Slow Cooker Pulled Barbecued Chicken Sandwiches is an easy recipe for a family friendly meal.
Slow Cooker Pulled Barbecued Chicken Sandwiches
Slow Cookers definitely aren’t the best for everything, and not all slow-cooker recipes are worth keeping. But they sure come in handy for a lot of things… things like housing large quantities of chili and soup, warming mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving Day, and using GOOD slow-cooker recipes to make dinner for you on busy days/nights where you can’t imagine lifting a finger to do it yourself. It’s days like this that you should make things like these Pulled Barbecued Chicken Sandwiches.
🛒Ingredients needed:
- boneless skinless chicken breasts
- barbecue sauce
- Italian dressing
- brown sugar
- Worcestershire sauce
- corn strach
- chicken broth
- rolls
- bread and butter pickles (optional)
✏️How to make Slow Cooker Pulled Barbecued Chicken Sandwiches:
*The complete, printable recipe with all ingredients and instructions is at the end of this post.
-
Place the chicken in the slow cooker. In a medium bowl, whisk together the barbecue sauce, Italian dressing, sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Cover and cook on low for 4½ 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 (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. Serve chicken piled onto rolls. Add pickles, if desired.
➡️Recipe Tips:
- The brand of barbecue sauce that you use can make a big difference in the flavor of the chicken. I like Sweet Baby Ray’s!
- The rolls I used here are Panini Rolls from Trader Joe’s. For smaller sandwiches, Hawaiian Sweet Bread rolls work well, too.
- Bread and Butter Pickles are optional, but they’re oh-so-good!
✔️What to do with Slow Cooker Pulled Barbecued Chicken Sandwiches:
- This pulled chicken is great for do-it-yourself mini sandwiches at a party. Just set up a little station near the crockpot with small rolls and any fixings.
- Ditch the rolls and use the meat for delicious Barbecued Chicken Tacos!
- Serve these sandwiches alongside a fresh green salad and you have a perfect meal.
★How to Store:
This makes quite a bit, so store leftovers tightly covered in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
❤️Why I love this recipe:
- I love that this is one of those slow cooker recipes I truly like and make again and again.
- It’s a family-friendly dinner and that’s always a win.
- And dinner is easy when you are feeling like you’re overwhelmed. The prep time is only ten minutes and then the slow cooker does all the work. Love that!
Sandwich recipes to try:
- Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches
- Italian Chicken Cutlet Sandwiches
- Club Sandwich
- Chicken Salad Sandwiches
- Grilled Reuben Sandwiches
- Chicken Cheese Steak Sandwiches
Slow Cooker Pulled Barbecued Chicken Sandwiches
Easy, favorite dinner recipe!
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 cup barbecue sauce (whatever is your favorite)
- ⅓ cup Italian dressing
- 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons chicken broth
- additional barbecue sauce, as desired
- rolls, for serving as sandwiches
- bread and butter pickles, optional
Instructions
- Place the chicken in the slow cooker. In a medium bowl, whisk together the barbecue sauce, Italian dressing, sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Cover and cook on low for 4½ 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 (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. Serve chicken piled onto rolls. Add pickles, if desired.
Notes
- Nutritional information included here is for the pulled chicken only. Rolls and pickles and extra BBQ sauce are extra.
- *The brand of barbecue sauce that you use can make a big difference in the flavor of the chicken. I like Sweet Baby Ray's!
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 188kcal, Carbohydrates: 17g, Protein: 20g, Fat: 4g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 58mg, Sodium: 505mg, Potassium: 422mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 13g, Vitamin A: 91IU, Vitamin C: 2mg, Calcium: 19mg, Iron: 1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I didn’t have any Italian dressing on hand, but I had a bottle raspberry balsamic salad dressing. I used this and the flavor was great!! I also used a little honey, a clove of garlic, and some cayenne pepper to spice it up a bit.
My husband loved it. Served with cole slaw and home made macaroni and cheese. Yum husband looking forward to eating left overs tomorrow night!!
What a delicious and easy recipe! Thank you, thank you! I loved the addition of Italian dressing, and using a bit of cornstarch to thicken the sauce was genius. I got a late start on dinner, so I cooked the chicken on high for 3 1/2 hours. It was fall-apart perfect! We made sliders by piling the meat on halved King’s Hawaiian Rolls and topping them with a dollop of cilantro-lime coleslaw.
I had 2 pounds of chicken I needed to use up so I decided to try this. Due to dietary issues, I can’t have Worcestershire sauce but made an adaptation for it and didn’t have italian dressing so I used extra sauce and some dry ranch dressing mix. I thought my modifications would kill the meal, but it must be very forgiving! Besides the wonderful aroma all over the house, my husband loved it! I did add a bit more brown sugar to mine because the bbq sauce I had needed it and possibly from the few modifications I needed to make. One of the easiest/quickest crockpot recipes (not that most are that time consuming) and very tasty!
Sounds wonderful!
I made this tonight and it was wonderful. Wasn’t sure at first about the Italian dressing but it added a good flavor and I would have never been able to pick that as an ingredient if I had not made it myself. Made only one pound chicken but made the full recipe of sauce and it turned out perfect. This is our new go to recipe! Thanks!
Love this recipe! So easy to make and tasty! The kids loved it!!! We used the leftover and served it over rice. Yummy!
Can you use frozen chicken breasts? I don’t have the programmable slow cooker and I would normally be away from home longer than 5 hours. Do you have any suggestions?
You can always make it over the weekend, and then just heat up on a weekday?
This was really easy and good! Thanks for the recipe!
I’m sure this helpful recipe would fit into anything.. I wanna try this out on a shawarma bread.. Mouth-watering dish 🙂
This is in the cooker now-alas, I did not have Italian dressing! So I chopped up half an onion (that baby was strong!) and two cloves of garlic, then mixed in 3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar and 3 Tbsp honey. Ill let you know if it turned out but I will remember to get Italian dressing at the store when we make it again!
I would like to double this recipe for a party – how long in the slow cooker do you think for 4lbs of chicken?
I’m not sure- probably just a little longer.