This easy 4 ingredient Crock Pot Express barbecue chicken recipe is our favorite healthy dinner! Moist pressure cooker shredded chicken with sauce makes tasty soft tacos that my kids absolutely love. Sweet and a little spicy you can make it with your favorite sauce and it’s done in 20 minutes flat!
So I am all about easy meals. If I can use just a few ingredients that are inexpensive, healthy, and make a meal my entire family loves that is a big win!! This easy 4 ingredient Crock Pot Express barbecue chicken recipe is one of those dinners. It’s one of the easiest Crock Pot Express recipes we have. (affiliate links present)
Pressure Cooker Barbecue Chicken
We make pressure cooker shredded chicken fairly often because it’s done in 20 minutes basically. This feeds all 5 of us for under $10, and is pretty healthy too!
I shred the chicken and serve it in small flour tortillas with cheese and guacamole but you could easily serve the breasts as is smothered in this sweet and tangy sauce with a side of rice or for a low carb pressure cooker meal, just serve as is too.
I keep two of the ingredients in my pantry at all times just in case I need an easy throw together meal, and I typically buy chicken breasts at the store for some kind of meal during the week so it’s an easy one if I just don’t feel like trying something new or we are in a real hurry.
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BBQ Crockpot Express Chicken Recipe
Like I said, you can serve the breasts straight out of the pot on top of some rice or alone but we like shredded chicken tacos for dinner, and if there are leftovers they are great for lunch for the next day too. We like to throw this into tortillas to make chicken tacos but you could serve over rice too.
3 Ingredient Shredded Barbecue Chicken Ingredients
You just need 3 things; meat, sauce and a bit of liquid to thin that out. The other ingredients are optional but suggested. The canned fruit is just to add a bit of sweetness in there, you could use the juice in that can instead of water too. Onion was just an add in I like.
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts – 4 small or 2 large and cut those in half
- this is directions for Crockpot Express frozen chicken if that is all you have
- Barbecue sauce – stay away from honey style as that high high sugar and can burn, we like this one
- Can of chunk pineapple – this is what I use
- Onion – you can leave this out but it is great with it
- Water
As far as serving them up you can add all the goodies right on there. For a low carb meal you could skip the carbs and just enjoy as is right out of the pot too.
Crock Pot Express Barbecue Chicken Recipe
Here is the printable recipe below for you below that you can keep handy but I also have a quick step by step here. Do not use sticky honey sauce as that will be much thicker and the sugars may cause the pot to trigger the burn notice.
How to Make Shredded Barbecue Chicken in Pressure Cooker
- Empty bottle of barbecue sauce into your Crock Pot Express pressure cooker.
- Cut your boneless skinless chicken breasts in half and put on bbq sauce.
- Add 1/2 c. water into your barbecue sauce bottle, cover, shake, and empty into your pressure cooker.
- Dump your can of pineapple chunks, with juice/small can at store, into your pot.
- Add some thinly sliced onions if there if you want to.
- Stir gently just so chicken is coated with sauce.
- Set Crock Pot Express to poultry setting for 12 minutes.
Allow to naturally release steam for 3 minutes, then quick release. If making tacos shred chicken in the pot use two forks to shred. Then add to small flour tortillas with cheese and fixings and enjoy.
Can you make shredded barbecue chicken with thighs?
Of course dark meat vs. light breasts will work just as great. Those tend to be thiner and smaller so you could decrease the cook time to 10 minutes in that case if you wanted. If you cut into chunks ahead of time it would take just 5 minutes tossed with your sauce.
That depends. If you are keeping them whole, medium in size, 12 minutes is usually perfect. Diced into smaller pieces you can get it done in just 5 or just set to saute with a bit of olive oil for about 4 minutes to cook without pressure cooking at all.
You can make it spicy with diced jalapenos or hatch chiles if you like. Red pepper flakes or some cayenne can do the trick to add heat as well. Fold in some diced pineapple for sweetness, serve in tortillas for tacos or inside Hawaiian rolls for sliders.
If you have leftovers it is a great low carb meal and if you leave the pineapple and juices out a friend says it is her go to keto dinner as well. A really quick and cheap Crock Pot Express pressure cooker recipe that I make often because it is so versatile. Yes my go to are these tacos but it’s great on top a bed of rice too!
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Crock Pot Express Barbecue Chicken
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 bottle barbecue sauce 16 oz, not honey style
- 1 can pineapple chunks, about 1 c. with juice
- 1/2-1 onion sliced
- 1/2 c water or broth
- 2-4 chicken breasts boneless skinless
Instructions
- Empty bottle of barbecue sauce into your Crock Pot Express pressure cooker.
- Cut your chicken breasts in half and put on bbq sauce.
- Add 1/2 c. water into your barbecue sauce bottle, cover, shake, and empty into your pressure cooker.
- Empty your can of pineapple chunks, with juice/small can at store, into your pot. Add sliced onion too if desired.
- Stir gently just so chicken is coated with sauce.
- Set Crock Pot Express to poultry setting for 12 minutes. Then allow it to naturally release steam for 3 minutes.
- Quick release and if making tacos shred chicken in the pot, then add to small flour tortillas with cheese and fixings and enjoy.
Vickie
Monday 24th of January 2022
This sounds like a good dish, if I’m going to be serving it over rice I would like to know if one could add teriyaki sauce into the ingredients?
Ellie
Sunday 13th of June 2021
I stumbled on your recipe as I was looking for The Crock Pot Express. Mine is 6qt, The Meat/Poultry setting is 15 minutes minimum and the Auto High Pressure is 35 minutes....., and didn't have BBQ sauce or pineapple but my pantry is loaded with Spices and different types of Tomato Sauces and Spaghetti Sauce.
Nevertheless, I used Plain Tomato Sauce, basil,black pepper, Season All season salt, 2fresh chopped tomatoes, cilantro and onion. It was Perfect 🥰
Sarria Aldana
Tuesday 23rd of February 2021
My hubby is allergic to pineapple. Did your friend who left pineapple out for Keto replace the liquids, or just skip it?? Thanks! I just got the CrockPot Express and have been reading all the instructions, I haven't used it yet!! LOL
Cathy DellaMotta
Monday 11th of May 2020
First time using the Crock Pot Express. What a great meal! We made Tacos. Out of this world. I used frozen boneless chicken thighs, and fresh pineapple (it was what I had) I had increased the water a little because there really was not any juice for the pineapple. It was amazing. Lots of broth left over. I am going to try making a sweet rice with it.
Joe
Friday 13th of March 2020
I messed up and used the 20oz can of crushed pineapple, the BBQ sauce and 1 cup of water. Like Acacia, I cooked it at the default 15 since I couldn’t figure out how to set it lower on poultry. I also used frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts. Even with all the errors it came out ok if very wet. Put it in a big skillet and let it simmer for a while and served over rice. Next time I will do better.