Brown Sugar Pulled Chicken
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This Brown Sugar Pulled Chicken is the most tender and delicious chicken you’ll ever have. Perfect for tacos, burritos, quesadillas or sandwiches, this mouthwatering dish is slowly cooked to perfection in one single pot! Can be easily made in a slow cooker or Instant pot!
This sweet pulled chicken is so tender, simply pulls apart easily and tastes amazing. This recipe is easy, delicious, and you just can’t go wrong with chicken. It’s perfect for sandwiches with coleslaw, burritos, quesadillas, etc.
Brown Sugar Pulled Chicken
- Quick Prep Time
- Juicy & Sweet Chicken
- Easily Made In A Slow Cooker Or Instant Pot
- Great For Meal-Prep
When planning for a week ahead, the last thing you need is something complicated to add to your list. This simple, easy to make recipe is guaranteed to become your go-to meal-prep item for any busy week. The delicious flavors and versatility of the chicken is simply a no-brainer. It goes well on everything. It might just be the best chicken you’ll ever eat!
Ingredient Notes
- Chicken – I preferred to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs, but you can use chicken breast as well.
- Oregano – Dried oregano is great in this recipe.
- Cornstarch – Used to thicken the sauce.
- Brown Sugar – Brown sugar helps to add that caramelized flavor to the chicken.
- Soy Sauce – This ingredient is going to give us lots of umami flavor and color, be sure to use a lighter soy sauce to control sodium intake and a higher quality sauce will go a long way.
- Balsamic Vinegar – We want this tangy flavor to act as a bit of a chemical tenderizer while adding tons of depth of flavor.
How To Make Brown Sugar Pulled Chicken In The Instant Pot
- Mix chicken with all the ingredients: Add the chicken to the instant pot. In a small bowl mix together the rest of the ingredients and pour over the chicken. Toss everything together.
- Cook: Close the lid (follow the manufacturer’s guide for instructions on how to close the instant pot lid). Set the Instant Pot to the Manual setting on high and set the timer to 8 minutes. Use quick / manual release to release the pressure.
- Shred: Transfer the chicken from the Instant Pot to a bowl. Shred the chicken with two forks then pour some of the sauce leftover in the IP, toss and let it rest for a couple minutes for the chicken to soak up the sauce.
- Serve: Serve on buns with coleslaw.
How To Make Brown Sugar Pulled Chicken In The Slow Cooker
- Prepare the chicken: Add the chicken to the slow cooker. In a small bowl mix together oregano, salt, pepper and 1/2 cup of the water. Pour over the chicken. Cook on high for 2 1/2 hours.
- Combine glaze ingredients: After 2 1/2 hours, mix the remaining ingredients with the 1/2 cup water left, in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat until the mixture starts to thicken. It should start to thicken as soon as it comes to a boil.
- Add sauce over chicken: Pour the mixture over the chicken in the slow cooker and toss, so that the chicken is covered in the sauce thoroughly.
- Continue cooking: Cook for an additional hour in the slow cooker on low.
- Pull apart chicken: Remove the chicken from slow cooker into a big bowl and carefully pull it apart using two forks.
- Ready to serve: Serve warm with remaining glaze on the side, if preferred.
FAQ’s
Frequently Asked Questions
What can I serve it with?
What I love about this chicken recipe so much is the versatility. Delicious in any form, you can add your chicken over salads, in between toasted buns with some extra coleslaw as you can see in the picture below, or you can enjoy it in a wrap or tortilla with some tasty Mexican toppings for extra flavor, then serve it alongside some baked beans.
Can I make it into a freezer meal?
Yes you can! First thing you need to place all ingredients in a large freezer bag and push out as much excess air as you can. Next place it on a flat surface in your freezer until it freezes completely. You can leave it like that or stack it upright once frozen. When you are ready to use is, let it thaw overnight in the refrigerator then, once fully thawed, add all ingredients in the slow cooker or Instant Pot as stated in the instructions.
Expert Tips
- If you prefer a tender, juicier chicken, I recommend using chicken thighs instead of chicken breast. The meat from the thighs is much more juicier than that from the breast and contains more flavor as well.
- When using soy sauce, make sure you are using a high quality soy sauce that has a lower sodium grade. This way you are able to control the amount of sodium intake and get a tastier flavor as well.
- When prepping the chicken, if you find you’d like a little extra smoky flavor, you can always add 1 tsp of liquid smoke to boost up the flavors.
Leftovers
Fridge
If you’re meal planning, you can add each serving in a separate container and fill the rest of the container with your preferred side dish. You can also store the whole amount in one large airtight container as well. You can keep it in the fridge for up to 3 to 4 days.
Freezer
If you decide to freeze this brown sugar pulled chicken once cooked, make sure you allow the chicken to cool down to room temperature. Next store it in an airtight freezer bag or container and place it in your freezer. It will last for up to 3-4 months. When ready to use, let the chicken thaw in your fridge overnight and warm up for 1-2 minutes in the microwave.
