Get the flavor of a summertime barbecue from your slow cooker with this easy Slow Cooker Peach BBQ Chicken
Tastes like summer
Tastes like chicken, too. I’ve always wanted to find a way to sneak that last line – “Tastes like chicken” – into a blog post and now I have. Thanks for indulging me there.
In all seriousness though, now you can put your slow cooker to work and make some pretty mean Whole30-friendly barbecue that your entire family will love – even if it is the middle of the winter.
Time to get sauced
The sauce for this Slow Cooker Peach BBQ Chicken is simple to make and makes about 3 cups of sauce so you have plenty for the recipe and anything else you might want to slather with smoky-sweet goodness. If you don’t plan to use all of the sauce within a week or two just portion out the leftovers into small glass jars and freeze for another day.
Hold the buns, please
Confession: I’m not a fan of buns. I just think they’re so unnecessary. I mean, I love the look of buns and the utility of buns (holding things together) but I always find them to be so bread-y. And I feel overly full when I eat things that involves buns. Can anyone else relate? Surely I’m not the only bun hater here.
So instead of buns I opt to wrap mounds of Slow Cooker Peach BBQ Chicken in tender butter lettuce leaves – or leaf lettuce, or romaine in a pinch. This keeps the focus on the filling, allows me to save my carbs for something else (I’m looking at you, garlic-roasted root vegetable fries!) plus it keeps the whole works Whole30-friendly.
Make it ‘Memphis Style’
It’s totally optional, but highly recommended to top your barbecue with a fork-full of creamy coleslaw to make it ‘Memphis-style’. That juxtaposition between smoky-sweet sauce and cool, crunchy cabbage is the cherry on the barbecue sundae here. So good.
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Slow Cooker Peach BBQ Chicken
The Peach BBQ Sauce recipe makes about 3 cups of sauce so you’ll have plenty left over for another recipe. The sauce takes just 15 minutes to prepare and once it’s made, you just have to toss it in the slow cooker with a few chicken breasts and you’re just 6 easy hours from a satisfying, family-friendly meal.
Ingredients
Peach BBQ Sauce
- 4 dates, pitted
- ½ cup boiling water
- 2 Tbsp. ghee (we recommend Pure Indian Foods ghee)
- ½ cup minced onion
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 6-ounce can tomato paste
- 1 12-ounce can tomato sauce
- 2 medium peaches, peeled and roughly chopped (may substitute 2 cups frozen peach slices, thawed, when fresh peaches are out of season)
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup Whole30-compliant dijon mustard (such as Annie’s or 365 Everyday brand)
- 1 tsp. smoked paprika
- 1 Tbsp. chili powder
- ¼ tsp. ground cumin
- 1 pinch ground cloves
- ½ tsp natural liquid smoke
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
Chicken:
- 2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 1 cup Peach BBQ Sauce
Slaw
- 2 cups shredded cabbage or broccoli slaw
- 2 Tbsp. avocado oil mayonnaise (such as Primal Kitchen Mayo)
- 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
- Pinch of sea salt, black pepper and celery seed
Instructions
- Place pitted dates in a blender or food processor. Cover with boiling water and set aside for 5 minutes to allow dates to soften.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt ghee and saute onions 7-8 minutes or until translucent and soft. Add garlic and cook an additional 30 seconds until fragrant.
- Transfer onion and garlic mixture to blender with the dates.
- Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired.
- Place chicken in the bottom of the slow cooker.
- Pour 1 cup BBQ sauce over chicken. Stir to coat chicken then cover with lid and cook on LOW heat for 5-6 hours or until cooked through.
- Allow chicken to cool slightly before shredding with 2 forks right in the slow cooker. Toss to combine and transfer to serving dish.
- Combine all slaw ingredients in a medium bowl and toss well to coat. Serve with shredded chicken.
- Store leftover sauce in a glass jar with lid in the fridge for up to 2 weeks (or freeze for longer storage).
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Notes
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Nutrition Information
- Serving Size: 1/8 recipe
- Calories: 225
- Fat: 15g
- Sodium: 389mg
- Carbohydrate: 10g
- (Fiber: 2g
- Sugar: 3g)
- Protein: 30g
Dietary
What’s your favorite way to prepare chicken in the slow cooker? Share in the comments below!
This recipe originally appeared on PaleoHacks.com
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Hi
I love the idea of this recipe! We’ve made it a few times now… the problem is the flavor of the peach isn’t coming through. I’ve tried marinating the chicken over night in the sauce and still no luck. Do you have any suggestions on how to get more of the peach flavor in the sauce?
Hi Alisha,
Because peaches have such a delicate flavor you really won’t get the flavor to come through. They’re there more to provide sweetness than an overt peach flavor but I suppose you could double the amount of peaches while leaving the other ingredient amounts the same (with the exception of possibly needing add some water or broth to get the desired consistency) to see if you get more of a peach flavor.