A super easy weeknight dish, this Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken is great as a sandwich, over rice and so many other things!

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken served on a sandwich topped with coleslaw on stacked white plates.

Slow Cooker meals are some of my favorite things ever, since you can pretty much just fix it and forget it.

This Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken is so good, so easy and also very versatile. While we usually serve it on a sandwich as you can see here, I’ll show you other ways that you can use it.

This only contains 3 main ingredients, chicken, brown sugar and BBQ sauce. How much easier does it get than that?

Then of course add some buns and coleslaw if desired if you are wanting to make it into a delicious sandwich.

This is just an easy and tasty dinnertime and chicken recipe that our family cannot get enough of, one where you just want to eat the chicken right out of the slow cooker.

If you are looking for simple and something that you don’t have to put much effort into, then you have to make this Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken.

Some of my other favorite slow cooker recipes that we have on our site include: Slow Cooker Pizza, Slow Cooker Jambalaya and Slow Cooker Indian Butter Chicken.

Overhead of finished Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken in slow cooker with tongs.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:

Super simple easy to find ingredients.
Multiple uses for the chicken.
Flavorful while being utterly simple.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED (FULL RECIPE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST):

Boneless skinless chicken breasts
Salt
Black pepper
BBQ sauce
Light brown sugar
Salt
Black pepper
Brioche buns, optional
Coleslaw, optional
Pickles, for serving (optional)

Ingredients needed to make Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken.

HOW TO MAKE SLOW COOKER BBQ CHICKEN, STEP BY STEP:

Salt and pepper both sides of each chicken breast.
Place chicken into slow cooker.
Sprinkled brown sugar over chicken breasts.
Pour BBQ sauce over chicken.
Cover and cook for 2 ½ to 3 hours on high heat or for 3 ½ to 4 hours on low heat or until cooked through.
Shred the chicken using the two-fork method or a shredding tool right in the slow cooker
Toss until fully coated in the sauce, then serve as desired.
To build a sandwich, place a serving of BBQ chicken onto bottom of brioche bun, top with ¼ cup prepare coleslaw and serve with a pickle spear if desired.

Step by step photos on how to make Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken.

CAN I USE CHICKEN THIGHS?

Yes! If you want to use chicken thighs you can. Make sure they are skinless and boneless as well.

You will be getting dark meat, but it still tastes amazing. Also you will notice you’ll have more thighs than breasts but keep the pounds the same.

WHAT IS THE BEST BBQ SAUCE TO USE?

The best thing about this Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken is that you can use any of your favorite BBQ Sauce.

There are so many different flavors, so you can really use whatever one you want to flavor this.

We used regular Sweet Baby Ray’s for this particular recipe.

HOW LONG DOES THIS NEED TO COOK?

Depending on how much time you have you can either cook this on low or high.

You will want to cook it for 2-3 hours on high and 3-4 hours on low.

WHAT ELSE CAN I MAKE USING THE BBQ CHICKEN?

This is where this recipe really comes in versatile, especially if you do not want to make them into sandwiches like we do. Some of our favorite ideas include:

Some of the chicken being held up with a serving spoon out of the slow cooker.

HOW TO STORE:

This can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator where it will keep for up to 3-4 days.

You can also freeze this chicken. Place in a freezer container and it will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.

To defrost, remove to the refrigerator overnight or until thawed. You can reheat in the microwave.

TIPS AND TRICKS:

You can use boneless skinless chicken thighs in place of the breasts.
Use any of your favorite BBQ sauces to flavor this the way you’d like.
You can make other things with this other than sandwiches, see above for some ideas.
This can be frozen, see above on how to do that.
You can cook this on high for 2-3 hours or low for 3-4 hours.
Shred as thick or thin as you’d like.
Make sure you are using a 5-6 quart slow cooker for this recipe.

Hand holding up the sandwich off of plate showing the chicken on the inside.

Love a tasty recipe that you can fix and forget and has multiple uses? Then this Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken is exactly what you need.

If you like this recipe you might also like:

If you’ve tried this SLOW COOKER BBQ CHICKEN or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and what shenanigans I’m getting into!

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken