Easily Meal Prep with Instant Pot Shredded Chicken

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Have you ever found yourself heading to cook dinner, only to realize your recipe calls for shredded chicken, which you have yet to prepare? It’s even worse when said chicken is in the freezer and has yet to be thawed. This adds a few more steps and time to your dinner making, therefore increasing the hassle and the likelihood of ordering out.

But what if there was an easier way? Good news- there is! I began to bulk prep large amounts of shredded chicken for the week, and it has been an absolute game changer for me in the kitchen.

 

Let me show you how!

 

Why Bulk Shredded Chicken?

Shredded chicken, in my humble opinion, is one of the most versatile ingredients you can have in your kitchen. It is an absolute must have for quickly adding to soups, chilis, casseroles, tacos, enchiladas… the list goes on. It can even be used in lunch recipes for a quick wrap or tossed onto a salad. The options are endless! It serves me so well to have it already prepared, saving time in the kitchen and allowing me to cook more homemade meals for my family.

Buying meat in bulk is also usually much easier on your wallet. And you can take advantage of any grocery store sales you may come by!

Tools You’ll Need for Bulk Shredded Chicken

It is my preference to prepare this chicken in the crockpot. You can absolutely choose to prepare it in a pot on the stove or even in your Instapot. I have done both and they work well. For me, my crockpot is much larger than my Instapot, and I can fit way more chicken inside. It is also a very hands off way to cook chicken, and comes out with perfectly cooked chicken every time. You can find the crockpot I use here. I’ve had it for close to 10 years and its never let me down!

How To Prepare Chicken

For this recipe, all you will need is chicken breasts, seasonings of your choice, and some water or chicken stock. Add your chicken breasts to your crockpot, and season generously. I usually grab my “Kick it Up Chicken Rub” from Thrive Market. In the past, I’ve used a combination of salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. I like to keep my seasonings fairly neutral when preparing chicken in bulk, that way it keeps it very versatile to use in basically any dish I want.

 

I begin preparing my chicken by laying it out on a cutting board and trimming off any excess fat. Once trimmed, you are ready to sprinkle on your seasonings and then place in your crockpot.

Once you have added your chicken to the crockpot, I like to add in 1-2 cups of water or chicken stock (you could also use vegetable or beef stock- whatever you have on hand!) This helps keep the chicken moist and from burning/sticking to the bottom of your crockpot. Turn your crockpot setting to HIGH for 4 hours. Once cooked, use two forks to shred it up and boom! Done.

Storing Chicken

Cooked chicken can be kept in a sealed container in the fridge and stored for use in recipes for up to 3-4 days. Sometimes, if I feel like we aren’t going to use up all of the cooked chicken I have stored, I will pull it out and add to freezer bags to use at a later time.

How to Freeze

If you are preparing this chicken to store in the freezer, you will go through basically the exact same process. Just instead of adding it to a container to store in the fridge, you will add it to gallon size freezer bags. Make sure to label each bag well, writing the contents and date. I make sure to not overfill my bags so they will lay fairly flat in the freezer. Storing bags flat cuts down on your meat thawing time significantly.

I hope this recipe serves you and your family well. Like I said, it has been SO helpful for me! Let me know your favorite recipes you like to use shredded chicken in. I’d love to know!

Best,

Rachael

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