I have mentioned it before, but spending a few hours on a Sunday preparing food for the week ahead really helps me stay on track. You don’t have to plan, bag and box all of your meals for the week, just little steps such as chopping fruit and vegetables and cooking up some grains and boiling eggs can ensure that you have some quick meals on hand if you don’t have time to prepare anything else. If I am short on time, really hungry and don’t have anything prepared, it is too easy to grab something unhealthy.
One thing I always try and make on a Sunday is pulled chicken in the slow cooker (you can also do it in the oven if you don’t have a slow cooker). It is so simple to just throw in and cook and then I have a big bowl of it in my fridge for the week and it is perfect on salads, sandwiches/wraps and in any Mexican dish. I will often just have some with a couple of eggs for a post workout snack too.
Ingredients:
- 4 chicken breasts
- Passata/tomato sauce
- 1 tsp chipotle
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- salt and pepper
1) Put the chicken in the slow cooker and put in enough passata/tomato sauce to cover the chicken.
2) Add spices and stir.
3) Cook on high for 4 hours and the using 2 forks, shred the chicken.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi i’ve been given a load of boneless thighs would this work with them instead of breasts? Thanks
HI there, please can you tell me what a chipotle is and where to find? Is it a spice? I live in York, UK. Many thanks and love your work!!
Do you recommend an alternative to tomato sauce? My boyfriend finds tomato sauce hard on his stomach – I think it’s the acidity. Any recommendations for something else that is healthy?
I’m not sure which country you are in, but tomato sauce is also passata (not ketchup). In the UK we call it pasatta, but I put tomato sauce for the Americans reading it, but then the Brits sometimes get confused and think I meant ketchup. Very confusing lol.
For an alternative to passata/tomato sauce in this recipe, you could use tinned tomatoes or just diced tomatoes (but you would need to add in some liquid with this).
Hope that helps and hasn’t confused you
Thanks for the quick reply. I’m actually from Canada and it’s any type of cooked that tomatoes that upset his stomach. We think from the acidity, is there anything you recommend that can add liquid and flavour without tomatoes?
A little bit of stock (veggie or chicken) should do the trick as well. I can’t imagine not being able to eat tomatoes
Thanks so much. Yeah it’s terrible because I love tomato everything!
I’d never heard of pulled chicken before. I’m not a great cook but I could SO do that, plus the passata etc would mean it isn’t dry! I don’t have a slow cooker but I could easily shove it in the oven when I’m doing other things.
Love it!
Deb
I would really recommend a slow cooker though – it is a novice cooks best friend. Just throw everything in and wait a few hours – it’s pretty hard to get wrong
I bought mine from Argos for about £20 and it hardly takes up any room, but it still big enough to cook a meal for 4 in.
I have to admit I like the idea of throwing everything in and putting it on while I’m at work during the day. I’m really slack about cooking my evening meals and rarely start preparation until 8pm or so, which means I’m eating after 9pm! (Ridiculous!!!)
I totally agree about using Sunday for food prep, it is always a great time saver! I have never made pulled chicken before, but it looks really great, I will have to try it out!
We make a lot of pulled pork for tacos usually, but I have started doing pulled chicken breast instead, as it is leaner. It really is so versatile!