This is going to be the easiest BBQ chicken you have ever made.
I’m not joking… this really is going to be the easiest BBQ chicken you have ever made. Since I first tested this recipe, it has made it’s way into our meal rotation almost weekly. It is just that good!
Now, don’t get me wrong…nothing beats BBQ chicken straight off the grill. BUT, the flavors of this recipe can’t be beat and you don’t have to sweat over a hot grill.
Give it a try next week and I bet you will be converted to the crockpot-side 🙂
The Best Crockpot BBQ Chicken
Ingredients
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup BBQ sauce
1/4 cup Zesty Italian dressing
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
salt to taste
Directions
1. Season chicken breast lightly (a small pinch per breast) with some sea salt and place in your crockpot.
2. In a mixing bowl combine BBQ sauce, Italian dressing, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Stir until well combined.
3. Pour over chicken, cover and cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours
4. Once time is up, you can serve the breast whole, or shred with 2 forks. If shredding, recover and let cook in sauce for about 10-15 more minutes to soak up all that delish flavor.
Serve on buns, over rice, in wraps, on a salad or eat a plateful as is! Our favorite way is on fresh rolls, topped with coleslaw.
Want even MORE crockpot ideas? Make sure to check out my 30 EASY CROCKPOT MEALS!
Do you love Family Fresh Meals? Never miss out on FUN new meals or easy lunchbox ideas for thefamily andSIGN UPto have my posts sent right to your inbox! It’s EASY PEASY! JustCLICK HEREand enter your email!
XO
Corey, Darryl, Big D & Little D
- 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 cup BBQ sauce
- ¼ cup Italian dressing
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- salt to taste
- Season chicken breast lightly ( a small pinch per breast) with some sea salt and place in your crockpot.
- In a mixing bowl combine BBQ sauce, Italian dressing, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Stir until well combined.
- Pour over chicken, cover and cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours
- Once time is up, you can serve the breast whole, or shred with 2 forks. If shredding, recover and let cook in sauce for about 10-15 more minutes to soak up all that delish flavor.
- Serve on buns, over rice, in wraps, on a salad or eat a plateful as is! Our favorite way is on fresh rolls, topped with coleslaw.
Robin says
If you double the recipe and use 4lbs of chicken, do you need to increase the cooking time?
Corey says
I would increase it by a little.. cook for the longer time plus 30 mins more? It really depends on your crockpot.
Donna says
I cooked this tonight. Next time I would omit the brown sugar or only add a couple tablespoon. I thought it was too sweet. Other than that it was delicious. I definitely will make this again. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Amanda says
I have it in the crockpot right now, but when I tried the bbq sauce after mixing I found it sweet. I didn’t use the dress just water so that may have made a difference but I added a few drops of tabasco and it seemed to cut the sweetness to it. If you don’t have tabasco sauce I find adding a splash of vinegar helps. You get a sweet and sour taste instead of just sweet. I will let you know how it turns out with the tabasco in it. Was also thinking about adding bacon after I pull it. Bacon in any sandwich is good. So far I give this give this recipe four stars!
nikki says
when you say 1/4 c Italian Dressing, is that just the seasoning packet or the actual dressing? Or do I follow the directions to the seasoning package and mix it? The seasoning packet doesn’t come close to 1/4 c. Confused and making soon! 🙂
Corey says
Nikki, you use 1/4 cup of actual liquid dressing.
Nicole says
Do you make your own coleslaw or buy it? I don’t see that recipe on your website.
Corey says
I have not posted my coleslaw recipe yet, sorry.
Cindy N says
This was OMG good !!!!!!!!!
Anne says
Have made this twice now, so tasty!!! And so simple, which is my kind of cooking (chef I am not, lol). Have also discovered that leftovers are great the next day in a nice fresh roll with mayo 🙂 Thanks for the wonderful recipe, just may try it with pork as well.
Where can I find other recipes of yours??
Allison says
Made this tonight and it was amazing! Cooked on low for about 7 hours and served it on potato rolls with a side of Kale chips. Will definitely be making this again and again. Thanks for the recipe!
JessicaLozano-Mejia says
Can I cook this over a longer period of time on a lower temp.? I would like to leave it cooking while I go to work. (7-8 hr work day)
Corey says
Yes, you should be fine doing this on LOW for 7 hours 🙂
April B. says
I’ve been making this recipe for a long long time now. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! SO easy to make and only a few ingredients I often already have on hand. Sweet Baby Ray’s original sauce is awesome with this but I also LOVE Sticky Fingers BBQ sauce. If you haven’t tried it yet, definitely do. Great for big get-togethers also. I have made it a couple times for family BBQs/parties and they always love it. Bonus is that it’s SO good, you can eat it straight from the pot or on buns! Cheap, delicious meal!
Elli says
Hi I wanted to double this recipe for my daughters bday party! What are your suggestions for doubling or quite possibly tripling? Thanks!
