CROCKPOT BARBECUE CHICKEN

Three words: Sweet.  Baby.  Ray's.  It all began when I saw it mentioned in a video on YouTube that my friend Chris shared with me (viewer discretion advised) and I bought it just for kicks and kind of as a joke.  But when I tried it...aw, yeaaah.  Before, I had thought all barbecue sauce tasted the same.  Post-Ray's, I know better.

Now I'm sad to say that the BBQ recipe I used it in originally went MIA and I had to make due with another I found.  Also, the chicken I used was frozen --for awhile--which is probably why it turned out a little dry and why I went for take two, which was boooomb.  So, below, I give you two incarnations of the same recipe for whatever form of chickie you'd like to use.

INGREDIENTS:
40 oz. frozen boneless skinless chicken breast tenders (or 4-6 fresh boneless, skinless chicken breasts)
1 bottle Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce
1/4 c. vinegar
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

DIRECTIONS:
1. Mix together all ingredients except chicken.

2. Pour sauce mix over chicken and toss to coat (if using frozen chicken, no need to defrost it; just pop it in there.)

3. Empty chicken and sauce into crockpot and cook on low for 4-6 hours.

Sadly, my chicken ended up really dry and all I could think was "What a waste of great sauce!"  because it didn't really stick to the chicken.  My solution (which, by the way, worked like a dream):
4. Use two forks to shred the chicken and allow it to sit in the sauce for 10 minutes.

Crisis averted.  I was so sad things didn't work out on the first try but was happy as a pig in a poke when I found out that not only had I fixed my flub, but had made it A-worthy.  For those of you who thought you would never use math or science past the 12th grade, here's the skinny: shredding equals more surface area which equals more area for the chickee-doos to soak up all the goodness.

And since I needed something to go with it (shredded chicken looks so sad all alone), I conjured up some side dishes, which you'll see soon.  Done and done.

Official Grade Before Shredding: B-
Official Grade After Shredding: A