Recipe Notes: Indoor Pulled Chicken with Sweet and Tangy Barbecue Sauce

22 April 2018

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, March 2018

When I have made pulled chicken sandwiches I enjoyed them greatly. Looking back at my blog post describing the preparation reveals the amount of work and time involved in this recipe. Bone-in chicken leg quarters were smoked on the grill for several hours. After it cooled the meat was pulled off of the bones by hand and then shredded with a combination of forks and the food processor before being mixed with a flavorful barbecue sauce. I was happy to see an indoor version that promised to be faster and easier, but would it taste good?

A braising liquid—consisting of chicken broth, molasses, sugar, liquid smoke, unflavored gelatin, and salt—was heated to boiling in a Dutch oven on the stove. Two pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs were added and simmered until the chicken was tender, about 35 minutes. The recipe recommended using tongs to shred the chicken, an improvement over the fork method. However, I found this to be clumsy, too, so I tried something I had read about. The cooked chicken was put into the stand mixer with the beater attachment. Mixing for 1-2 minutes on low did a great job of shredding the chicken! A no-cook barbecue sauce was made with ketchup, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, Sriracha, salt, and pepper. The meat was heated with some of the sauce and some of the reserved cooking liquid and served on slider-sized potato buns. Preparation time: 75 minutes.

So, it was much easier and faster to make the pulled chicken indoors, but was it as good? I don't remember the previous recipe well enough to compare, but the indoor pulled chicken sandwiches were excellent! They had a great texture and flavor. The sauce had just the right amount of heat along with the smoky/sweet flavors. I can't see going back to the outdoor method to make pulled chicken. Recipes for two other sauces were included ("Lexington Vinegar" and "South Carolina Mustard") and these might be worth trying some time. The leftovers were excellent, too, prepared by mixing some of the barbecue sauce with the chicken and re-heating it in the microwave.