How to Make Easy Yummy Crockpot Chicken

Freezer to crockpot meals make cooking supper for the family so fast and simple. They are a boon for a work at home mom like me, but for a family that spends a lot of time outside the house a crockpot recipe can make the difference between eating a home-cooked meal, and grabbing fast food on the go.

Probably the simplest recipe in my freezer to crockpot is one known as “Cranberry Barbecue Chicken.” I’ve seen the recipe on numerous web sites, often without any credit to an earlier source. So I really don’t know who originally came up with this idea. But it’s such a good one!

The really cool thing is that you only need three ingredients to make it!

Cranberry Barbecue Chicken Recipe

The recipe is so simple I’ve never really bothered to write it out anywhere. But since @grecy095 was asking about this dish, I’ll post it here for her and anyone else who wants to try it.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 to 2 lbs chicken

1 can cranberry sauce or jellied cranberries

1 cup barbecue sauce

You can use any kind of chicken for this recipe. I think on the site where I first saw it, they were recommending chicken drumsticks or thighs with the bones and skin still intact. But I like to just use boneless, skinless chicken breast. I find that it cooks up better in the slow cooker, and even if I end up leaving the crockpot cooking longer than expected, if the meat falls apart there won’t be any worries about serving people bits of bone or skin.

Adjust the weight of the chicken according to whether it’s boneless or not. You’ll also want to take into consideration how many people you are feeding, and how large a meat portion your family is used to eating. My family is large, so we usually use the full two pounds of boneless chicken breast.

Use whatever barbecue sauce you normally buy. I’ve tried a number of different sauces, from a No Name chicken and rib sauce, to Sweet Baby Ray’s. You can also use a homemade barbecue sauce if you like. Don’t have a barbecue sauce recipe? Check out this one from writer Tracey Jade Boyer!

Method:

This recipe is so easy! Just mix the cranberry sauce and barbecue sauce together in the bottom of the crockpot, and then toss the chicken in. Make sure the sauce is well distributed, and turn your crockpot on. Cook for 3-4 hours on high, or 5-7 hours on low.

The sauce will thicken and get stickier as it cooks. The first time you prepare this dish you may need to check it a few times during cooking, as every crockpot is different and some cook at a higher temperature than others. If you find the sauce is getting too thick too soon, just stir in a little bit of water or some broth or fruit juice. This will allow the chicken more time to cook.

In general, though, don’t take the lid off your crockpot while it’s cooking. A slow cooker is meant to be a closed system. If you take the lid off frequently during cooking, you’ll ruin your food. So resist the temptation! Only lift the lid as absolutely necessary.

When the chicken is cooked it will be tender, and it will be easy to pull it apart by the help of a fork. Most crockpot chicken recipes cook the chicken until it’s more than adequately done, but if you’re concerned you can check with a meat thermometer. The safe internal temperature for chicken is 165°F (74°C) when measured through the thickest part of the meat.

Make-Ahead Tip

While this recipe is very simple and quick to throw together, it’s even simpler if you make up a few batches ahead of time. Assemble enough ingredients to make two, three, or four meals. Get out enough freezer bags or rigid storage containers for all the meals, and be sure to label them with the date, the name of the recipe, and cooking instructions.

I like to do this on a day when I know this is what I want to eat for supper. I gather up everything I need, start one batch in my crockpot, and package the rest of the food up in zippered freezer bags. These meals will keep for months in the deep freeze, but we usually manage to eat them up well before they would expire!

To make storage easier I generally lay my freezer bags out as flat as possible. I can then stack the meals on my freezer shelves. Other people prefer to stand the bags upright so when the food freezes, it is in a shape that will fit right into their crockpot without having to be thawed. If that works for you, by all means go for it!

You can cook most freezer meals straight from the frozen state, though this will change your cooking duration. So again, check the meal as needed and use a meat thermometer to be sure it’s safely cooked all the way through before serving. The easiest way to ensure your freezer meal cooks according to the recipe is to take the package out of the freezer a day ahead. Place the bag in an open storage container, or put it on the lowest shelf with some absorbent towelling underneath it. Let it thaw overnight in the fridge.