An Easy Shredded Chicken recipe that makes juicy, flavorful and tender chicken every time. Use it in omelets, salads, tacos, nachos, soups, rice bowls, burritos, enchiladas and more!
Have you ever looked at a recipe that called for shredded chicken as an ingredient but it didn’t actually tell you how to make it in the instructions?
Back when I first started learning how to cook, I needed instructions for everything. It didn’t matter how simple and easy it was (hard boiled eggs, white rice, steamed veggies), I needed step-by-step instructions on how to make it. And shredded chicken was one of those things. I was a total newbie and needed all the help I could get!
So today I’m taking it back to Cooking 101 and showing you how to make one of the most versatile foods that you can have in your fridge. Let’s do it!
How to make shredded chicken
- First, place your chicken in a large dutch oven or pot and season it generously with coarse kosher salt and pepper. Don’t be afraid of the salt!
- Next, add in 1/4 of a large onion, 2 bay leaves and 2 cloves of garlic.
- Cover all the ingredients in the pot completely with water. You want the water to be about 1 inch above all the ingredients. Bring everything to boil over high heat.
- Once boiling, reduce the heat to simmer and cook for the chicken for about 20 minutes depending on the thickness of the breasts. You could also use chicken thighs if you prefer. Since thighs are usually smaller and thinner, I would the cooking time to about 15 minutes.
- Last but not least, remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and transfer it to a plate for shredding.
Super easy, right?! To make sure your shredded chicken is flavorful, tender and juicy, here are few tips.
Tips for making shredded chicken
Shredding chicken is easier while it’s still warm, so don’t wait too long before shredding it! I like letting it cool for about 5 minutes on a plate and then shredding it with two forks.
Once you shred the chicken, I like tossing it with 1 cup of the cooking liquid. This helps it stay moist when you store it in the fridge and keeps it from drying out when you reheat it.
I highly recommend getting an in-oven thermometer like this one. {affiliate link} It’s so helpful to know exactly when the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°F, which keeps you from accidentally overcooking it and drying it out. Nobody likes dry chicken.
Don’t throw away the cooking liquid! Thanks to the onion, garlic and bay leaves, the broth is infused with lots of flavor so I recommend storing it in some glass mason jars and using it in recipes that call for broth.
Making a big batch of shredded chicken can be such a time saver and is seriously life changing. You can use it in omelets, salads, tacos, nachos, soups, rice bowls, burritos, enchiladas, you name it! If you’re looking for a little Mexican recipe inspiration, here are a few of my favorites that use shredded chicken as an ingredient.
Recipes to make with shredded chicken
- Cream Cheese Chicken Taquitos
- White Bean Chicken Chili Verde Soup
- Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Chicken Enchilada Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
- Roasted Poblano Chicken Burritos
Ingredients
- 3 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- coarse kosher salt
- coarse black pepper
- 1/4 large onion
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cloves garlic
- water
Instructions
- Place chicken in large dutch oven or pot and season generously with salt and pepper.
- Add onion, bay leaves and garlic.
- Cover the chicken and other ingredients completely with water (about 1 inch above the ingredients) and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Reduce heat to simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, depending on the thickness of the chicken, until it is fully cooked through and a meat thermometer reads 165°F.
- Remove chicken using a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate. Let cool for 5 minutes and shred with a fork.
Isabel’s Tips:
Nutrition Information
Making your delicious shredded chicken for Enchiladas tonight. Very tasty!! Super excited about this meal! I kept the broth and stored for future use. Our family uses chicken broth in a lot of our dishes. So good!! And we are pairing it with your Avacado Salad. My wife is making refried beans to go along with it as well. Thanks for sharing your recipes.
This is a great go-to recipe when you need to boil chicken. And it doesn’t have that boiled chicken taste. I will always use this when needing to boil chicken. Thanks!
Thank you! Boiled chicken many times for different reasons but never added the specific ingredients. I am making your enchiladas tomorrow (Easy Version). Can’t wait! And serving with the Avocado Salad!
That sounds great! Thanks Parrish!
Made this recipe with chicken thighs. Not only was the chicken cooked perfectly, but it made the most delicious chicken broth!
Turned out moist and delicious. Thanks so much for sharing oh and the aroma in the kitchen was amazing
Great recipe, since I was using it for enchiladas, added a little enchilada sauce!!
Can anyone suggest how many quarts a large dutch oven is? I never used one before so I have no idea on what size to buy. I rated the recipe five stars simply because of everybody’s high approval rate so I expect it will taste good outside figure out what size dutch oven I’m going to buy. Thanks!
I use a 5 1/2 qt Dutch oven. Good size for most recipes that use a Dutch oven, IMO.
i just thought i’d mention that you don’t need a dutch oven to boil or simmer chicken. any old pot will do the job.It also depends how many people you cook for and how often. Regarding the dutch oven, most folks probably don’t use one very often unless they are cowboys cooking out on the range over an open fire. Good for making biscuits. The lid should have a lip on it to keep the hot coals from rolling off the top when you use it as an oven.They are heavy and can be a pain to clean at times. This is assuming you get the real cast iron type and not some “hey look at my beautiful martha stewart dutch oven” kind of thing. I have three different sizes of which the big one won’t quite fit in my oven. Medium size seems the most likely to be used. I use that one when i am making Mole Nero. They are great if you plan on having it on the fire fro 8 to 16 hours. Make sure to cure (season) the cast iron pot before using it. I hope you are using gas or fire and not electric. Aloha
This chicken is amazing! I made it to put in my chicken noodle soup. So juicy and the aroma while cooking the chicken is wonderful!
Use this all the time now! My whole family loves it…by itself or in any dishes. I use it a lot in Italian and Mexican dishes. Thanks so much for the great (and easy) recipe!!
I used your shredded chicken recipe and it turned out perfectly! I then proceeded to make your chicken enchilada recipe and my boyfriend said he had never had better chicken enchiladas 😍🍲🍴🍛 Thanks so much and I’ll be sure to try more of your great recipes
I’m confused…I haven’t tried the recipe yet but when I was reading the comments and questions, 2 people asked if you cook the chicken covered. The first one you said uncovered, the 2nd time you said covered…so which is it? I can’t wait to try this recipe and Want to get it right!
Hi! Sorry about the confusion. The pot should be covered when cooking. Hope you enjoy!
Hi I was making the easy chicken enchilada recipe and saw that you had a recipe for the shredded chicken. I did that recipe but only made about 2 pounds of chicken breasts. These were thin sliced so it didn’t take much time at all to reach over 165 degrees. It worked out great and I was moving on to make the enchiladas!
Worked out well following her recipe, easy shred, will store per her directions too with 1 cup of left over chicken stock.