Update: Click here for a more detailed recipe of Italian Pulled Chicken and Kale SlidersI need a "Family Approved" category! This one was a crowd pleaser and I totally made it on a whim in an effort to save myself one night of cooking.
Yesterday, I made a batch of my homemade tomato sauce. I'm headed out of town and anytime I go away I leave a batch of sauce for The Husband so he can whip up a quick pasta dinner. It's better than leaving him to his own devices which would result is a constant stream of fast food and pizza for my kids. This curbs at least one delivery.
Sauce at my house is an event. Out of everything I cook it's by far The Husband's favorite. You should see his face when he notices the pot on the stove. You think he just won the lottery or something. It's hysterical.
I make a big enough batch to fit my stock pot. It cooks all day. Sometimes I'll make meatballs but lately it's been sausage that I throw in for some easy protein on the side.
Thinking about how busy the next few days were going to be I decided to also stew some chicken breast in the sauce. Since the sauce cooks for hours why not have it do double duty? I wasn't quit sure what I'd do with the chicken the next day but I knew it would be cooked and ready to go.
So I threw 2 frozen chicken breast in the sauce and let it go for a few hours.
That's when the idea hit me! Why not shred the chicken like a "pork BBQ" add in a little extra sauce and make an "Italian Pulled Chicken" Sandwich on a whole wheat bun topped with a little cheese for dinner the next day?
Genius, right?
It was AMAZING and the whole family thought so! I'm talking the WHOLE family. I even added some chopped kale into the mix. They didn't even notice!
I wish I had more pictures but we were having such a nice dinner I didn't want to jinx it. The Husband ate two, Little Guy ate one without complaint and actually said they were good --unsolicited-- and the baby ate one deconstructed, bun and all!
On the side, I made a batch Kale chips and everyone ate those too! Well, almost everyone. The baby was a little turned off by the texture but he tried!
Total dinner win, I just had to share it.
Sorry for the lack of "real" recipe but this one was made totally on the fly. I didn't measure or weigh anything. Sometime you just have to go with it because you end up with stuff like this…
..and everyone actually eats it!
Update: Click here for a more detailed recipe of Italian Pulled Chicken and Kale Sliders
Jessica
You.are.genius. I made this over the weekend and it was awesome! Instead of serving ours in a sandwich, we served it over noodles. What a great changes from regular marniara sauce! It also got TONS of compliments for the husband, 6 and 4 year old daughters, and the 16 month old gobbled it up as well. This will be a regular for us!
roni
I haven't used the crock pot but I know others who have. I removed the chicken and put it in a smaller pot. Then shredded it with 2 forks. After it was shredded I added about 2-3 ladle full of sauce. This way the sauce in the large stock was chicken less. Does that make sense?
Michele
Couple questions . . . have you ever tried the sauce in the crockpot? And did you just throw the chicken into the sauce and then remove before you shredded it up and then serve the sauce with spaghetti or did you make a separate sauce to serve with the chicken?
roni
ohh didn't think of that! I'll tell you what... I'll make it again, take more pics and get more specific with the recipe to post ingredients and such. Then it will be savable. 🙂
Ann
This is one receipe I would like to save to my receipe box and the box does not appear... very sad!
nancy
This would be a good lunch to send with the boy and NO crust.
Nina
This really looks delicious, I can already taste it and it is so much healthier than pulled pork. :)))
As I am a huge fan of spaghetti squash I highly recommend this sauce with it for a "pasta" dish without pasta, either as a baked casserole with some cheese or just plain. It was my first attempt at spaghetti squash with a sauce just like yours and some leftover mozarrella in the oven. Even my boyfriend didn't feel he was missing something.
If your guys like spaghetti squash, which I hope they do, 😉 you'll even have three dinner ideas.
Love,
Nina
Krista S.
That looks and sounds absolutely amazing! I'm totally going to try this very soon.