Corey says
You will need a pretty large crockpot! haha Simply double the ingredients, and add about an hour to the cooking time.
Alex says
Made this for the first time and it was so good! Made according to recipe. I used sweet n spicy sweet baby ray’s, added 5 drops of hickory liquid smoke, and 1 tsp of crushed red pepper. Put in crock pot on low for 5 hours. At this point the sauce was a little thin so when I took the chicken out to shred I added about 1/4 cup more BBQ sauce and put the crock pot on high to thicken it up a bit. Added the meat back to it and put it on low for about 20 minutes. Turned out so yummy! Sweet and spicy just how my family likes it!
Elli says
I wanted to double the recipe, what are your suggestions?
Ellen says
This really was the best! Thank you!!
I made a few small changes according to my taste. I didn’t add salt to the chicken. I added extra worchestershire sauce, a little hot sauce, and red chili pepper flakes. (Oops, a little too spicy!) I only had regular italian dressing so I added lemon pepper seasoning. Man, oh man was this ever GOOD! The chicken was so tender. I shredded this and served it on yummy buns with bacon and swiss cheese. Tomorrow I will use leftovers (hard to hold back) to make BBQ chicken pizza with pepperoni, bacon, red onion, pineapple, and cilantro.
Seriously so good…. my new favorite recipe!
tammi says
Just made this for dinner my husband I lived it! Yummy
Courtney says
I made this tonight and it was AWESOME! We ate it on hamburger buns with slaw, but would like to try it over rice. I cooked mine on low for 5 hours and added about a tsp of minced garlic and a tbsp of apple cider vinegar to my sauce. Turned out amazing! Thank you!!
Magg says
Does the chicken have to be thawed, or could you use frozen?
Corey says
If you read through the comments Magg, some people have used frozen and just adjusted the cooking times 🙂
Kristen says
I made this wonderful chicken day before yesterday and my son and I enjoyed it very much! 🙂 Thank you for this wonderful recipe! It is so very delicious! I am making it again tonight! 🙂 I used sweet baby rays bbq sauce as well… good stuff! 🙂 thank you again!
Corey says
I’m so happy to hear you loved it Kristen!
Spike says
I made it last Sunday and it was amazing. So I have been asked to make it again this weekend
Corey says
Yay! That is so awesome!!! 🙂
Marissa says
Just made this tonight. We served it over baked sweet potatoes. AMAZING. Thanks!
Corey says
Served over sweet potatoes?! LOOOOOVE that idea! YUM!
Linda says
As I am counting calories, can you tell me how many servings are in this recipe (approx.) so I can do some planning before hand. Thank you. Sounds good.
Corey says
Linda, you can plug the ingredients on My Fitness Pal to get all the nutrition info 🙂
mary jo says
Made this yesterday and absolutely wonderful!!! My husband is very picky about ALL his food, and said it was the best pulled chicken he’s ever had! Love the website, and now excited to try all the other great looking recipes!
Heidi says
Oh my goodness. I have not been on Pinterest very long and this is the first recipe I have tried. It is simply the best I have ever had. My kids l loved it.
Tina says
Hello. I just came on this recipe. I have an older slow cooker I received as a wedding gift about 13 years ago. I never used it. Now we have 3 kids and I cook every night after getting in from work. That along with homework between 3 kids is really zapping my energy. My neighbor suggested I start using my crockpot. What size crockpot is this recipe for?
Corey says
For this one I used a 5-6qt crockpot 🙂
sara says
Look fabulous, thinking of making these for an upcoming party….Have you ever doubled this recipe? If so, would you double all ingredients? About how many slider size servings does the original yield?
Anne says
Found your recipe on Pinterest! I’m a big fan of adding italian and also ranch dressing mixes to recipes. I’m definitely adding this to my list of crockpot recipes to try. Thanks!
Melissa says
I’m starting to cook more and trying to impressive the boyfriend. He’ll eat whatever I put in front of him and he’ll always tell me that it’s good, but when I made this he absolutely LOVED it. He told me that he wasn’t hungry when we first got home but tired and then wanted to keep eating it. He got up for three servings. This will be my new go to dish! I cooked it for 6 hours on low and it was perfect. The only question I have was that my sauce was pretty soupy. How can I get it to be a bit more thick?
Thanks for a killer recipe!
Corey says
That is awesome Melissa! Yay! You could always add some cornstarch after the recipe is done if you feel like the sauce needs to be thicker.
joey says
As a college student, THANK YOU!
This came out delicious. I used White vinegar and some garlic salt to replace the Italian dressing. Amazing!
Wendy says
Can I use chicken thighs instead of the breasts? Thank you.
Elaine says
Is the Italian dressing a seasoning mix that comes in a package?
Corey says
Yes, It’s a salad dressing (liquid)
Geri says
I want to make this for supper tonight but do not have the Zesty Italian dressing on hand. Is there something you recommend that I can replace this with?
