Name: Slow-Cooker Sweet and Tangy Pulled Chicken
Total time: 3 h
Ingredients: 1 onion , chopped fine; 1/4 cup tomato paste; 1 tablespoon chili powder; 1 tablespoon vegetable oil; 1 teaspoon paprika; Salt and pepper; 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1/4 cup ketchup; 2 tablespoons molasses; 2 (12-ounce) split bone-in chicken breasts , skin removed, trimmed; 2 tablespoons cider vinegar; 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard; 4 hamburger buns

Why This Recipe Works

A simple spice mixture and a quick homemade barbecue sauce made it easy to turn slow-cooked bone-in chicken into tangy, silky, shredded chicken. Quickly microwaving the aromatics together with the chili powder, paprika, and cayenne softened the onions and infused them with layers of barbecue flavor while at the same time blooming the spices. We found that simply seasoning the chicken with salt and pepper before nestling the breasts into our quick sauce mixture of ketchup, molasses, and the aromatics was enough to infuse the chicken with the rich essence of the sauce. Stirring in vinegar at the beginning of cooking made the sauce too thin and dulled its acidity, but adding 2 tablespoons of vinegar at the end of cooking, along with a small amount of mustard, ensured that the sauce was the perfect consistency and retained its bright flavors.

Before You Begin

Check the chicken's temperature after 2 hours of cooking and continue to monitor until it registers 160 degrees. Serve with pickle chips and coleslaw.

Instructions

1. Lightly coat slow cooker with vegetable oil spray. Microwave onion, tomato paste, chili powder, oil, paprika, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, and cayenne in bowl, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, about 5 minutes; transfer to prepared slow cooker. Stir in ketchup and molasses. Add chicken to slow cooker and coat evenly with sauce mixture. Cover and cook until chicken registers 160 degrees, 2 to 3 hours on low.

Transfer chicken to cutting board, let cool slightly, then shred into bite-size pieces using 2 forks; discard bones. Stir vinegar and mustard into sauce. Adjust consistency with hot water as needed. Stir in chicken and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve on hamburger buns.