Crockpot Shredded Chicken – a favorite for freezer meals!

You guys, this dinner hack is so easy, that it’s sort of a no brainer. I had to share because it’s one of my absolute favorite ways to stay sane and a super helpful way to get rushed weeknight meals on the table.

To keep my family out of the drive-thru and the delivery driver away from our house, I always have bags of already cooked and shredded chicken breasts in my freezer.

There are so many uses for shredded chicken that you can seriously never have too much of this chicken stockpiled! It’s perfect for those nights when you’ve totally spaced dinner.

Here’s what you do: 

Hit up Costco or Sam’s Club or your favorite grocery store and buy a huge pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts. You can use thighs if that’s what you prefer. 

I generally buy around 6 pounds at a time. 

Dump the chicken into your slow cooker, add a cup of chicken broth, set it to low, and let the chicken cook for 6-8 hours. I don’t add any additional seasonings so that it’s a blank slate and I can use it in whatever recipe I like. 

After the chicken is cooked through, I just remove it with tongs to the bowl of my stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. I load the bowl up (I can fit all 6 pounds in my mixer, but it’s probably easier and a bit less messy to do this in two batches – I’m too impatient for that, though.) and turn the mixer to low. It seriously only takes a minute and you have perfectly shredded chicken breast that you can use in a variety of ways.

It’s the EASIEST way to shred chicken!

You can even do this with a hand mixer, just be sure to start on low speed and use a big bowl so you’re not flinging chicken everywhere.

I portion the shredded meat into small baggies (one sandwich sized baggie is enough meat for one meal for my family of four and I usually get 7 baggies full out of 6 pounds of chicken) and place them all into one large freezer bag. The meat will keep for months in your freezer!

To thaw, just pop it in the fridge in the morning before work. Or, if you’re like me and constantly forget to thaw things, you can totally use your microwave to defrost the cooked chicken!

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Recipe

Crockpot Shredded Chicken

You can't beat letting the crock do the cooking and then the mixer doing the shredding!

4.15 from 7 votes

Print Pin

Prep5 minutes minutes

Cook6 hours hours

Total6 hours hours 5 minutes minutes

Serves 28 servings

Ingredients

• ▢ 6 pounds fresh chicken breast
• ▢ 1/2 cup chicken broth
• ▢ 2 tablespoons salt
• ▢ 1 tablespoon cracked pepper

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

• Add the chicken breasts, broth, and seasoning to the crockpot and cover.
• Set to low and cook 6-8 hours. 
• To shred with a stand mixer: Remove chicken to the bowl of a stand mixer while still hot. Using the paddle attachment, turn the mixer to low and let the mixer shred the meat. (Do this in two batches to keep the chicken from flying out of your mixer, if needed.)

  To shred with a hand mixer: Remove chicken to a large mixing bowl and place a hand mixer fitted with the standard whisk attachments down into the bowl. Turn to low speed and move the mixer around slowly to shred the chicken.

  To shred by hand: Remove the chicken to a large bowl, one piece at a time, and shred by hand using two forks until chicken is as finely shred as you'd like.
• Separate meat into small baggies. I do 7 baggies worth of meat out of 6 pounds of chicken and each bag has enough meat for one meal for my family of 4, but you may do more or less depending on your preferences. Be sure to press out as much air as possible.
• Place the smaller baggies into a larger freezer bag and freeze until ready to use.
• Defrost overnight in the refrigerator or microwave in short 30 second bursts until thawed enough to break apart and remove from the bag before using.

Tips & Notes:

If starting with frozen chicken breasts, you'll likely need to increase the cook time to 8-10 hours.

We don't add many seasonings to this recipe so that it's a blank slate for whatever we want to use this for. Feel free to increase the salt and pepper or add additional seasonings that you regularly use in your chicken dishes, such as onion powder, garlic powder, or paprika. 

You can freeze the chicken in any size you like. We use this for casseroles regularly, and just slightly under a pound of chicken seems to be perfect for our family of 4, so we separate into 7 bags. 

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 111kcal (6%)| Protein: 20g (40%)| Fat: 2g (3%)| Cholesterol: 62mg (21%)| Sodium: 128mg (6%)| Potassium: 362mg (10%)| Vitamin A: 30IU (1%)| Vitamin C: 1.5mg (2%)| Calcium: 5mg (1%)| Iron: 0.4mg (2%)

Author: Karly Campbell

Course:Main Course

Cuisine:American

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