by Elizabeth Dengler, The Huckleberry Home
This is a family favorite and I love it for many reasons, mostly because it takes very little effort. It all takes place in the crockpot which makes it ideal when the weather heats up, your kitchen won’t. You can start it in the morning with a frozen bag of chicken and come home after work with minimal prep. I often double the recipe using 2 bags of frozen chicken thighs, which means my lid on my crockpot doesn’t immediately stay on tight, but it quickly does as the chicken cooks down and then I have lunches covered.
What you need:
Crockpot
1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce, we love Sweet Baby Ray’s Original
1-2 bags of frozen chicken; either boneless, skinless breasts or thighs (we’re thigh people)
Bag of your favorite buns, we like the Franz BBQ premium buns with sesame seeds
You are not going to put the BBQ sauce in until your chicken is cooked because the sugar in the sauce will burn and that doesn’t taste good. So, put your frozen chicken breasts or things on low, 8 hours and go about your business. When cooked through there will be quite a bit of liquid you will need to drain off and the easiest way I’ve found to do that is to remove all the chicken pieces with tongs and set it in a large bowl. Some of the chicken will fall apart so I go back with a slotted spoon. Then, I pour out and discard the liquid. I add the chicken back in the crock on warm and shred with my tongs or a fork, it shreds very easily. I then generously pour the BBQ sauce all over the chicken and mix it good so every piece is coated with that yummy goodness.
Now at this point I will steam the buns in the microwave for about 30 seconds. You pull out however many buns you need and wrap them in damp paper towels. Place them in your microwave and heat to your liking.
Open up the steamed bun, put a big helping of the BBQ chicken and a little extra squirt of BBQ sauce for good measure. We often serve this up with cubed watermelon and a side of coleslaw. I’m a big fan of getting the pre-packaged slaw mix and the Litehouse coleslaw dressing is a family favorite, best part is you can make it the day before and leave it to set in your fridge. Easy summertime, weeknight dinner!
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