Geri says
I did find an envelope of seasoning that is just Italian Seasoning Salad Dressing. Could I use this as a substitute?
Corey says
Geri, I would make the dressing as directed on the envelope and then use that as the substitute 🙂
Jessica says
I’m glad I found this recipe on Pinterest. I just finished shredding this up & am waiting for my rice to finish so I can enjoy this for dinner & lunch thru the week. I would have never thought to try BBQ sauce with Italian dressing. It’s quite good. The only issue it that it has been driving my beloved basset hound crazy with the yummy smell. 🙂
Corey says
Hahaha! Yes, the smell is torture! SO happy you loved it!
Toni says
I used frozen chicken breast and left it on low all day while at works (plus drive time) so about 10 hrs and it turned out great!! Defiantly a keeper!! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Corey says
Awesome! This is great to know for those people who need longer cooking times! Thank you so much for sharing Tori 🙂
Ella Imison says
This is the easiest crockpot chicken I found.
Thank you!
KK says
Saw this recipe via a blog I follow – TheThreadAffect. Unfortunately I don’t have a slow cooker. 🙁 Do you know a way to duplicate this without one? (I checked the comments, but everyone seems to have one.) I am not opposed to a long cooking time. I was thinking it may require boiling the chicken for over an hour (as I’ve made a chicken that gets “stringy” (in a good) way and that took about an hour – and then perhaps simmering it in the sauce?
Would love to know your thoughts.
Thanks,
KK
Moose's Momma says
This was soooo yummy! I used Sweet Baby Rays “Sweet & Spicy” BBQ sauce and I didn’t have any Italian dressing like I thought so I substituted with Catalina dressing. YUM YUM YUM. This has been put on the repeat menu!
Noelle says
Just made this…AMAZINGGGGGG. I’m a college student, so simple and delicious recipes are exactly what I need, and this was perfect. thanks for sharing 🙂
KD says
Very easy and very tasty! I used chipotle bbq sauce from fresh and easy and it made a great combo! I might use just a tad less sauce only because I don’t like my sandwiches too saucy. I’m definitely going to keep this recipe 🙂
Dawn says
I made this amazing BBQ chicken tonight! I used KC Masterpiece from Costco! My family LOVED IT!
Thank you
My 5th star won’t light up but I give it a big 5
Alice says
I made this recipe last night, exactly as given. We had it on buns and I thought it was good, but not the delicious I was hoping for. However, as I started heating it up tonight to serve over rice, it had done its “thing” overnight, and I cannot stop “tasting” it. It is absolutely delicious. The recipe says cook 3-4 hrs, and I went with 3 as I got a late start. Next time I will go the full 4. This chicken is amazing. And so easy. Thank you!!!
Bill Eastman says
Corey,
Sams Club has boneless skinless chicken breast in 6 pound package for $1.88 per pound so was wondering if doing tripple the recipe would work? I have a 6 quart crockpot. I love it and plan on freezing it to bring to work for lunch.
Brittany says
Hello Corey mine doesn’t come out as juicy as yours. Is the chicken supposed to be thawed or frozen? I absolutely love this just wish it had more sauce thank you for sharing!
Corey says
I usually use thawed chicken breast… but have done it with frozen too. They both turn out about the same for me. Hmmmmm.
Marilyn says
Corey,
This dish is a SCORE! I just finishing tasting the end result and what a winner it is. I’m not a big chicken fan but my bf is, he is going to Love Love Love this. Even not being a chicken fan, I loved it. I know what I’ll be taking to the next potluck at work.
Thanks so much for sharing with us.
M
Karen Theis says
This is an AWESOME recipe! I am not a big fan of chicken breast but I really liked the breast in this. I am going to use boneless thighs next time and I suspect it will be even better!
Carr says
This was delicious. Very easy too!
Kerri S says
Have this in crock pot for a potluck tonight. Put the chicken breasts in frozen and cooking on low this morning. Smells wonderful.
Lori Hudson says
Approximately how many people does this standard recipe serve? I am having my husband’s 50th birthday party this weekend and want to do a pulled bbq chicken in addition to a big thing of chili.
Thanks!
Corey says
This makes about 4-6 servings. Have a fun party!!!
Char says
This chicken is REALLY great! It reheats well, and adding ranch dressing to plain slaw with the chicken on a potato bread bun is AMAZING! Thanks so much for sharing.
Corey says
I am so happy you loved it Char 🙂
Melissa says
Made this for Dinner tonight and it was Delish!!
John says
I am going to try and make this for pool night. This will be about 20 people, I think will make the sauce in batches so I don’t mess it up. I also boil it for a while so it all gets done. Will this work??
Thank You
Corey says
I’ve never made it that way John, so I can’t say for sure. Will the chicken be cooking in the sauce at all?
Ashley says
MMMHHHMMMM… Used Bullseye Sweet and sticky sauce… and HOLY COW! Yummie… This is by far the best thing that has come out of the crockpot to date!!! SOOO making this again!