I know a lot of you are super busy during the weekdays, so I wanted to figure out a recipe that you could cook while you’re at work. There’s nothing better than walking through your front door after a long day of work and smelling the delicious flavors that have been cooking for you all day. Nothing to worry about, dinner is finished, and you don’t have to stress yourself any more than you already are!
If you guys haven’t already got some fish sauce, go ahead and give it a try! I know, I know…it smells absolutely rancid. BUT, trust me here it will add a depth of flavor to almost every savory dish you make. I started adding it to pretty much everything I cook now – stews, grilled chicken, marinara sauce – you name it! Just hold your nose, and toss it in, you’ll believe me when you taste it.
Though, if you do get fish sauce, opt for a good brand like Red Boat Fish Sauce. This brand is a bit pricy, I know that, but you don’t use a lot of it at a time, so it will last you months. Most of the store bought fish sauces (even the ones in Asian grocery stores) will have tons of extra additives, giving either ingredients you don’t want or a carb count you don’t want.
You can without a doubt use frozen chicken thighs for this recipe, heck – that’s what I did! They end up bringing a bit more moisture to the party, so when you let the sauce reduce at the end, make sure you take the lid off of the slow cooker. Oh, and if you don’t have a slow cooker I highly suggest getting one. Letting your food cook all day while you’re at work is an awesome thing, giving you both a stress free dinner and more time on your hands.
Just remember that chicken is pretty protein heavy, and although we are using the fattier cuts plus adding butter to this, we still need a side dish to balance out the protein to the fats. Feel free to serve with a side salad of mixed greens topped with cheese, hard boiled egg, bacon, and ranch!
Yields 4 servings of Simple Keto BBQ Pulled Chicken
The Preparation
- 1/3 cup butter, salted, melted
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
- 2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
- 1 tablespoon liquid smoke
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce, or coconut aminos
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1/4 cup erythritol
- 42 ounces boneless, skinless chicken thighs
The Execution
1. Gather all ingredients. In a bowl, combine the melted butter, red wine vinegar, chicken broth, tomato paste, yellow mustard, grain mustard, liquid smoke, soy sauce, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, erythritol, and fish sauce.
2. Stir the sauce until combined. Taste the sauce, adding more vinegar for added tang and more erythritol for added sweetness as needed. Note: the flavor of the sauce will change some as it blends with the chicken juices during cooking.
3. Add the chicken thighs to a slow cooker. Turn the slow cooker on to low and measure out the butter on a plate, letting it sit to come to room temperature. After 2 hours, there should be quite a lot of juice from the chicken in the slow cooker. Submerge the chicken thighs in the juice.
4. Pour the sauce over the chicken and add the butter. Turn the slow cooker to high and let cook for an additional 3–4 hours. Alternatively, if you will be out all day, simply put the chicken, sauce, and butter in the slow cooker and cook on low for 7 hrs. Shred the chicken until no large pieces remain. Keep (or set) the slow cooker on high and remove the lid, cooking for an additional 45 minutes to reduce sauce.
