This Zesty Pulled Chicken is a great twist on basic barbecue chicken. It’s as easy as adding frozen boneless chicken to your crock pot, topping it with the sauce ingredients, and then letting it slow cook.
We served it on sandwich buns with a side of dill pickle spears, some tortilla chips, and this homemade Tomato Peach Salsa or try it with this BLT Macaroni Salad.
Why I love this recipe
This shredded chicken is incredibly easy and delicious!
As an Amazon Associate, I may make a small commission, at no additional cost, if you purchase through product affiliate links in this post.
Have you seen my Cookbook?
Easy Home Cooking For Two – by Zona Cooks features 60 main dish recipes giving you two months’ worth of simple homemade food that will impress any night of the week. NEW LOWER PRICE Check Cookbook Price
Ingredients
(amounts are listed in the recipe card at the bottom of the post)
boneless chicken breasts
barbecue sauce
Zesty Italian salad dressing (from a bottle)
light brown sugar
Worcestershire sauce
Equipment used in this recipe
How to make Zesty Pulled Chicken
Step 1 – Place the frozen boneless chicken in a 4 quart slow cooker Crockpot. Click for a 4 quart crockpot.
Step 2 – In a small bowl, whisk the barbecue sauce, Zesty Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce.
Step 3 – Pour the sauce ingredients over the chicken.
Step 4 – Cover and cook 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high.
Step 5 – Use a fork to shred the chicken in the pot then stir to coat completely.
Step 6 – Serve the zesty shredded chicken on the sandwich rolls.
Recipe FAQs
There is a lot of debate about if it is safe or not to use frozen chicken in a slow cooker so if your worried about it, you can use thawed chicken. Quin Patton, a food scientist formerly with PepsiCo said, “It is safe to cook a frozen chicken in a slow cooker, you just need to make sure the internal temperature gets up to 165 degrees at some point during the cooking process.” I have personally never had any problems using frozen in any slow cooker recipe, but I can’t guarantee if you will or not so please make your own decision.
You may also enjoy
Zesty Pulled Chicken
This Zesty Pulled Chicken is a great twist on basic barbecue chicken. It's as easy as adding frozen boneless chicken to your crock pot, topping it with the sauce ingredients, then let it slow cook. We served it on a deli Ciabatta roll and with a dill pickle spear, tortilla chips and homemade Tomato Peach Salsa.
Ingredients
- 8 oz frozen boneless chicken breasts
- 1/2 cup barbecue sauce
- 2 Tablespoons Zesty Italian salad dressing (from a bottle)
- 2 Tablespoons light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Place frozen boneless chicken in a 4 quart slow cooker Crockpot. Click here for a 4 quart crockpot.
- In a small bowl, whisk barbecue sauce, Zesty Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce.
- Pour sauce ingredients over chicken.
- Cover and cook 8 hours on low or 4 hours on High.
- Use a fork to shred the chicken in the pot then stir to coat completely.
- Serve zesty shredded chicken on sandwich rolls.
Notes
See recipe post for process photos.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate I may make a small commission, at no additional cost to you, if you make a purchase through product links in this post.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
2Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 390Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 96mgSodium: 1014mgCarbohydrates: 43gFiber: 1gSugar: 36gProtein: 36g
Nutrition information is a guideline only, is calculated automatically by third party software, and absolute accuracy is not guaranteed.
Hi and welcome. I’m Zona and I have a passion for recipes. I share recipes, tips, tricks, and resources to help you cook for two. Eat, drink, and enjoy!
This recipe is also on my other site Zona’s Lazy Recipes and serves 4.
Katherine Dietz
Wednesday 16th of November 2022
Do you use light or dark brown sugar? Is the Italian dressing the dry packet mix or ready made in a bottle? Also, when you print your recipes why no recipe heading or photo? Thanks Katherine
Katherine Dietz
Friday 18th of November 2022
@Zona, it is printing fine now also thanks so much for updating the instructions Thanks Katherine
Zona
Wednesday 16th of November 2022
Hi Katherine, I use light brown sugar. The dressing is ready made in a bottle.
As for the printing, you should be seeing both of those things. They show up for me so I'm uncertain why you aren't seeing them. I'm wondering if it may be something in your printer settings. Does it happen on every recipe of mine or just this one?
Wendy W
Wednesday 29th of January 2020
Hello, This recipe looks interesting, but it sounds like the directions say to put frozen chicken breasts in the slow cooker. I thought one was never supposed to put frozen meat into the cooker - that only completely defrosted ingredients should be used. Do you really mean to put the meat in frozen? Thanks
Zona
Thursday 30th of January 2020
Hi Wendy, there is much debate about if it is safe or not to use frozen in a slow cooker so if your worried about it, you can use thawed chicken. Quin Patton, a food scientist formerly with PepsiCo said,“It is safe to cook a frozen chicken in a slow cooker, you just need to make sure the internal temperature gets up to 165 degrees at some point during the cooking process.”
Italian Pita Pockets Recipe for Two • Zona Cooks
Thursday 4th of July 2019
[…] Zesty BBQ Shredded Chicken Sandwiches […]
Best BLT Macaroni Salad Recipe for Two • Zona Cooks
Sunday 9th of June 2019
[…] a main dish? Try this Zesty Crockpot Shredded BBQ Chicken Sandwich or this Chicken Salad […]
Tomato Peach Salsa Small Batch Recipe • Zona Cooks
Sunday 2nd of June 2019
[…] Zesty Shredded BBQ Chicken Sandwiches […]