1-Step One: Prepare Your Slow Cooker Start by grabbing your crock pot and getting your workstation ready. A 4-6 quart slow cooker works perfectly for this recipe. There’s no need to spray or grease the pot since the sauce keeps everything from sticking. Having everything measured out and ready to go makes the process even smoother.

2-Step Two: Mix the Flavorful Sauce Base In your crock pot, combine the BBQ sauce, water, Dijon mustard, chopped jalapeno, minced garlic, smoked paprika, ground cumin, chili powder, salt, and black pepper. Stir everything together until well combined. This creates a rich, flavorful foundation that will infuse the chicken with incredible taste as it cooks. The sauce should have a nice consistency not too thick and not too thin.

3-Step Three: Add and Coat the Chicken Place the chicken breasts directly into the sauce mixture. Use tongs or a spoon to flip them over a few times, making sure each piece gets completely coated in that beautiful BBQ mixture. The sauce should cover most of the chicken if it doesn’t, add a splash more water. The chicken will release some juices during cooking, so don’t worry if the sauce seems a bit thick at this stage.

4-Step Four: Slow Cook to Perfection Now comes the best part letting your slow cooker do all the work! Cover the pot with its lid and set it to cook. For Low Setting: Cook for 6-7 hours. This longer, slower method produces incredibly tender chicken that practically melts apart. For High Setting: Cook for 3-4 hours if you’re short on time. The chicken will still be tender and delicious. Either way, you’ll know the chicken is done when it shreds easily with two forks and reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. The long cooking time allows all those wonderful spices to penetrate deep into the meat, creating pulled chicken sandwiches with flavor in every bite.

5-Step Five: Shred and Sauce the Chicken Once the chicken is fully cooked, remove it from the slow cooker and place it on a cutting board or in a large bowl. Use two forks to shred the meat simply pull the forks in opposite directions, and the chicken will separate into tender strands. This should take almost no effort if the chicken is properly cooked. Return all that shredded chicken back to the crock pot and stir it into the sauce. The shredded meat will soak up all that flavorful liquid, making every bite incredibly moist and tasty. Let it sit in the warm sauce for about 5-10 minutes to absorb maximum flavor.

6-Step Six: Serve Your Pulled Chicken Sandwiches Time to build your perfect sandwich! Toast your favorite burger buns lightly this prevents sogginess and adds a nice crunch. Pile on a generous portion of that BBQ chicken, and get creative with toppings. As mentioned in our tips, a layer of creamy coleslaw followed by pickled beets or pickled onions adds wonderful flavor and color contrast.