Yes, you can make a fresh meal with the help of your slow cooker! These Honey BBQ Chicken Bowls are made using juicy slow cooker chicken that gets added to all of summers fresh veggies for a refreshing meal you can’t beat!

shredded bbq chicken in bowl topped with tomatoes, avocado and ranch

Why are bowl meals popular?

You may be seeing lots of recipes on Pinterest or Instagram that show you the latest meal in a bowl. Is this really revolutionary? Or just a silly trend?

I think the idea is to truly simplify meal time and give you all the nutrition you need in one simple bowl without a lot of thought, effort or fuss.

These Honey BBQ Chicken Bowls are simple because you use your slow cooker to make your protein. It’s so easy to throw your chicken in a slow cooker and add some sauce. Let it cook then shred when done and use the chicken for any number of meals. Add your favorite grains and veggies and you have a complete, simple and tasty meal.

Ingredients

For the chicken you’ll only need two things to add to it to make it delicious.

First, grab a delicious BBQ sauce. I like to find one with less added sugar. Not only is it healthier, but it won’t burn as easily in the slow cooker.

Next up, honey! This will add some sweetness to the sauce without the overly processed sugar. I prefer raw honey because it still contains most of it’s nutrients and antioxidants.

chicken breasts covered in bbq sauce in white slow cooker

How to make BBQ chicken in the slow cooker:

add raw chicken breasts (boneless and skinless) to the slow cooker
top with the honey and bbq sauce mixture
let cook all day on low or half the day on high
remove and shred
add back as much of the juice from the slow cooker as you’d like and discard the rest

Tips for shredding chicken…

If your chicken won’t shred easily, it may simply need to cook longer. Move it around in the slow cooker to ensure that all parts are soaking in the juices and let it cook until it shreds easily with a fork.

While you can simply use 2 forks to pull apart your chicken by hand but I also love using my hand mixer and placing the chicken in a large bowl and running the mixer through it. It makes it quick and easy and gives the chicken a finely shredded consistency.

white slow cooker filled with bbq shredded chicken

How to Serve Shredded Honey BBQ Chicken

The options are truly endless here! What’s great about this chicken is that you can make a double or triple batch and freeze the extras. Then simply thaw and serve in these bowls or in any number of different ways!

Tacos, salads, wraps and pizzas come to mind for simple and easy dinners or lunches.

I like to make it a complete meal in a bowl by cooking up some:

farro or another grain (or chickpea rice for grain/gluten-free)
my favorite fresh chopped veggies like artisan lettuce and baby tomatoes
top it off with fresh avocado slices and my favorite zesty lime ranch.

overhead view of bowl filled with lettuce, shredded chicken, avocado and tomatoes

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