11 Crockpot Shredded Chicken Dinners for the Week

These crockpot shredded chicken dinners are how I cook once on Sunday and coast until Friday.

From a plain batch of seasoned chicken to Greek bowls, chicken and biscuits, and buffalo chicken sandwiches, everything here starts with the same three pounds of chicken.

Here’s how I stretch it!

Some of these are real slow cooker recipes with their own sauce, and some are just what I do with the plain shredded chicken already sitting in the fridge.

I’ve said which is which, because the second kind is the one that actually gets a weeknight dinner on the table.

1. Basic Shredded Chicken for Meal Prep

This is the Sunday batch, and everything else in this post leans on it.

Three pounds of chicken breasts go in with a cup of broth, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder, and cook on low for five to six hours.

Shred it with two forks, let it sit in the liquid while you find the containers, then divide it up.

It’s good for four days in the fridge, and I freeze half of every batch in two-cup portions.

2. Three-Flavor Shredded Chicken

The smarter version of the batch above, if you have a bigger crock or two of them!

The chicken gets split three ways before it cooks, one part with taco seasoning, one with Italian herbs, and one with BBQ sauce, and each portion cooks in its own foil packet or in a divided crock.

You end up with three different dinners’ worth of chicken from one afternoon.

I do taco, Italian, and plain, because plain turns into more things than BBQ does.

3. Chicken Tacos

Monday night, and nobody has to think.

The taco-seasoned chicken gets reheated in a skillet with a splash of salsa until it’s hot and a little crisp at the edges, which takes about five minutes.

Warm tortillas, cheese, lettuce, and whatever’s in the crisper.

If you didn’t season a batch for tacos on Sunday, plain chicken plus a spoonful of taco seasoning and salsa in the pan gets you the same place.

4. Chicken and Biscuits

A true slow cooker recipe, and the most comforting thing on this list.

Shredded chicken goes in with cream of chicken soup, broth, frozen mixed vegetables, and thyme, and it simmers into a thick, creamy filling.

Refrigerated biscuits get laid on top for the last hour with the lid on, and they steam through soft on the bottom and golden on top.

It’s chicken pot pie without a crust to roll, and my kids like it more than the real thing.

5. BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

The dinner I make when I’ve run out of ideas and nobody minds.

Shredded chicken gets warmed through with a cup of BBQ sauce and a splash of broth, either in the crock on high for an hour or in a pot on the stove in ten minutes.

Pile it on toasted buns with coleslaw and pickles.

The coleslaw isn’t optional in my house, and it’s the bagged kind with a spoonful of mayo and vinegar stirred through.

6. Buffalo Chicken

Shredded chicken tossed with buffalo sauce and a little melted butter, and it goes wherever you want it to.

Sandwiches with blue cheese, wraps with lettuce and ranch, over a baked potato, or on a salad when I’m trying.

Warm it gently so the sauce doesn’t separate, and go lighter on the sauce than you think, because you can always add more at the table.

7. Crack Chicken Sandwiches

Cream cheese, ranch seasoning, bacon, and cheddar, all melted into shredded chicken, and yes, that’s the whole recipe!

It cooks as a slow cooker recipe from raw chicken, or it comes together in twenty minutes on the stove from the Sunday batch.

Toasted buns, or lettuce cups if you’re being sensible.

It’s rich enough that a small scoop goes a long way, and the leftovers reheat well for lunch.

8. Greek Chicken Bowls

Lemon, garlic, oregano, and a good pour of olive oil, cooked into the chicken from the start or tossed with the plain batch and warmed through.

The bowls are rice or orzo, cucumber, tomato, red onion, olives, feta, and a big spoon of tzatziki.

I buy the tzatziki, and I’ve stopped apologizing for it.

These are the lunch I actually look forward to, and they hold up in the fridge for three days with the tzatziki kept separate.

9. White Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Green enchilada sauce, sour cream, and green chiles layered with tortillas, cheese, and shredded chicken.

It cooks in the slow cooker in about three hours on low, and the top gets bubbly while the layers underneath go soft and creamy.

Use a slow cooker liner for this one, because the cheese welds itself to the crock otherwise.

Cilantro and a little hot sauce on top, and rice on the side if it’s a big crowd.

10. Chicken Noodle Soup

For when someone’s sniffly, and for when nobody is.

Carrots, celery, onion, and shredded chicken cook in broth with thyme and a bay leaf, and the egg noodles get added near the end so they don’t swell up and drink all the broth.

From the Sunday batch it’s a thirty-minute stovetop soup, and from raw chicken it’s a six-hour slow cooker one.

Either way, the leftover chicken juices from the crock make a better broth than anything in a carton.

11. Chicken Fajitas

Friday, and the last of the chicken goes into a skillet with sliced peppers, onions, and fajita seasoning.

Cook the peppers and onions hard first so they get some color, then add the chicken and a squeeze of lime just to warm it through.

Flour tortillas, sour cream, and the week is done.

Notes on Shredded Chicken for the Week

Breasts shred cleaner and thighs taste better, so I do a mix when I can, and the batch cooks the same either way.

The chicken is done when it shreds with no resistance, which is five to six hours on low for breasts, and it gets tough past seven, so a slow cooker that switches to warm on its own is worth having.

Store it in its own juices, not drained, in glass containers, and it stays moist for four days.

Reheat it in a skillet with a splash of broth or sauce, not the microwave, and it tastes like it was made that day.

A hand mixer shreds three pounds of hot chicken in under a minute, right in the crock, and it’s the only trick in this post I’d call essential.

Label the freezer portions with the date and the seasoning, because taco chicken and Italian chicken look identical frozen.

More Crockpot Chicken on the Site

The crockpot meals with chicken breast that don’t dry out post is where I worked out the timing above.

My crockpot chicken alfredo pasta is what the Italian-seasoned batch turns into on Wednesday.

And the slow cooker chicken and dumplings is the cousin of the chicken and biscuits above, for when you want dumplings instead.