you ever crave barbecue? [Tweet this]

This was the weekend before St. Patrick's Day and we had plenty of Guinness in the house so my husband had the great idea of using some as a sop.  I've mentioned sop before in my Smoked Top Round Roast.  It's a liquid or sauce brushed or sprayed on the meat while it's being smoked.  It helps add moisture and flavor to the meat.  Between the dry rub and the Guinness sop this brisket had an absolutely delicious bark (the dark outer crust).

Between the dry rub and Guinness sop this brisket had a delicious bark. [Tweet this]

Guinness Smoked Brisket

Ingredients:

Brisket

Dry Rub

Garlic Powder
Salt
Fresh cracked pepper
Red pepper flakes
Green chili flakes
Chili powder
Dried onions
Brown sugar

Sop

Guinness
Apple cider vinegar

None of the ingredients were really measured just add what you like and what smells good to you (or use your favorite spice rub).

Rub the brisket all over with the dry rub.

Fill a spray bottle most of the way full with Guinness and then add about 1/4 cup of cider vinegar.  Gently swirl to mix.

Place the spiced brisket on the preheated smoker and cover.  Allow to smoke all day at about 200F (about 1-2 hours per pound).

Spray the brisket with the sop about every hour.

Brisket is finished when internal temperature reaches 185-200F.  Slice or chop and enjoy as is or with sauce (like a Guinness Barbecue Sauce).

Enjoy.

Other recipes mentioned in this post:

Slow Cooker Carolina Barbecue

Smoked Top Round Roast

Guinness Barbecue Sauce

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Guinness Barbecue Brisket Sliders

Tender smoked brisket smothered in a Guinness barbecue sauce on yeast roll slider buns.

I have to say that Guinness makes everything better.  I love barbecue and Guinness Barbecue Sauce is my new favorite.  Barbecue sauce is pretty easy to make with just a few simple ingredients.  All you need is ketchup, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, and whatever spices you like.  Check out my Classic Barbecue Sauce for a simple basic recipe.

Guinness makes everything better [Tweet This]

Since St. Patrick's Day is coming up (and we had a case of Guinness) I thought it would be fun to make a Guinness barbecue sauce.  I have to give some credit to my husband for this idea because he had the idea of using Guinness on the brisket and I just copied his idea for a barbecue sauce.  This brisket is Guinness Smoked Brisket, which I'll post the recipe for next time. But the barbecue sauce will taste great on anything.  I even used it on turkey breast sandwiches when we ran out of brisket and it was great.

For the slider buns I just used a simple Whole Wheat Yeast Roll recipe.  I'll post this exact recipe eventually (I need to get pictures of just the rolls, but I eat them too quickly), but it's very similar to Rye Yeast Rolls just using whole wheat flour.  The soft yeast rolls with the Guinness Barbecue Sauce and Guinness Brisket made an unbelievably delicious slider.  The Guinness adds so much flavor depth to a very simple classic barbecue sauce.  I will be making this sauce again next time we have barbecue (no matter what kind of meat we use).  It's so good.

Guinness adds so much flavor depth to a simple barbecue sauce [Tweet this]

Guinness Barbecue Brisket Sliders

Guinness Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients:

2 tsp butter
1 shallot, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp red pepper flakes (more or less depending on your tastes)
1 14.9 oz Guinness
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Slider buns or yeast rolls
Brisket (I used Guinness Smoked Brisket)
Onion, sliced

Melt the butter in a large sauce pan over medium-high heat.  Saute the shallot and garlic until tender and fragrant.

Add the pepper flakes and mix well.  Then pour in the Guinness.  Allow the Guinness to boil until it reduces by half.

Add the ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce and reduce heat to a simmer.

Simmer until sauce is the thickness you desire and remove from heat.

Add sliced brisket to the sauce (my brisket was cold out of the fridge so I let it simmer a while in the sauce to reheat), mixing until well coated.

Split the yeast rolls or buns in half and add a couple of slices of barbecue covered brisket.  Top the brisket with onions and a drizzle of more sauce.

Serve immediately with sides of your choice (I served it with Parmesan and Garlic Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower).

About 4-6 servings of the sauce.

Enjoy.