5. After 45 minutes, the sauce should have reduced by about an inch. Mix the chicken into the sauce and serve.
This makes a total of 4 servings of Simple Keto BBQ Pulled Chicken. Each serving comes out to be 599 calories, 42.8g fats, 3.6g net carbs, and 52.8g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 1/3 cup butter | 537 | 60.8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.6 |
| 1/4 cup red wine vinegar | 11 | 0 | 0.2 | 0 | 0.2 | 0 |
| 1/4 cup chicken broth | 4 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0 | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| 1/4 cup tomato paste | 54 | 0.3 | 12.4 | 2.7 | 9.7 | 2.8 |
| 2 tablespoon yellow mustard | 19 | 1 | 1.8 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 1.2 |
| 2 tablespoon whole grain mustard | 19 | 1 | 1.8 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 1.2 |
| 1 tablespoon liquid smoke | 1 | 0 | 0.2 | 0 | 0.2 | 0 |
| 1 tablespoon soy sauce | 8 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 1.3 |
| 2 teaspoon chili powder | 15 | 0.8 | 2.7 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| 1 teaspoon cumin | 8 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper | 6 | 0.3 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.2 |
| 1 teaspoon fish sauce | 2 | 0 | 0.2 | 0 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| 1/4 cup erythritol | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 42 ounce boneless, skinless chicken thighs | 1703 | 106.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 201.9 |
| Totals | 2396 | 171.2 | 22.3 | 7.9 | 14.4 | 211.1 |
| Per Serving (/4) | 599 | 42.8 | 5.6 | 2 | 3.6 | 52.8 |
Simple Keto BBQ Pulled Chicken
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup butter salted, melted
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- ¼ cup chicken broth
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 2 tablespoon yellow mustard
- 2 tablespoon whole grain mustard
- 1 tablespoon liquid smoke
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce or coconut aminos
- 2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- ¼ cup erythritol
- 42 ounce boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients. In a bowl, combine the melted butter, red wine vinegar, chicken broth, tomato paste, yellow mustard, grain mustard, liquid smoke, soy sauce, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, erythritol, and fish sauce.
- Stir the sauce until combined. Taste the sauce, adding more vinegar for added tang and more erythritol for added sweetness as needed. Note: the flavor of the sauce will change some as it blends with the chicken juices during cooking.
- Add the chicken thighs to a slow cooker. Turn the slow cooker on to low and measure out the butter on a plate, letting it sit to come to room temperature. After 2 hours, there should be quite a lot of juice from the chicken in the slow cooker. Submerge the chicken thighs in the juice.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken and add the butter. Turn the slow cooker to high and let cook for an additional 3–4 hours. Alternatively, if you will be out all day, simply put the chicken, sauce, and butter in the slow cooker and cook on low for 7 hrs. Shred the chicken until no large pieces remain. Keep (or set) the slow cooker on high and remove the lid, cooking for an additional 45 minutes to reduce sauce.
- After 45 minutes, the sauce should have reduced by about an inch. Mix the chicken into the sauce and serve.
Craig,
I have to tell you how much I appreciate slow cooker recipes. First, I doubled your recipe. Big family! Second, for someone strapped on time I used 1/2tsp of xanthum gum to thicken the sauce. Thirdly, I used my kitchen aid mixer to shred the chicken. I served mine over a bed of pre mixed Romain, purple cabbage and a few shredded carrots. Very delish! I thought it tasted Better than pulled pork. And that’s saying alot!! 😉
Awesome Marsha! I told you that you’d like it 🙂
Any chance there is a good alternative for the 1/4 Cup Erythritol? I am going to try this today and don’t have time to order through the mail. Any guidance is appreciated.
You can sub in pretty much any sweetener for it. Erythritol is about 70% as sweet as sugar, so you can use conversions based on this 🙂
Thanks for the quick reply. What are your thoughts on Truvia?
Dan, that’d probably work just fine. Truvia is a mix between erythritol and stevia.
Craig,
I just finished eating this! Wow! Very good and pretty spicy too! I added some sour cream on the side to cool it down.
I used 2 tablespoons of Truvia Baking Blend in place of the Erythitrol. This really added some carbs so I will not do this again. I will order Erythitrol this week.
Also, I know you said it makes four servings, but I think I could easily eat half at one sitting.
Any chance you have a sense of how much a single portion would weigh? i know I could have weighed the whole thing but that would have required dumping it all out of the crock pot to simply weigh it.
Thanks again.
Dan
Hey Dan,
Glad to hear it turned out! The Truvia Baking Blend is actually half real sugar so you’d want to cut that out immediately if possible. I base my servings on what people would normally eat around dinner time and I myself would eat about half of this. But you have to take into account that some people intake a lot more calories or some people eat a lot more at night (like myself). There’s others that spread their meals out and need meals that aren’t too heavy on calories (the majority on keto) so I base my servings on this. As long as your macros allow for it, then it wouldn’t be a problem eating more.
