Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Pulled Chicken

Most everyone has heard of pulled pork, but did ya know you could pull chicken too?

I'm helping a friend cook for a BBQ fund raiser and in trying to minimize costs, I suggested serving pulled chicken for one of the meats instead of the usual quarter chicken you get on a bbq plate. That way instead of only getting 4 servings per whole smoked chicken, you are getting 6 or more 4 ounce portions.

But Zydeco Paws had an even better suggestion. Before I divulge his idea, check out his blog. It's kind of like NaBloPoMo, where bloggers try to post every day for a month. But his No Excuses BBQ blog is documenting his attempt to BBQ at least once a week for the entire 2009 calendar year.

He recommended using boneless thighs instead of whole birds to minimize picking around bones. Here's his post on it.

It worked great, IMHO. I followed his technique, but used a different rub.

165f....must me time to take them off right?Nope, these are thighs, we let this test batch go to 175 to 180.After they were done, we pulled them using a pair of forks, tossed them with just a hint of BBQ sauce and they were delicious on plain hamburger buns!This was a definite success and we'll be making it again. So if you want to STRETCH your chicken budget wise, trying PULLING it!

Thanks, ZP!


  1. I make pulled chicken sandwhiches all the time. I have never used boneless thighs though. I have never even seen them in the stores in my rinky dink town.

  2. I haven't tried this before but you definitely have me thinking. Using boneless thighs is genius. This is perfect for 4th of July fare.

  3. This is on my "must try" list!! YUMMY!

  4. I get the "I've heard of chokin' the chicken" comment out of the way first.. I've done what you describe, but never thought to use the term "pulled"...I thought it more like shredding!

  5. I make shredded chicken for Mexican food but have never thought to make pulled chicken for sandwiches. Great recipe.

  6. Nice job Chris, and thanks for the plug! Glad to see that this worked out for you.

  7. How was boneless chicken thighs more economical than boston butt? Here in the big city, boneless thighs are like 3X the price of pork.

  8. WTB: Not more economical than butt. Pork butt is our other meat. I was just saying that pulled chicken is more economical than serving quarter chickens to each person:)


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