Pulled Chicken (BBQ Chicken Recipe)

Course Appetizer, Main Course

Cuisine American, Southern

Keyword pulled-chicken, slow-cooker-bbq-chicken, slow-cooker-pulled-chicken

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 6

Total Time 6 10

Servings servings

Calories 227kcal

Spray the liner of a 6-quart or similar slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray.
Season the chicken thighs with 1 1/2 Tbsp barbecue seasoning.
To the crockpot add ketchup, molasses, brown sugar, cider vinegar, remaining bbq seasoning, chili powder, seasoned salt, garlic, onion powder, paprika and black pepper and liquid smoke. Stir or whisk to combine.
Add the chicken to the sauce, turn to coat. Lock the lid in place and cook on low for 6-7 hours or on high for 2-3 hours.
Uncover and shred the chicken using two forks. Stir the pulled chicken into the sauce.
Serve on warm rolls.
Sauce Thickening Tip (Optional): To thicken the sauce, turn the slow cooker to high. Stir in tomato paste 1 Tbsp at a time repeating until the sauce is thickened to your taste. The pulled chicken pictured, I used around 2/3 of the can. This can vary depending on your taste, or the amount of cooking liquid released by the chicken while cooking.

Chicken: You can use boneless skinless chicken breasts in place of chicken thighs.

Brown Sugar: You can adjust the sweetness of the barbecue sauce to your personal taste.

Shortcut: You could make this chicken using your favorite barbecue sauce. You may still need to thicken the sauce at the end of cooking as the chicken will release liquid while slow cooking.

Liquid Smoke: You can use hickory liquid smoke, mesquite liquid smoke, applewood smoke or any flavor that you enjoy. If you don't care for liquid smoke, you can omit it altogether.