Date Night Dinners - A Winter Barbecue
Luckily there wasn't much prep to be done for the meal this week. We decided to go with a crock pot barbecue chicken which turned out to be super easy and super delicious. Besides trimming the fat off the chicken pieces, you pretty much throw a bunch of ingredients into the crock pot, stir and wait six hours to enjoy. I have been itching to try a barbecue chicken ever since idea of crock potting came about this season. When I go out I always see pulled pork bbq, which I love, except for the fact I don't eat pork. So the thought of substituting it with chicken at home makes my mouth water. I don't understand why it is so hard for restaurants to do the same. Any-who, as usual, we ponder recipes online, searching for the perfect one, and, I really think we nailed it this time. The instructions required making a rub out of seasonings to cover the chicken pre-barbacue sauce and it was a brilliant idea. The rub added a nice layer of depth to the chicken and the sauce, making the flavor pop that much more in your mouth. Each bite was a sensation of joy and goodness.
The fact that we used one of our favorite sauces, Sweet Baby Ray's didn't hurt matters either. Although I eventually want to build up our skills to making our own barbecue sauce, for a truly homemade meal, I chickened out this time and left the flavor up to Baby Ray. Plus, in this weather, the level of difficulty for the alternative was a win. After all, all we had to do was open a bottle and pour, how much easier does it get?! And it required less time running in and out to buy ingredients since we always have some BBQ sauce in stock.
Don't worry though, we still gave the meal a twist. Instead of the traditional sandwich bun, we decide to pair the pulled barbecue chicken with a corn bread casserole of sorts. Brenden's dad made a an amazing cornbread casserole on Christmas and I have been dying for that taste to be in my mouth again ever since. Seriously, could have eaten the whole pan myself! We figured barbecue was the perfect night to try out our own attempt at the dish. We decided to combine a few recipes we found online to make it as simple as possible and to our tastes as possible. Here is what we needed: 1 box cornbread mix, 1 can of corn (drained), 1 can of creamed corn, 1/2 cup butter (melted), 1 cup cheddar cheese (shredded). Now here is what you do: Mix all of the ingredients together, place in a greased casserole dish, and bake on 350 for 50-60 minutes. Simple, I know, and so worth the wait! You have to wait about 6 hours for your chicken anyway, so it is not like you will have to rush to have everything finish at once.
Crock Pot Barbecue Chicken
Recipe adapted from pamelasalzman.com, Slow Cooker Barbecued Pulled Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of fat
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1.5 cups barbecue sauce (We used Sweet Baby Ray's)
Directions
- Place the chicken in the crock pot.
- Mix together the chili powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
- Rub spice mixture all over the chicken, covering all pieces.
- Pour 1 cup of barbecue sauce over the chicken and mix to coat all pieces.
- Cover and cook on low for about 6 hours.
- After 6 hours, or once chicken is fully cooked, remove piece and shred on a plate.
- Return shredded chicken to crock pot.
- Pour the remainder of the barbecue sauce in the crock pot.
- Stir to combine and coat all of the chicken well.
- Continue to cook on low for another 30 minutes (this should help absorb the liquid as well as really let the chicken soak up the barbecue flavor so it is in every bite).
- Remove and serve as desired. It is great plain, but you can also serve it as a sandwich, with a salad or whatever your imagination can think of. We went with corn casserole this time around.
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