Crock Pot BBQ Chicken
The heat all over most of the U.S. this past week has been oppressive. It’s been so hot here in southern California that the mere thought of turning on my oven to sweat even more while I make dinner holds absolutely no appeal. That’s a drag because it wouldn’t be summertime for our family without barbecue chicken. Thank goodness for one of my favorite pieces of kitchen gear: the crock pot!
Now we get to enjoy BBQ without me having to go outside and stand over the grill in 100 degree heat. All I do is place the chicken and sauce in the pot, coat it well, cover the lid and within 2 1/2 hours I’ve got chicken that’s so juicy and tender you won’t believe it takes so little effort.
I toyed around with making my own barbecue sauce for this recipe, but these days there are so many great zippy and tangy sauces on the market made without corn syrup, that I decided to go with a bottled brand. That saved me even more time. With the kids running around out of school and tons of summer activities to attend, I’d much rather be spending the few free moments I have with the little ones than in the kitchen. And this way, no matter how hot it is outside when you put this Crock Pot BBQ Chicken on the table, everyone inside your house will think you’re cool.
Crock Pot BBQ Chicken (Serves 4-6)
4 Chicken Breasts, bone in, skinless
1 Cup Barbecue Sauce ( I use Smokin’ Willie’s)
1. Place the chicken in a crock pot.
2. Pour the barbecue sauce over the chicken and coat the chicken WELL with the sauce.
3. Cook the chicken on low for 2 1/2 hours.
4. Serve.
*Save the juice from the bottom of the pot if you want to make Shredded BBQ Chicken Sammies
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[...] The heat all over most of the US this past week has been oppressive. It’s been so hot here in southern California that the mere thought of turning on my oven to sweat even more while I make dinner holds absolutely no appeal. Here is the original: Crock Pot BBQ Chicken | Weelicious ™ – Fast, Easy & Fresh Homemade … [...]
[...] is the original post: Crock Pot BBQ Chicken | Weelicious ™ – Fast, Easy & Fresh Homemade … Bookmark It Hide Sites $$('div.d14738').each( [...]
How long would you cook a whole chicken (4-5 lbs) in this recipe?
Normally with out Chicken in a Crock Pot recipe, I cook it on high for 2 hours for a 4lc and 2 1/2 for 5 pounds. IF you want to cook it on low – I would cook it for 6-7 hours.
Can you buy Smokin’ Willies in the store or do you have to order from the Smokin’ Willies site?
I buy Smokin’ Willies at Whole Foods.
Liz, I put a whole chicken in for about 6 hours. I have done it for the whole day while I am at work (about 8.5 hours) and it was delish, but fell apart…every little bone was seperated. It was still super yummy, but I had to make sure I was extra careful about getting all the bones out.
I’m with Meg, I didn’t see a store locator that sold the product on their site so not sure if you have to order online directly?
Anyway you could do this for a longer period of time, for example 8 hours while I’m at work?
You could do an entire chicken for 6-7 hours, with the skin off. It is going to be hard to take the entire skin off the chicken, so I would just take the skin off the breasts and cover the whole chicken with the sauce and set it on low.
Vicki~ I’ve put frozen meat in the crockpot just adding a few hours to the cooking time and it came out juicy and delicious. Though, 8 hours might still be too long – resulting in the same issue others mentioned with the bones falling apart completely. It still might be worth a try, though 5-6 hours might be the ‘right’ cooking length.
Now we have an invention ladies: the crock pot timer. Set it to turn on/off like your Christmas lights and have yummy dinner waiting for you at just the right time
The only problem is this is that your food is not going to stay hot enough for food safety purposes. The newer models have warm settings, but I still find these tend to overcook. I love that this recipe actually says too cook for only 2 1/2 hours. Those “cook for 6-8 hours on low” recipes just don’t work well with today’s cookers!
They have them! It’s a matter of placing frozen meat and ingredients in the crock pot; therefore, calculating the time needed to cook at a semi frozen rate. Keep an eye out in stores. My mom purchased one last christmas for me!
[...] Crock Pot BBQ Chicken | Weelicious ™ – Quick, Simple & Fresh Homemade …. [...]
I really like crockpot recipes. I like the idea of letting your dinner simmer away as you attend with the other things in your to-do-list. I’d suggest you try using chicken legs or thighs. I find them more flavorful, chicken breast tend to taste too bland for me.
[...] Crock Pot BBQ Chicken | Weelicious ™ – Fast, Easy & Fresh Homemade … [...]
This took WAY longer in my crock pot–the breasts were not done after 2.5 hours and I had to turn the pot up to high for an hour and eventually just put them on the grill…still turned out good, just took forever…
What did I do wrong? The breasts were still on the medium rare (raw) side after 2.5+ hours. Is low the correct setting? I had to abandon my dinner plan because of the extended cooking time. =^(
How big were your chicken breasts? Were they bone-in and skinless? Also did you stack them on top of one another? if you stack them, the ones on the top won’t be able to cook through in time.
Hiya — I was wondering if my chicken breasts were frozen (not a whole chicken) how long would this take to cook in the crock pot?
Hmm, I have never put frozen chicken in the crock pot, so I wouldn’t know. If I were you, I would let the chicken breasts defrost in the fridge over night and then put them in the crock pot the next day. This way the chicken can cook evenly and will be tender
Hi Catherine –
Thanks for the defrost tip — usually I’m pretty good about that, but that night I was in a rush! I ended up putting them in the crock pot (frozen) with the BBQ sauce and they turned out absolutely wonderful. I loved this great recipe, it was easy & so delicious!
p.s. Do you have a easy homemade BBQ sauce recipe to share? It’s difficult to find ones at the store without high fructose corn syrup and a ton of preservatives.
I used to have a hard time finding any also, except for Annies Organic, but recently found Bull’s-Eye BBQ Sauce. It is made by Kraft foods. Not sure if it is available nationwide.
This is so yummy. Had it for dinner this evening and my house smelled wonderful. Much better than putting the chicken in the oven. My house is cooler and the chicken is so tender that it just falls apart!!! I ended up cooking it on high for about 2 hours. Definitely going to do this one again soon!
I would like to try this out tomorrow however I’ll be cooking 6 chicken breasts. I’m not very experienced with crock pots… how much time would you cook 6 breasts for?
Add another 30 minutes to the cooking time but check it and if you feel like they are not done, add another 30 minutes. The temperature should be 160-165 when you test them with the thermometer.
Hi,
I was wondering about using boneless, skinless breasts… I have made them once and it seems dry. Is there anyway to help this?
Boneless and skinless with dry out the breast. Using the bone and skin will allow the breast to keep its moisture. Your crockpot may also cook the chicken in a short amount of time. One tip is either reduce the cooking time – for example by 30 minutes and take the temp of the chicken and if it is around 160-165 then your chicken breasts are perfect – just watch the temp of the chicken the last 30 minutes of cooking.
Maybe adding some broth will help with the dryness?
Hi,
I made this tonight and the breasts were not even close to being done after 2.5 hours. I was wondering what size crock pot you used? I have a large one and a small one; I used the small one for this recipe, and the breasts were stacked up on each other. I am wondering if I should have used the larger one and spread them out in a single layer. Do you think they would have cooked through in 2.5 hours if they were in a single layer instead of stacked up?
My breasts were on a single layer. Stacking them could have been the cause of being undercooked. I would use the larger one and spread them out on a single layer
That way, you evenly cook all the breast and they are not over or under cooked.
I am trying this now. I only have a smaller crockpot and am cooking 6 breasts instead. So I figured I would start cooking on low at 12:30 and let them go until 6. We shall see how they turn out
Loved this! Can’t get any easier! I did cook it on high for two hours instead of low, but otherwise, no changes. I baked several potatoes and steamed some broccoli in the microwave as sides. This recipe is definitely a keeper.
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[...] -barbecue chicken in the crock pot, baked potatoes, asparagus, grapes [...]
After using the original recipe several times and loving it, I tried using Hot Wing (aka Buffalo) sauce instead of BBQ sauce. What a winner! My toddler son and husband LOVED it! I cooked it longer so it fell off the bones, added a dab of lowfat cream cheese and melted cheddar on top, and wa-la. I can imagine tons of uses for the leftovers – Buffalo chicken tortillas, nachos, topping for baked potatoes … the list goes on and on. Thanks for the inspiration.
This recipe is so easy and so good. My husband likes dark meat and this comes out incredible with chicken thighs. I’ve never had enough leftovers to try anything else.
I have 8 breasts instead of 4 and they have skin on. Should I just do it on high instead and for how long?
Are they bone-in? I suggest cooking it on low for 3 hours, and depending on how big your crock pot is, rotate the chicken breasts from the bottom layer to the top so all the breast cook evenly.
One trick I use for cooking bone-in chicken pieces in the crockpot…crumple up several pieces of aluminum foil and place on the bottom of the pot. Then lay the chicken on top of it. The pieces are elevated about an inch and aren’t floating in the juices and falling apart on the bone. I do this with drumsticks that I coat in spices and they come out perfectly done! I do everything on low for anywhere from 7 to 9 hours…depending on what time I get home. I can’t wait to try it with the BBQ sauce!
This might be a dumb question… but are you always supposed to cover the food in a crock pot with water? I JUST got a crock pot and have only used it once to make a roast. And I was under the impression that everything you cooked in it had to have water added to it. Sorry… I am a newbie!
Not necessarily, for example, this recipe does not need water because of the juices of the chicken that comes out. The crock pot is just another pot but you just cook things at a different heat. Also if the recipe needs water, it will call for it- so no need to worry
If you used water to every recipe in the crock pot, it wouldn’t come out the way its supposed too
This was so simple yet so good. I used boneless, skinless chicken breast. They were still slightly frozen when I started, so I put them on high for 30 minutes then turned it to low and ended up cooking them about 3 hours longer, just because we had plans before dinner. They were so good! Made BBQ sandwiches with them.
Some said the boneless chicken is too dry, but I love it that way so this was perfect.
Thanks!
I’ve made this recipe twice this week with two different BBQ sauces and it has turned out great both times. Now I am hunting for other sauce options for chicken breasts in the crock pot. I assume a teriyaki sauce would work great but what about a pesto? Or some kind of lemon juice and garlic mixture? I would love to hear more recipes along this line. Thanks!
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I want to make this for dinner but would like to incorporate some veggies into the mix. Any ideas of a veggie I should add with the chicken — or would that ruin the flavor? Thanks!!