More Delicious Chicken Recipes To Try
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Brown Sugar Pulled Chicken
Ingredients
For Chicken
- 2 pounds chicken thighs (boneless, skinless)
- 1 cup water
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper (freshly ground )
- 1 teaspoon oregano (dried)
- ½ cup brown sugar (packed)
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce (low sodium)
- 2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions
- Mix chicken with all the ingredients: Add the chicken to the instant pot. In a small bowl mix together the rest of the ingredients and pour over the chicken. Toss everything together.
- Cook: Close the lid (follow the manufacturer’s guide for instructions on how to close the instant pot lid). Set the Instant Pot to the Manual setting on high and set the timer to 8 minutes. Use quick / manual release to release the pressure.
- Shred: Transfer the chicken from the Instant Pot to a bowl. Shred the chicken with two forks then pour some of the sauce leftover in the IP, toss and let it rest for a couple minutes for the chicken to soak up the sauce.
- Serve: Serve on buns with coleslaw.
Slow Cooker Instructions
- Prepare the chicken: Add the chicken to the slow cooker. In a small bowl mix together oregano, salt, pepper and 1/2 cup of the water. Pour over the chicken. Cook on high for 2 1/2 hours.
- Combine glaze ingredients: After 2 1/2 hours, mix the remaining ingredients with the 1/2 cup water left, in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat until the mixture starts to thicken. It should start to thicken as soon as it comes to a boil.
- Add sauce over chicken: Pour the mixture over the chicken in the slow cooker and toss, so that the chicken is covered in the sauce thoroughly.
- Continue cooking: Cook for an additional hour in the slow cooker on low.
- Shred chicken: Remove the chicken from slow cooker into a big bowl and carefully pull it apart using two forks.
- Serve: Serve warm with remaining glaze on the side, if preferred.
Notes
- It is not really recommended to use frozen chicken in the slow cooker, since there’s risk of bacteria contaminating the meat before it reaches a safe temperature.
- If you prefer a tender, juicier chicken, I recommend using chicken thighs instead of chicken breast. The meat from the thighs is much more juicier than that from the breast and contains more flavor as well.
- When using soy sauce, make sure you are using a high quality soy sauce that has a lower sodium grade. This way you are able to control the amount of sodium intake and get a tastier flavor as well.
- When prepping the chicken, if you find you’d like a little extra smoky flavor, you can always add 1 tsp of liquid smoke to boost up the flavors.
Nutrition Information
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
What if I don’t have a slow cooker nor an instant pot? How can I cook it ?
You can use the stove top then and braise it on low heat for about 45 minutes to an hour.
This is a great, simple, tasty recipe that my whole family loved. Shared it with my parents and they love it too!
So glad you guys liked it!
Jo, clarification please! Ingredients state “tarragon,” however, throughout directions it refers to “oregano.” Which one is correct? Thank you so much!
It should be oregano! Sorry about that!
Delicious!!,
We’re on a low carb diet…..could you use a brown sugar substitute like Swerve to cut the carbs?
While we haven’t tried substituting Swerve instead of brown sugar, here are a few alternatives to brown sugar you can try out: coconut sugar, dates sugar, maple syrup or honey. Let us know how it turns out.
Hi. I’m slightly confused right now about which seasoning is best to use. In the step by step here you have oregano listed. Then in the printable recipe you listed tarragon as the seasoning used. May I ask which is the better of the two to use?
Hi Teri,
You can go ahead and use the dried oregano in your recipe. Let us know how it turns out!
How long can you keep the leftovers in the fridge?
Hi Kate,
The ideal time would be 5 days max. You can check all the details about leftovers and storage in the ‘Leftovers’ section in the blog.
I have a love/hate relationship with my slow cooker but decided to dust it off and try this quick recipe out. This was totally delicious. I used chicken breast. The brown sugar’s sweetness wasn’t overpowering, which makes this chicken versatile for so many types of dishes. The chicken definitely soaked up a lot of the glaze when I shredded it, which is just what I wanted. I’d never cooked with tarragon before and I really liked how it tasted here. I made sandwiches with this recipe. This was perfect for a low-effort cooks like me and I can’t wait to eat more for lunch. Thanks, Jo!
I want to try this! 🙂 I don’t have cornstarch (nor flour), can I omit it? Also don’t have tarragon. Can I use fresh basil instead?
If you can find cornstarch, that’ll help a lot! You can still move forward without it, but you won’t end up with a glaze The sauce will be watery. If you use fresh basil add it at the very end!
Can you make this with boneless skinless chicken breasts?
For sure!
I raise my own chickens and they are bone-in. Do you think if I used bone-in thighs that I could debone the chicen after it cooks?
Absolutely!
Question: are you supposed to add the glaze to the liquid mixture already in the slowcooker from the first step?
Yes! After you shred the chicken will soak up all that great sauce.
Great and simple recipe.
My family loves this recipe. I made it on a Sunday and they enjoyed it so much that they asked me to make it again the following night. It was easy to make and absolutely delicious!
Is the brown sugar suppose be packed?
Yes!