Spare Spoons Kitchen
Instant Pot Shredded Chicken
One hands-off Instant Pot batch of impossibly juicy shredded thighs — then take it any direction: tacos, bowls, BBQ sliders, buffalo wraps, or straight into soup. Make it on a good day and eat off it all week.
Ingredients
Method
Cook's notes
No Instant Pot? Simmer the thighs in a covered pot with the broth plus another half cup of water over low heat until they shred easily, about 30–35 minutes — or slow-cook on Low for 3–4 hours. Then shred as in step 3.
The hand-mixer trick: put the warm thighs in a bowl and run a hand mixer on low for 10–15 seconds. Perfectly shredded, no forks, no burnt fingertips.
Taco or burrito bowl (the go-to): toss the warm chicken with 2–3 tbsp taco seasoning and a splash of the cooking liquid — or just stir in a few spoonfuls of your favorite salsa. Pile into tortillas, spoon over rice, layer on nachos, or fold into quesadillas.
BBQ pulled chicken: toss with about three-quarters cup barbecue sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's) and warm through — onto buns, or over cornbread.
Buffalo chicken: toss with a third cup of Frank's RedHot and 2 tbsp melted butter — for sandwiches, wraps, or piled on a salad.
Or keep it plain for grain bowls, tortilla or noodle soup, sandwiches, wraps, and salads — or stir a handful into mug mac & cheese.
This is future-you insurance. Make the full batch on a good day; it keeps about 4 days in the fridge and freezes for months (freeze it flat in a bag with a little of the cooking liquid). On a low-spoons night, dinner is already done.
Easier, if you like
- Rotisserie chicken skips the cooking entirely — pull the meat off a store bird and jump straight to flavoring it. You lose the big make-ahead batch, but on a hard day it lands in the same place.
Diet notes
Gluten-free & dairy-free: the plain shredded chicken is both. For the flavor variations, glance at your sauce labels (most BBQ and hot sauces are gluten-free), and use a dairy-free butter for the buffalo version.