My protein best friend – boneless, skinless, chicken breast – is made about 5/7 nights a week for dinner. It feels like every day I pull out a skillet to cook some chicken up. Learning I can shred chicken with a hand mixer changed some things. One thing mankind can agree on is that hand-shredding meat with two forks is not that great. This lit a spark in me to find even more ways to streamline my weekly routine. Here’s what I do now: Sunday or Monday, I count up how many nights we will be having (shredded) chicken in our entree.
I throw enough chicken breasts for all those meals in the slow cooker and let it do its thing. Once fully cooked, I go wild with the hand mixer (right in the crock’s basin!). All cooked chicken shreds fast with a mixer, but crockpot-cooked chicken shreds nearly instantaneously because it is so warm, moist, and soft. I divide the chicken up in bags and then pull one out whenever needed.
It’s been so nice, and a significant time saver. I used it for this soup and it was a snap. Only having to wipe up a small cutting board used for vegetables is a breeze compared to de-sanitizing a whole counter and utensils and whatever touched by raw meat.
Slow Cooker Chicken & Wild Rice Soup
Serves 5 to 6
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup wild rice
4 carrots, chopped
1 onion, diced
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon fresh parsley or 1 teaspoon dried
6 cups vegetable broth
Place all ingredients in slow cooker.
Cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 5-6 hours.
Shred chicken with forks.
- 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 cup wild rice
- 4 carrots, chopped
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley or 1 teaspoon dried
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- Place all ingredients in slow cooker.
- Cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 5-6 hours.
- Shred chicken with forks.