As for the weight, I made this a long time ago so I didn’t weigh it. I normally get my nutrition information based off of the packaging of the product. These were pre-frozen chicken thighs I used, and am not 100% sure on the weight. If I remember, I’ll try to check next time I go to the grocery store.
Normally when I portion things out for myself, I kind of eye-ball it. Macros don’t have to be hit spot on, just remember that ratios matter. So in this you’d want to make sure you get a fair portion of the sauce (Which has butter in it) so you get your fats.
Hi Craig, I have just prepped this and used Splenda instead of erythritol and it fizzed up when I added it to the vinegar (that’s a scary thought – full of chemicals I imagine). The smell is horrid and it didn’t improve as I added the rest of the ingredients. It’s in the slow cooker now, I am hoping it tastes better than it smells especially seeing as I doubled the recipe… Have you encountered this problem before? Or has anyone else had an issue with the smell? Maybe it’s just me?
I’ve mixed Splenda and vinegar before, but never got a rancid smell from it (I mean, it’s vinegar and sweetener, it’s not going to smell fantastic). Did it turn out okay?
I just noticed, you actually use 2/3 cup of butter… 1/3 in the sauce & then another 1/3 later on. This would make a difference in your nutrition calculations….
I’m confused… so I will be home so I have the slow cooker eith frozen chicken on high for 2 hours. Do I then need to cook it an additional 3-4 hrs as stated further down in the instructions??? Or were those instructions for people cooking it 7-10 hrs on low..
O…………M…………..G…………..one of the best things on this site and SUPER simple to make. I was a little worried about using the spices instead of my trusted BBQ sauce, but wow, I’m glad I went with the recipe.
I put everything together the night before and left in the fridge, then when I left for work in the morning, I set it on low, then left. I came home to an AMAZING smell of wonderful. Deboned and shredded the chicken with my pulled pork claws, set to reduce, then left for dinner. GLORIOUS.
This is one of those dishes where you may have a friend that makes that scrunched up face “Keto diet?” that you need to feed. Give this to them and they will start the diet tomorrow. 😀
I’m so glad you liked it!
I haven’t tried a recipe here on this site that hasn’t been delicious…especially with a tweak here and there. Here I went with more heat and actually more chicken. It makes a lot of sauce and I wanted to stretch the sauce and adjust the servings/nutritional value. I used it as a dip with pork rinds, I put it on top of cauliflower, and finally I ate it straight. Definitely a repeat.
I noticed the nutritional breakdown doesn’t include the Erythritol, but when added in it bumps the number of carbs up significantly.
Erythritol isn’t processed by the human body so we tend to not count the carbs in it since they are not digested like normal carbs. You can read more about it here: https://www.ruled.me/keto-diet-plan-best-and-worst-sweeteners/
Erythritol isn’t processed by the human body so we tend to not count the carbs in it since they are not digested like normal carbs. You can read more about it here: https://www.ruled.me/keto-d…
So a little confused: if you are setting this for all day (“going out) is it all the ingredients for the sauce (butter, etc) in and then just set it for 7-10 hrs on low? The recipe makes it seem like you add 1/3 c butter to the chicken on top of the sauce that is added. Thanks!
That’s correct – you stick the butter on top and turn it on low and go out. If you are cooking it while you are home, you add the butter in after a few hours.
Is it 1/3 cup of butter or 2/3 cups very confusing
It’s 1/3. If you are going out and want to keep the slow cooker on all day, you add the butter in at the same time as the other ingredients. If you are staying home, you add the butter in a bit later, instead.
I’m still confused…At the beginning of the recipe you say to add 1/3 cup of butter to the sauce, and then later you say to add 1/3 cup of butter on top of the chicken. So it’s actually 2/3 cup of butter total for the recipe?
I apologize for the mistake – I’ve gone ahead and updated the recipe. You only need 1/3 cup in total.