Other recipes mentioned in this post:

Classic Barbecue          Sauce         -------------

Rye Yeast Rolls ----------------------------------------

Parmesan and Garlic Roasted Broccoli

Parmesan and Garlic Roasted Cauliflower

More Barbecue Recipes:

Barbecue Brisket Sandwiches

Slow Cooker Shredded Barbecue Chicken

Slow Cooker Carolina Barbecue

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Barbecue Brisket Sandwiches

Tender smoked brisket tossed in barbecue sauce on a soft onion bun.

Cooking brisket isn't really a recipe.  It's more of a process.  You rub the brisket all over with a dry rub and cook it for a really long time until it's tender.  My husband loves the process on a Saturday or Sunday (usually during football season) he will prep the meat and let it sit in our smoker all day at about 200 F.  There is something about smoked meat that is just so good and the smell while it's cooking...Wow.

Barbecue Brisket Sandwiches

Ingredients:

1 3-4 pound brisket
1/4-1/2 cup dry spice rub (store bought is fine we usually make our own with sea salt, black pepper, red pepper, and garlic powder)
1/2-1 cup barbecue sauce 
onion buns or sandwich bun of your choice

Rub the brisket all over with your favorite spice rub.  Let sit out a room temperature for about an hour then place the brisket straight on the rack of the smoker and walk away.  Check periodically to make sure the temperature doesn't get too high 200 F is the goal.

After 4-5 hours remove the brisket from the smoker and wrap in aluminum foil.  Place the wrapped brisket in a baking pan and put in the oven at 200 F over night (about 8 hours).

The next morning take the brisket out of the oven and put back on the smoker for a few more hours until tender.

Slice the brisket and toss in your favorite barbecue sauce.  Pile on top of an onion bun and enjoy.

*linked to:  much ado about monday, Hearth and Soul, In and Out of the Kitchen, Whimsy Wednesday, Eat Create Party, Freedom Friday, Best of the Weekend, Show Stopper Saturday, Shine a Spotlight Saturday, Saturday Night Fever

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Slow Cooker Carolina Barbecue

Slow cooked pork, shredded, and in a vinegar based sauce.  It reminds me of home.

For those of you who don't know, I grew up in North Carolina.  Everyone in NC has different ideas about what makes great barbecue.  Some like a tomato based sauce, which you find more in the western part of the state, and others only like the vinegar based eastern style.  One thing I think we can all agree on is that it has to be pork.  I grew up in western NC but I did not find a love for barbecue until I went to college in Greenville, NC which is east.  In college I fell in love with the vinegar based sauce that has a spicy kick.  Once again every cook has their own idea of what makes the vinegar sauce taste great.  I usually make it a little different every time trying to develop the flavor I like.  Here is my version, this time, and I think it is the best I've made so far.

Vinegar sauce:

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup bourbon
1/4 cup pickled jalapeno juice
1/4 cup ketchup
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp habanero flakes

Stir all of the ingredients together until combined and place in a sealed container to refrigerate overnight.

Place pork roast (usually called butt but I think it is actually shoulder, I used something called 'pork shoulder country style boneless ribs--because I found it on sale) in the slow cooker.  Season with salt and pepper, then pour on the sauce (I only had a little over 1 pound of meat so I only used half of the sauce).  Add a dash of liquid smoke if you like, and let it cook on low for about 8 hours or until falling apart.

Using a fork pull apart the cooked pork into shreds.  You can lift the pork out of the slow cooker and shred it in a separate container to make it a little less greasy but make sure to reserve some of the vinegar sauce to add to it once it is shredded.  I just added the shredded pork back to the cooking liquid.  It all depends on how much fat was on your roast, it tastes better to leave the fat on while cooking, but you can remove some of the grease by removing the pork from the cooking liquid.  If you do not put the shredded pork back into the cooking liquid, heat the reserved vinegar sauce before pouring it over.

The number of servings depends on how much pork you used, I had about 4 servings with over 1 pound of pork.  Serve with your favorite sides like coleslaw, greens, fried okra, corn, and bread or hushpuppies (just to name a few) or make a sandwich with the pork on a good bun and topped with some coleslaw.  Enjoy.

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Barbecue Pork with Cheddar Ranch Scalloped Potatoes and Slaw

A delicious smoked pork butt sliced thin and served with creamy, cheesy, scalloped  potatoes and a red cabbage slaw.  A very satisfying weekend meal.

