MetaChat - Please help me make my chicken shreddy

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

15 August 2010

Please help me make my chicken shreddy So...I rubbed spices like cumin on my chicken thighs and marinated overnight, as per usual. My standard recipe is to bake the pieces of chicken. But for some reason, I would like to find out how to cook them so that they will get all SHREDDY and I can pack the chicken shreds into e.g. a tortilla to get me some burrittoey goodness!→[More:]

Do you know how I can do this? what comes to mind is to make it more like "potted" chicken, adding something that will make it cook in a sauce?

Any suggestions welcome to help me achieve that groovy Mexicanish shreddy goodness.

post by: DMelanogaster at: 16:56 | 25 comments

When I want shredded chicken, I cook it in the crock pot.

posted by youngergirl44 15 August | 16:58

shreddy..burrittoey...Mexicanish

Stop adding 'y' and 'ish' to every word and learn how to write.

posted by jonmc 15 August | 17:03

ouch-ish.

Crock-pot, or one of those big iron post on the stove, slow cook, that's how you get shredded chicken meat.

posted by dabitch 15 August | 17:13

Yup, long slow cooking is what you need. Easiest way I accomplish the goal you are mentioning is to put a little bit of hot salsa on the bottom of my slow-cooker, then put chicken in...and almost cover with more salsa. Set it on low and leave the house for 8-9 hours. Tada! Easy.

posted by richat 15 August | 17:40

Poach, stew, or cook in the crockpot.

Rotisserie chicken shreds easily. Sometimes when I'm in a hurry I will shred a store-bought rotisserie chicken and add taco seasoning packet, salsa, and a bit of water and warm in the pan. It works well.

posted by LoriFLA 15 August | 17:46

Boil it. Sometimes in the crockpot, sometimes on the stove. Long, slow boiling. Then save the stock & shred your chicken as you will.

posted by mygothlaundry 15 August | 18:55

Huh. I just always used a couple of forks. But yeah, the longer it stews or steams, the better.

posted by lysdexic 15 August | 18:56

I used the crockpot. It's just what I wanted. Thank you everyone except you VILE jonmc.

posted by DMelanogaster 15 August | 19:07

Yeah, slow cooking is ideal, but I make tostadas frequently as a last-minute supper, and I usually just poach the breast and then shred with forks.

posted by Miko 15 August | 19:23

Yeah, but Miko, you are some kind of SUPER poacher. I remember you explaining your method, and it terrifying me. I might be easily terrified though.

posted by richat 15 August | 19:33

I want to hear about this terrifying super poaching method!

posted by unsurprising 15 August | 21:16

I fear I've made it sound more terrifying than it might be!

posted by richat 15 August | 21:22

I did a quick search for "poach" and came up with this comment from Miko (though I don't know if it's the one richat was thinking of):

Usually I just start with one half a split chicken breast, with bones (to me, the bones are an essential component of the soup's palliative powers). I poach the breast in clear water until it's cooked through - then I run cold water over the breast, and set the cooking water (now brothlike)aside to cool. Once the breast is cool enough I pull off all the good bits of meat, dicing any big parts up and shredding the rest, and set that aside for the soup. When the fat collects at the top of the water/broth, I skim the fat off and save the rest of the broth for the soup. That is key because there is a lot of rich marrowlike goodness in that broth.

There's a lot of detail there, which is helpful for a first-timer, but it's really simple to do and the results are great.

One of my vintage cookbooks designed for reluctant cooks suggests it as a simple short-cut so there's always cooked chicken around the house: come home from the grocery, put a pot of water on the stove, and instead of putting the chicken in the fridge, plunk it straight into the pot and set a timer. Then you're always ready to make chicken salad or casserole or whatever, and you get a nice little dividend of stock to boot!

posted by Elsa 15 August | 21:33

How funny! Ack! No, it's not hard at ALL. When I wrote that post I was talking about step 1 to making curried chicken soup - for this, you can totally ignore everything about the bones and the water. You are just trying to create cooked chicken meat. I'll simplify:

1. Fill a pot with water
2. Plop chicken breast in water.
3. Turn on the burner under the pot.
4. Hang around.
5. After a while (15 minutes?) turn off the heat.
6. Hang around some more.
7. Grab the pot and pour out water and chicken into a colander. Run cold water over it.
8. Pull the meat apart so you can see if anything inside still looks pink*. If any pink, return to step 1 for a few more minutes. If not, you're good, start shredding.

* meaning the flesh shouldn't look pink. There always seem to be dark red/pink bloody spots near the bone - that stuff you can ignore - you just want to make sure all the shreddable muscle part is whitish and done cooking.

posted by Miko 15 August | 22:40

Ok, so that sounds LESS scary than I recalled. Sorry for the hysterics.

posted by richat 15 August | 23:31

We are not afraid of food.

posted by dabitch 16 August | 02:54

So wait... no salt?

posted by AcornCup 16 August | 07:37

Mmmmmm, I want to do this now.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 16 August | 10:07

I can do step #4 right now, if anybody else wants to jump in and grab a section..

posted by toastedbeagle 16 August | 12:56

oooh, I'm all upsetty.

posted by jonmc 16 August | 18:12

And I'm all yummy in my tummy! Inspired by this thread, I got a big pack of chicken breasts at the grocery store today and put them in the slow cooker with some salsa, cumin, chicken broth, chopped red and green bell peppers and sliced onion. I sauteed some mushrooms and served it all like fajitas. Thank you for a tasty dinner. :)

posted by lriG.rorriM 16 August | 19:00

I just want to say that, though this conversation quickly turned to breasts, my original post mentioned thighs, and, though the fat content of dark meat is of course higher than that of white meat (and some people prefer white meat to dark), I find that a lot of dishes taste better using thighs(and since that observation, I've discovered that a number of my favorite dishes (such as chicken korma) call for thighs (at least in some iterations)).

I have to do a little more work to find boneless thighs, though. Trader Joe's has bags of frozen ones.

posted by DMelanogaster 16 August | 19:36

I just want to say that, though this conversation quickly turned to breasts, my original post mentioned thighs

What the HELL goes ON in these threads that I somehow skip? I mean, wow.

posted by BoringPostcards 16 August | 20:29

Water in pot.
Chicken in water.
Turn on stove.
Bring to a full boil.
Turn down the heat, let it cook for maybe 10-15 minutes more.
Dump water.
Put ice in pot, top off with water.

Do whatever else you need to prepare what you're cooking. (For instance, while it's in the ice I'll do everything else I need to do for chicken enchiladas.) When that's all done, the chicken is cool enough to easily shred with a fork.

posted by Doohickie 16 August | 21:17

What the HELL goes ON in these threads that I somehow skip? I mean, wow.
Yeah, I must have missed something there, too. For the record, I'm more a breast than a thigh man.

posted by dg 16 August | 22:30

← Listening to MetaFilter's Own filthy light thief's Sunday Morning techno radio show || Okay, strange now: →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN