How many times have you bought chicken, not knowing what you were going to do with it yet, thinking, “Hmmm…I will come up with something…” Sometimes you just need a good recipe that uses chicken. Period. The next time you find yourself asking, “I bought chicken…now what?” you can come back to this simple slow cooker BBQ chicken sandwich recipe.
A Fix-It-And-Forget-It meal.
This recipe is a simple fix-it-and-forget-it meal that takes just a few minutes in the morning and a few minutes in the evening to prepare. And because it uses mostly common ingredients you probably have in your kitchen, the only real ingredient (besides chicken) that you will need to remember to grab at the store is the buns!
Onions…or not.
I love onions, so I added them, but you don’t have to. You could choose to leave them out and still have delicious BBQ chicken sandwiches that your whole family will love. In fact, if you do use onions, I would suggest not using more than 1/2 of a chopped onion so it is not overpowering.
Update: Add a little chicken broth, but not too much.
One of the MPM readers suggested that these chicken sandwiches needing a little more liquid. I updated the recipe to include 1/2 cup chicken broth. This will keep the shredded chicken from becoming too dry. More liquid is good, but too much is bad, so you will definitely want to use a slotted spoon when you scoop the chicken so your buns do not get too soggy.
More chicken recipes that are low in Smart Points.
I recently created a “Chicken Recipes with Smart Points” Pinterest board, where I share some of my favorite recipes that use chicken as a main ingredient.
Here are just a few of the recipes on the Pinterest board that I think you will love:
- 4-Ingredient Honey Mustard Chicken
- 1 WW SP Mexican Chicken Soup
- BBQ Bacon Monterey Chicken
- Grilled Pepper Jack Chicken with Zucchini & Corn Sauté
I hope some of these recipes will be helpful to you when you are in a pinch and need a quick chicken dinner idea!
If you are not familiar with light buns, I have a list of low point buns (light buns) here:
Alrighty, are you ready for some good old fashioned Slow Cooker Shredded BBQ Chicken Sandwiches?
Here is what you need:
1/2 cup fat-free chicken broth
1/3 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water
7 light hamburger buns
Here is what you do:
Mix chicken broth, ketchup, brown sugar, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, salt, and paprika in slow cooker.
Place chicken and onions in the slow cooker and mix in the sauce. Cook 4-6 hours on LOW or 2-3 hours on HIGH.
Carefully take chicken out of the slow cooker and shred with two forks. Return chicken to the slow cooker and mix in with the sauce mixture.
In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch and water. Mix the cornstarch mixture into the chicken and sauce in the slow cooker.
Turn slow cooker to HIGH heat, if it wasn’t already. Allow to cook 6-7 minutes, or until the sauce begins to thicken.
Using a slotted spoon, scoop 1/3 cup shredded BBQ chicken on each bun.
Makes 7 sandwiches.
One sandwich is 5 Green, 4 Blue, and 4 Purple points.
Simple Slow Cooker Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup fat-free chicken broth
- 1/3 cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon paprika
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1/2 small onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon water
- 7 light hamburger buns
Instructions
- Mix chicken broth, ketchup, brown sugar, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, salt, and paprika in slow cooker.
- Place chicken and onions in the slow cooker and mix in the sauce. Cook 4-6 hours on LOW or 2-3 hours on HIGH.
- Carefully take chicken out of the slow cooker and shred with two forks. Return chicken to the slow cooker and mix in with the sauce mixture.
- In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch and water. Mix the cornstarch mixture into the chicken and sauce in the slow cooker.
- Turn slow cooker to HIGH heat, if it wasn't already. Allow to cook 6-7 minutes, or until the sauce begins to thicken.
- Using a slotted spoon, scoop 1/3 cup shredded BBQ chicken on each bun.
*MyWW® points calculated by Meal Planning Mommies; Not endorsed by MyWW (formerly Weight Watchers and WW). All recipe ingredients except optional items included in determining nutritional estimates. MyWW® green, blue, and purple values calculated without WW Zero Points foods using the WW Recipe Builder.
Good morning Alisha! This looks and sounds too good to be true! Do the 4 SP’s include the hamburger bun? I am going to make this over the weekend with some WW friendly coleslaw. YUM!! I sure wish corn was in season! Thank you for all your hard work and great recipes.
Hi Kristine, yes, 4 WW SP includes the bun. There was corn on the cob in the freezer section of my store. You may find some there. Thanks and hope you enjoy the sandwiches this weekend. ?
Thank you for all the delicious recipes you create. My family loves them all. I have one little problem. I bought your 12 Week Meal Plan Mega Bundle and could never get it to down load. I now have a Zipp line on my I-phone and would like to try now. Is that possible?
Thank you!
Sharon
Hi Sharon, We have instructions for how to download the ebook to a smart phone here: http://mealplanningmommies.com//ebook-f-a-qs/ Hope this helps! 🙂
Hi…Where do you find light buns? What brand do you like and how many points are they?
Hi Diane, I have a list of low point breads and buns here: http://mealplanningmommies.com//low-smart-point-breads-buns/. Hope this helps! ?
I have made a large number of your recipes and they’ve all been good. Thank you. The flavor was good on this one but there was not enough liquid and the chicken was dry. We had to doctor up the meat by adding bbq sauce to the sandwich, which of course added points!
Thanks for your feedback Joyce. I’m sorry to hear that. I wonder if adding some chicken broth or crushed pineapple could help with that. I will have to experiment with this one and see if I can’t come up with a way to help it not be so dry while keeping the flavor. Thank you!
If you do you experiment with the recipe I hope you’ll post an update.. Thank U
Definitely! I will comment here if I find something that works well.
Okay, so I made this recipe again yesterday. I added 1 cup chicken broth and it seemed like too much. I would say 1/2 cup chicken broth would be good and when it comes time to scoop out each serving I would use a slotted spoon since you will still have a little more liquid than is necessary. More liquid is good, but too much liquid just makes the buns soggy, so straining the liquid is important when adding broth. I hope this helps! I am going to update this recipe to include this recommendation. Thanks for your input! I appreciate it! 🙂
thank you!
Of course! 🙂