Slow-Cooker BBQ Pulled Chicken

This is delicious! I used only chicken thighs since I thought the breasts might be tough. I used the included recipe for homemade barbecue sauce. To cut down on the amount of liquid left at the end, I put the cooked thighs in a bowl and put the sauce from the crockpot into a saucepan, boiled it until reduced by half (about 10-15 mins) and returned it to the shredded thighs. Perfect!

I don’t know what I’ve done wrong as I tried to follow the recipe exactly but after 3 ½ hours on low in my slow cooker, there is inordinate amount of liquid and the chicken is kind of dry, not tender and juicy as I anticipated. Almost as if all the fat has been rendered out of it. (I made my own barbecue sauce which I thought turned out very well.) Soooo, i don’t know what to do. Don’t think id make this again!

I use breast meat exclusively and i respect myself. I used it here and it was quite good. People love my cooking. Its also much healthier.

I have no faith in breast meat and I use thighs for all slow cooker recipes. In fact, we hired a chef for a dinner party - part cooking class, part “ make our dinner”- and he said no self respecting chef would ever use breast meat. I’ve never looked back. Hopefully, that was your issue with it being dry. I recently made a recipe with 3 pounds of boneless, skinless thighs with about 2 cups of chicken stock among other seasonings like adobo peppers, etc, and 3 hours on high was the magic number.

I frequently make this but I always add 1 tsp of liquid smoke for more authentic BBQ flavor.

I only use thighs as breast meat dries out. You can swap enchilada sauce for the barbeque sauce, add half an onion pureed and 2 minced garlic cloves to make taco meat.

To pressure cook in the Instant Pot, you need to add liquid to the recipe so the tomato-based BBQ sauce doesn't give you a burn error. Start with 1/2 cup of chicken broth then add all the ingredients other than the BBQ sauce and stir. Pour 1 cup of the BBQ sauce on top of the chicken and don't stir. Use poultry setting or 15 minutes HIGH. Natural release for 10 minutes, then quick release. Shred, saute on high (while stirring) to reduce excess liquid, then add the remaining BBQ sauce.

Any tips for doing this in an Instant Pot?

I'm curious how even the comment section on a cooking site could devolve into name calling. What exactly have we become as a community? And I also respect myself as well as my my fellow readers!

It could be your chicken is waterlogged. Using chicken labeled "air-chilled" will result in less water in your finished dish.

Agreed that breast meat is lower in fat if that’s the main concern, but dark meat is higher in some vitamins and minerals so nutrition is a mix. Half white and half skinless dark worked well for me as compromise here for flavor and dryness, esp because I’m a less skilled cook.

No, it's not 'healthier'. Individuals vary in what they need from their diets. For those looking to lose weight, breast meat is usually better. For those looking to gain weight and/or muslce mass, thighs are usually better. Some recent research suggests that thigh meat is better for elderly people, in terms of bioavailability of protein. So we cannot say that one type of chicken meat is healthier than another, as it depends on that given individual.

If you shred the chicken up in the pot and leave it there for a bit, it will probably soak up some of the liquid. I make a somewhat similar recipe with just chicken breasts and leave it on for about 8 hours on low. There is some excess liquid, but it usually gets soaked up and mixed in after shredding the chicken.

Is it possible to make this without a instapot or slow cooker?

Any way that I could use a Dutch oven for this recipe? Ideas? Thank you.