BBQ Slow Cooked Pulled Chicken (Part I)

This is a two part post describing the process of making BBQ slow cooked pulled chicken. In this post I will describe how to make the chicken. In tomorrow's post, I will write about making the BBQ sauce and a couple of different recipes in which you can use it.

Purchase a whole chicken (it should cost around $10-$12). If you have a slow cooker, then use it. If you do not, you can also use a dutch oven as a slow cooker (which is what I did).

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Begin by adding 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of the dutch oven on your stove top. Brown each side of the bird on the surface for 5-7 minutes (I browned this bird for 5, but in hindsight, probably would have left it on the heat for another minute or two).

Because I plan on using this chicken with BBQ sauce, I only seasoned it with salt and pepper. Cook the chicken in the oven for about 1-2 hours (depending on the size of the chicken). After 70 minutes or so, stick a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the breast. If it is 160 degrees, the chicken is cooked. If not, leave it in longer.

Let the chicken rest for 5-10 minutes and then carve the meat and place it in a mixing bowl or platter. Then pull the meat apart with two forks (I found that using your hands works the best, but it is more labor intensive and some people probably feel uncomfortable doing this).

That's it! Pretty simple, but very good. If you wanted to serve the chicken as a main dish, you could cook it with vegetables, rosemary, lemon juice, celery, onion, and any other ingredients you like.

Enjoy and come back tomorrow for the second part of this post.