Crockpot Mexican Shredded Chicken

The Crockpot is a meal preppers best friend, and this shredded Mexican chicken is one of my favorite ways to slow cook chicken. My recipe combines boneless chicken thighs or chicken breast with spices and herbs, fresh orange juice, and onion to create a shredded chicken that’s far from your average Mexican or Tex-Mex chicken.

It’s perfect for making burrito bowls, tacos and tostadas, quesadillas, salads, nachos, and all kinds of stuff. I’ll walk you through some of my favorite ways to use this slow cooker chicken in the post below. But first, let’s take a look at the ingredients and talk about substitutions and customizations.

Ingredients and Substitutions

You only need four components to make this recipe—the chicken, a couple of onions, an orange, and a handful of spices and herbs.

Seasoning Blend

The salt, chili powder, Mexican oregano, and granulated garlic are pretty standard fare for a Mexican chicken recipe. Where my recipe swerves a bit from your typical chili and cumin heavy chicken is with the inclusion of ground coriander and cinnamon. I think these work wonders, especially with the orange juice. If you have some ground cloves, add a dash of that, too.

If it sounds strange adding that much cinnamon, you’ll just have to trust me (or the 250+ reviews of my pressure cooker chicken that uses a similar seasoning blend). Either that, or you can swap it for ground cumin and a more standard flavor profile.

I’ll also add that this spice blend is definitely on the mild side. If you want to increase the heat, you can add more chili powder, chili flakes, or some crushed chipotle peppers in adobo. Just tread carefully with the latter, as chipotle can be quite overpowering.

Chicken

If I’m making shredded chicken, you can always bet on the recipe calling for chicken thighs. The small amount of extra fat adds SO much flavor and makes cooking SO much easier. It’s nearly impossible to mess up chicken thighs in a Crockpot or slow cooker.

Chicken breast, on the other hand, tends to be dry and unforgiving. Once it’s overcooked, good luck bringing it back.

That said, you’re welcome to swap chicken thighs for chicken breast. Just be sure to keep a closer eye on the chicken and shred the cooked chicken before it goes too far.

Onion and Orange

This duo provides all the cooking liquid you need while simultaneously packing tons of flavor into your shredded chicken. Like I mentioned in my chicken tacos recipe, I love using onion as a base for slow cooked proteins instead of extra water or broth. It provides plenty of liquid for the chicken to cook in without creating a soupy finished product.

You want just enough juices for the shredded chicken to soak up and nothing more.

Don’t worry about the orange juice adding too much liquid. One orange is just the right amount when combined with three pounds of chicken and two smaller onions.

Oh, and if you have a picky eater in the house, I recommend finely dicing the onions. They’ll cook down so much nobody will ever know they’re there. And if everyone in your house likes onions, thinly slice them so they maintain a bit of integrity and add some textural contrast to the chicken.

Alternative Ways to Make Shredded Chicken

If you’re in a hurry or don’t have a Crockpot, you can make this chicken several other ways.

Stovetop

You have two options for making shredded chicken on the stovetop. First, season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper before browning one side in a hot skillet in olive oil. You’ll need to do this in batches for three pounds of chicken.

Once all the chicken is browned, set it aside and add the onion to the remaining oil and rendered chicken fat. Cook for about five minutes until the onions soften before adding the chicken back to the pan along with the orange juice, seasoning blend, and small amount of chicken broth. Turn the heat down, cover the pan, and simmer for 25-35 minutes until the chicken shreds easily.

Option #2 is to add everything to a Dutch oven just like you would a slow cooker, cover, and bake in a 350ºF for about an hour or until the chicken is ready to shred. You may want to add a small amount of cooking liquid using this method as well.

Sources: Skillet Chicken Carnitas and Dutch Oven Chicken

Pressure Cooker

If you have an Instant Pot or pressure cooker, you can use the sauté function just like the skillet method above and pressure cook with high pressure for five minutes with quick release.

Don’t want to sear the chicken before pressure cooking? No problem. Just toss everything together, seal, and pressure cook for ten minutes with quick release like my chili coconut chicken.

Ways to Serve Mexican Shredded Chicken

Apologies for the detour! Let’s get back to this recipe and talk about how to put your Mexican pulled chicken to good use.

• Tostadas (pictured above) – Top some baked tostadas with shredded cheese and black beans before popping in the oven for 5-10 minutes before adding shredded chicken, Mexican crema or Greek yogurt, pickled onions, cilantro, and salsa macha or hot sauce.
• Tacos or Taquitos – I like to heat tortillas directly over a burner using tongs then fill with chicken and garnishes. For a great way to repurpose leftovers, you can use this chicken to make crispy baked tacos or air fried taquitos.
• Nachos – Use baked tortilla chips or chicharrones to make more macro friendly nachos with your Mexican chicken.
• Quesadillas and Quesatacos – This chicken is perfect for making quesatacos by dipping tortillas in the juices and grilling. Check out my chicken birria to see an example.
• Burritos and Burrito Bowls – I’ve included instructions on making the bowls you see pictured here in the recipe card’s notes section. You could also take all the same components and roll in burrito size tortillas. Or if you’re looking for a breakfast option, this chicken would work perfectly in my chicken breakfast burritos.
• Enchilada Casserole – Toss the shredded chicken with corn tortilla strips and shredded colby jack cheese, top with another handful of shredded cheese, and cover for 15-20 minutes to melt the top layer. I have a full recipe if you need more details.

Get creative and have fun! I hope you enjoy this recipe for Crockpot shredded chicken. If you do, I’d appreciate it if you hopped back over to leave a recipe review. And let me know in the comments below if you have a question about the recipe or anything else.