Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwich
This Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwich is sweet, warm, and smokey! It features a delicious homemade Honey Bourbon Barbecue Sauce that is perfectly sweet, while maintaining a smokey, warm, characteristic. The cayenne in the BBQ sauce can be adjusted up or down, depending on your preferred level of heat, making this BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwich very accommodating to everyone. This sandwich also features bacon as well, amping-up the smokiness even further! Throw it in the slow cooker, then add it all onto a beautifully toasted bun, top with sharp white cheddar, and you have yourself a wonderfully sweet, smoky BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwich!
Chicken: Thighs vs Breasts
In making this recipe, or any recipe where you want tender shredded chicken, the way to go is with thighs! The point of slow cooking is to transform the tough fatty connective tissue of meat, into succulent gelatin, giving the meat a tender, luscious texture. Chicken breast has almost no connective tissue or fat, so slow cooking it doesn’t do it many favors. As well, lean meats, when overcooked, actually become dry and tough – so we don’t want that. Chicken thighs, on the other hand, contain an excellent amount of connective tissue, making it perfect for any slow method of cooking. As an added benefit, chicken thighs are also more flavorful too!
Sweet Smoky Honey Bourbon BBQ Sauce
I wanted to create a BBQ sauce that was really multi-dimensional in flavor. Bottled BBQ sauce is great in a pinch, but they all just taste sweet with one other flavor profile. This homemade honey bourbon barbecue sauce hits all the boxes for me. The honey and brown sugar add sweetness, but also beautiful deep, warm flavors, that regular sugar could not produce. The bourbon further adds deep caramel and vanilla notes to the BBQ sauce, while maintaining some spicy notes as well, but where the bourbon really shines is in it’s ability to add a gentle smokiness as well. By law, bourbon must be aged in charred wood vessels. As such, these charred vessels give bourbon a wonderful smoky toasty flavor. And in my opinion, what better flavor for barbecue, than a nice warm smokiness! I further pump up the smokiness by adding in smoked paprika, and bacon! I mean, what isn’t made better by bacon!
Hand-Mixer for Easy Shredding
If you are like me, and can’t stand the process of shredding meat (so tedious, am I right?) then boy do I have a hack for you! Instead of using 2 forks to shred the meat, piece by piece, use your hand-mixer! When the chicken is fully cooked, and clearly easily shreddable, just pull the chicken out of the slow mixer and place it into a separate large bowl, then just stick your hand-mixer blades into the bowl and turn them on low, and move them around until all the meat is shredded! It’s that easy! I learned this hack a few years ago off some random Facebook video, and it makes such easy work of shredding any meat. It is important to note, however, that you need to make sure the meat is very clearly at a shreddable point. If it is not, you may break your hand-mixer. Just take a fork, and see if you can easily pull-apart one piece, and then have at it.
Get the Recipe: Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwich
Ingredients
Honey Bourbon BBQ Sauce
- 1 cup Honey
- 1/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar
- 1/4 cup Bourbon
- 5 tbsp Tomato Paste
- 3 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 tbsp Dijon Mustard
- 1/2 tbsp Onion Powder
- 1/2 tbsp Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1/4 tsp Cayenne
- (Optional) 1 tsp Liquid Smoke
Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwich
- 1/2 lb Bacon, , chopped up
- 1-2 tbsp Reserved Bacon Fat
- 3 lbs Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs
- Salt & Pepper
- 1 Onion,, diced small
- 1-2 tbsp Corn Starch, †
- 1-2 tbsp Water
- 8 Toasted Buns
- 8 Sharp White Cheddar Slices
Instructions
Honey Bourbon BBQ Sauce
- In a medium bowl, add all the ingredients and whisk well to combine.
Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwich
- In a large frying pan, add chopped up bacon and turn the pan onto medium. Fry the bacon until golden and crispy. Remove the bacon and place into a slow cooker. Reserve 1-2 tbsp of the bacon fat, discarding the rest. In the same pan, sear the chicken thighs (in 2-3 batches, don’t overcrowd), until they have formed a golden brown crust on each side. Place the seared thighs into the slow cooker.
- Drain most of the fat from the pan, then add the diced onions. Fry the onions over medium heat until translucent, using the onions to deglaze the pan. Place onions into the slow cooker. *If any fond (brown bits) still remain in the pan, use a little bit of water (2-4 tbsp) and deglaze the pan completely, then pour it into the slow cooker.
- Add the BBQ sauce to the slow cooker, then mix everything well with a spoon. Cook in the slow cooker for 3 hours on high, or 6 hours on low.
- When the chicken is finished, remove chicken into a separate bowl. Then, using 2 forks or a hand-mixer (see above), shred the chicken up, then set aside.
- Mix together the cornstarch and the water in a small dish, and slowly pour into the slow cooker, stirring to combine and thicken the sauce, until your desired thickness is achieved – I aim for thick gravy consistency. Spoon desired amount of sauce into bowl with chicken and mix to combine.
- Add the chicken onto the toasted buns, top with the cheese slices, and whatever else you’d like on the sandwich!
