Smoky and slightly spicy, this Crock Pot Southwest Pulled Chicken is as flavorful as it is versatile and easy to make.
We love traditional nachos with taco-spiced beef, creamy re-fried beans, and chunky salsa. But, sometimes it’s fun to step away from the traditional and shake things up a bit.
That’s exactly what we did recently when we had a bunch of people over for dinner. We wanted to do a nacho bar, but with a twist.
Enter, Southwest Pulled Chicken.
Our Crock Pot Southwest Pulled Chicken Recipe
This chicken reminded us of fajitas, but we loaded it with refried beans over chips instead of into tortillas.
It was a bit unexpected, but it was so good.
There was just enough left at the end of the night for us to experiment with other ways to use the meat.
Oh the possibilities!
We recommend using this chicken to make Southwest chicken nachos with some refried beans, cheddar cheese, lettuce, and sour cream.
But, this Southwest pulled chicken also makes for tasty sliders, piled high on a bun with a little dollop sour cream.
Southwest Pulled Chicken In The Slow Cooker
Don’t let the laundry list of ingredients intimidate you from trying this simple recipe.
Everything gets dumped into a slow cooker, and after a few hours you have fragrant and fall-apart chicken that just needs to be shredded, let cook slightly longer, and eaten in one of many tasty ways.
And, it’s is the perfect recipe for a crowd, as you don’t have to spend much time slaving over the main dish. Thanks to a large crock pot, this recipe makes a ton of delicious chicken.
Smoky and slightly spicy, this Crock Pot Southwest Pulled Chicken is as flavorful as it is versatile and easy to make.
- 5 lb chicken breast
- 2 onions, sliced into thin strips 1” long
- 8 garlic cloves
- ¼ c celery, minced
- 1 jalapeno, minced
- 3 Tbsp lime juice
- 2 tsp Liquid Smoke
- 3 Tbsp taco seasoning
- 3 Tbsp paprika
- 2 Tbsp parsley
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- ½ - 1 tsp cayenne (depending on your heat preference)
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp cocoa powder
- 3 c chicken broth (we prefer low sodium)
Place all ingredients in a 5 quart slow cooker. Cook on low heat for 5 hours (or high heat for 3 hours), until chicken is cooked through.
Remove chicken breast pieces to a plate and shred the meat with two forks. Return meat to slow cooker and cook on low for 1 hour. (If the mixture is too liquidy, leave the lid off for a portion of this cooking time.)
Serve with chips as nachos or loaded into a bun for a tasty slider.
This recipe was updated May 2017. We made the chicken even tastier! Enjoy!
This is one of the recipes from the early days of Curious Cuisiniere. We’ve updated our pictures since we first made it, but we’ve left the original images here as a fun throwback and shout out to how far we’ve come. Enjoy!
I was all ready to say this was pretty similar to the slow-cooker chicken I make (http://www.softpuppywarmhouse.com/2012/11/08/recipes-slow-cooker-chicken-tacos/), but it’s actually very different. I will have to try yours next time.
One tip I learned is that for fast shredding, put the chicken in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and mix at low speeds for a few seconds. It may be another bowl to clean, but it’s much faster and easier so I think it’s worth it. Just be careful not to over-shred.
Great tip on shredding! We’ll have to try that next time. Shredding the chicken was the most tedious part of making these, even though it was well worth it.