There is nothing better, to me, than a pork roast sitting on the smoker all day.  I had this pleasure over the weekend.  My husband brought home a pork butt (which is actually the shoulder) and he spent all day with it on the smoker.  We didn't do anything too fancy with the pork, just put a dry rub on it and let it smoke for hours.  The rub consisted of brown sugar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, paprika, and onion powder.  I made the rub a while ago so I don't remember exactly what proportions I used but that is the basic contents.  The main thing to make this great is a long slow smoke with occasional 'sopping' (brushing or spraying with a beer and spice concoction).

Since my husband manned the smoker I made the sides.  The scalloped potatoes are a pretty basic recipe that I use all the time, but I spiked it with about 1/2 cup of ranch dressing.  Here is the recipe.

Cheddar Ranch Scalloped Potatoes:

2 large russet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
1 small onion, chopped small
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cup milk, I used skim but any will be fine
1/2 cup ranch dressing
1 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, I used mild
salt and pepper to taste
pinch habanero flakes (optional)

First I made a white sauce.  I sweat the onion until soft, in a small amount of oil or butter.  Then I added the 1/4 cup of butter until it melted and added the flour.  I stirred for about a minute or too until cooked then added the milk and ranch and habanero flakes, if using.  I kept stirring over medium low temperature until the sauce thickened and began to simmer.  Then I turned off the heat and stirred in the cheese until melted and smooth.  Finally I added salt and pepper.

Once the sauce was made, I layered an 8 by 8 inch baking pan with a layer of potatoes, then sauce, then potatoes again, finishing with a layer of sauce.  This was covered with aluminum foil and baked for 45-60 minutes at 350 degrees F until potatoes were soft.  Serves 4.

The slaw was nothing fancy, but it tasted very good and the colors were pretty.

I shredded 1/2 of a small head of red cabbage, 1 carrot, and thinly sliced 4 stalks of celery.  To this I added the juice of 1 lemon, 2 Tbsp brown sugar and about 1/4 cup olive oil.  I also added some salt, pepper, and hot sauce.  Mixed it all up and let it sit for at least 1 hour.

All together this made a great evening meal.  The pork was so tender and juicy.  The potatoes were creamy and the slaw was colorful and fresh.  We will be happily eating this for another night or two.  Enjoy.

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Smoked Top Round Roast

A delicious hickory smoked top round roast seasoned with common household spices. 

Today my husband brought home a top round roast (labeled as London Broil) that was on sale (for $6) and I had the pleasure of him making dinner. We have an electric smoker on our lanai. What better way to cook an inexpensive cut of meat than slow and low? Seasoned with a dry rub of steak seasoning mix and a few other spices, this roast was smoked for 6 hours while we watched football. Here is what he did.

Rub Ingredients:

Favorite spicy steak seasoning blend
Garlic powder
Dried minced onions
Fresh cracked pepper
Sea salt

There was no measuring, he just mixed the spices in a small bowl in decreasing amounts (steak seasoning was the biggest addition and salt the smallest) until the mixture smelled good. This is easy to modify to your own tastes.  Maybe try a 3:1:1:1:1/2 ratio to start or just use a prepared dry rub.

Rub the roast all over with spice mixture and place on the smoker and close lid.  Evey 30 minutes to 1 hour he 'sopped' it.  I'm not sure if this is even a real barbeque term, but that is what we call it.

Sop Ingredients:

Beer
Cider vinegar
Garlic powder

This is also not a precise recipe, anywhere from a 1:1 or 2:1 beer:vinegar ratio, and you can add any spices, or none at all.  We used Coors light  because that is what we had, but any domestic beer would be fine.  The beer doesn't add flavor so much as helps keep the meat moist, so you probably could just use water, or maybe a diluted beef broth.  This 'sop' was brushed on as often as my husband thought about it (about every hour).  If you have a spray bottle, you could also spray it on.

Once done, take off smoker and let meat rest, slice thin and serve with barbecue sauce for dipping and whatever sides you prefer.  This is about a 3 pound roast and we will probably make 3 dinners out of it (for 2 people).

Wow! This was delicious.  It was tender, with out being stringy, smokey, but not over powering, just super tasty.  Now I'm a North Carolina girl originally, so my favorite barbecue is pork and nothing else satisfies, but this hit the spot, definitely my favorite we have made so far.  I had to write about it so hopefully we will be able to reproduce this recipe again.  Enjoy.

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