July 21, 2011

Shredded Chicken – Shortcut

Here’s a great way to cook up chicken to use in a recipe that calls for shredded or cubed chicken. It won’t heat up the kitchen and although it takes hours in the crockpot, just minutes to shred or cut. Ready?

Here’s what you’ll need….

crockpot on high

3 cups of chicken stock

I use this chicken soup base from Penzeys – it is stored in the fridge with a year shelf life and it’s much more economical (and tastier) than chicken stock (I use the beef base too)

this is what it looks like – it’s a paste

6 chicken breasts

And the simple steps….

while the crockpot is heating up, heat up your stock in the microwave so that it’s hot – add to the crockpot

salt and pepper both sides of the chicken breasts

lightly saute chicken breasts (don’t brown, just cook on both sides to sear in flavor and get the cooking process started)

add chicken partially cooked chicken breasts to crockpot

cook on high for 2 hours and turn down to low for 3 more hours

Then, take the chicken breasts out of the broth one at a time to shred – use two forks and pull the meat in opposite directions

add a chicken breast on top of the shredded meat and shred

this is a huge bowl of 6 shredded chicken breasts – shredding actually stretches the chicken a bit, so you should get a little more bang for your buck

I used 4 chicken breasts for a recipe for that night, and then two shredded chicken breasts went in the freezer for later.
What can you use shredded chicken for?
tacos, enchiladas, chicken salad, casseroles….

Feel free to add your ideas in the comments!

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in the kitchen