Making another batch of chicken stock this weekend left me with a cooked whole chicken to cut up and use in various ways. Obviously, you don’t have to use a whole chicken each time you make stock. Normally I freeze cut up chicken parts and, after collecting bits from three of four, I use those to make a batch of stock. There just happened to be a great sale on whole chicken at my local grocery store, so I decided to use one to make stock.
Unfortunately, the side effect of boiling chicken is that it makes the flavor and texture uninteresting. So, apart from chicken soup, what can you do with this? I made pulled barbecue chicken.
Barbecue pulled chicken
Because the meat now contains so much moisture, it shreds easily while still warm. Just pass a fork along the grain of the meat and it’ll fall right apart. Cover with a healthy amount of barbecue sauce and serve. Bonus: I had a few buns left over from grilling bratwurst, so it was a great way to avoid letting the bread go to waste.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to deal with pulling a whole chicken, you can use the same strategy used in the crock-pot barbecue. Simply throw some chicken breasts, legs, thighs, or anything else into a crock-pot with enough water (or chicken/vegetable stock) to cover the chicken by about an inch. Cook on the low heat setting for about 5-6 hours. Remove the chicken and separate along the grain of the meat while it is still warm.
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