Slow Cooker Barbecue Pulled Chicken

With just a handful of ingredients, this Slow Cooker Barbecue Pulled Chicken is packed with flavors. Serve pulled chicken on a biscuit or your favorite rolls topped with cheese and pickles for a quick and easy dinner the entire family will love.

Slow Cooker Barbecue Pulled Chicken

My slow cooker is my savior on busy weekdays, when I’m herding kids from this activity to that plus trying to keep my own life in order. Being able to throw some ingredients in the crockpot and forget about it until dinner time is a true life-saver.

With this slow cooker barbeque chicken, that’s exactly what you do – dump the ingredients in the slow cooker, turn it on, and forget about it. At the end, you do need to remove the chicken to thicken the sauce but that takes just a few minutes and once you return the chicken to the slow cooker, it gives you just enough time to get your sides ready. 

This slow cooker pulled chicken is not only an easy recipe to make but I usually have everything I need already in the chicken! It’s made with a simple combination of your favorite BBQ sauce, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, chicken broth (I love making homemade chicken broth!), Italian seasoning for flavor, cornstarch for thickening, and of course, chicken. 

Just 7 ingredients and a few minutes of hands-on time and this crockpot chicken recipe are ready for the table! Easy dinner recipes are my favorite, if you love barbecue then you should also try my Slow Cooker Pulled Pork and Pulled Pork sandwiches.

Easy Slow Cooker Chicken Recipes

• Parmesan Garlic Chicken
• Slow Cooker Asian Chicken
• Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos
• Buffalo Chicken Dip
• Slow Cooker Chicken Enchiladas

Serving Suggestions

I usually serve this BBQ chicken on a biscuit with cheese and pickles for an easy lunch or dinner. Coleslaw can be added if you want some crunch! It also makes a great salad topping or you can eat it on its own for a quick lunch or little prep dinner! 

My favorite sides to serve with this are these Easy Sweet Potato Fries, parmesan garlic sweet potato fries, steak fries, baked sweet potato, or Hasselback Potatoes.

Then I’ll usually add in a veggie side dish too, like Oven Roasted Broccoli, Air Fryer Brussel Sprouts, grilled corn on the cobb, Roasted Carrots, or Roasted Cauliflower.

If you are making pulled chicken as a summer dish and are looking for cold side dishes some of our favorites are broccoli slaw, BLT Pasta Salad, Chickpea pasta Salad, Italian Pasta Salad, Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Salad and Tuna Pasta Salad Recipe.

Really, when it comes to this crockpot barbecue chicken, you can’t go wrong. It’s so versatile that you can do whatever you want with it and the leftovers are even better the next day. If you don’t have a big family like I do, you can easily get a few meals out of this. 

What type of BBQ sauce should I use?

That’s completely up to you! You can use whatever your favorite barbecue sauce. Keep in mind that you can adjust the flavor of this slow cooker BBQ chicken based on the sauce that you choose. For example, a honey BBQ sauce will make this dinner a little sweeter while a spicy sauce will add some heat. If you’re not sure, Sweet Baby Ray’s is a great brand that never fails or just look for an “Original BBQ” sauce, as that will be neither too sweet or too spicy!

Want to make it low carb? Use sugar free Barbecue sauce and skip the cornstarch.

How to Store Slow Cooker Barbecue Chicken

Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Be sure to keep the sauce with the chicken, to avoid drying it out. Reheat in the microwave or you can add the cold chicken to salads and sandwiches!

Can I freeze Pulled chicken?

Yes! If you are looking for some chicken meal prep recipes this one is great. While you can freeze all of the ingredients prepped ahead of time and dump them in the slow cooker to cook you can also cook the pulled chicken and freeze it already cooked so you can just pull it out, thaw, heat it up in the microwave, and eat.

Just allow the pulled chicken to cool completely, put in a zip close freezer bag and freeze. It will keep frozen in the freezer for up to 6 months.

How to Freezer Meal Prep Barbecue Pulled Chicken

If you are wanting to meal plan and plan freezer meals this one is not only easy to do but works great! All you have to do is add all of the ingredients into a zip close freezer bag and place in the freezer. Label the bag, add the cooking instructions and store in the freezer. When it is time to cook the pulled chicken, remove from the freezer the night before and then dump everything from the bag into the slow cooker and cook per thee directions.

Slow Cooker Barbecue Pulled Chicken Ingredients

• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup barbecue sauce
• 1/3 cup Italian dressing
• 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons chicken broth

How to make Slow Cooker Barbecue Pulled Chicken

In the slow cooker, whisk together the barbecue sauce, Italian dressing, sugar and Worcestershire sauce.

Add the chicken into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 4 1/2 to 5 hours.

Remove the chicken to a cutting board.

In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and chicken broth. Stir it into the sauce in the slow cooker.

Cover and cook on high until the sauce is thickened and heated through about 10 to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, use two forks to shred the chicken.

Return the shredded chicken to the slow cooker and stir.

Add additional barbecue sauce if more sauce is needed or desired.

Cover and continue cooking on low for 45 minutes.

More Chicken Recipes

• Rosemary Garlic Chicken Meatballs
• Dorito Chicken Casserole
• Chicken and Potato Casserole
• Cracker Barrel Chicken and Dumplings