I had planned to make this for dinner, but forgot to set up the crock pot before I left the house for the afternoon.  By the time I realized it, it was too late to make it for dinner that night.  So, I put it up to cook when I got home and set it to cook that evening.  I prepared it up through shredding the chicken, put the chicken in the sauce and let the flavors mingle even more overnight.

This is not a necessary approach, it works just as well as a ‘normal’ slow-cooker dish.  One benefit though, was the ability to remove the excess fat from the reduced sauce before reheating, making it just a tad healthier. But oh, it was just as delicious.

And, I can’t say enough about how good the apple-cabbage slaw is!

I could have made nice, neat sandwiches, but I wanted an overflowing, messy, ewwy gooey sandwich that I would need many napkins for…

Yum!

Slow Cooker Pulled Chicken Sandwiches with Crunchy Apple Slaw

Slightly adapted from Iowa Girl Eats

Ingredients: 
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup apple jack
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
3 Tablespoons light molasses
3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2lbs chicken breasts (locally raised)
Buns/rolls

For the Crunchy Apple Slaw:
2 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon honey
juice of 1/2 lime
salt & pepper
3 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
1 large Granny Smith apple, thinly chopped

Directions: 

Combine ingredients from ketchup to pepper in a large crock pot then whisk to combine. 

Add chicken halves then cover completely in sauce and cook on low for 4-6 hours, or until chicken is very tender. If the sauce does not fully cover the chicken, every couple of hours, spoon some sauce over the chicken.

Remove 2 cups cooking liquid and transfer to a saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce heat slightly and let bubble and thicken, about 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, shred chicken with 2 forks then return to crock pot with remaining liquid and stir to combine. 

For the Crunchy Apple Slaw: In a large bowl whisk together olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, lime juice, salt and pepper.

Add cabbage and apples then toss to combine.

Place shredded chicken on top of bottom buns then top with reduced sauce (unless you have mixed it all together like I did, and again, I made my sandwich overflowing, you don’t need to).

 

Top with Crunchy Apple Slaw and serve. Enjoy!

Serves 4 – 6.