The slow cooker takes the work out of making these pulled chicken tacos. The zesty shredded chicken cooked with spicy taco seasoned salsa along with the crunchy flavorful Ranch dressing mixed salad makes taco night fun and easy.
Stack those tortillas high with your favorite toppings, the sky is the limit.
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❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- quick and easy to make.
- budget friendly with only 5 main ingredients.
- you can use the filling in Mexican dishes including burritos, nachos, enchiladas and more!
- spice up the pulled chicken to your liking.
Chicken taco night is always one of our favorites. It's so easy to throw everything together in the slow cooker and let it do it's magic on the chicken breasts. We especially enjoy having the pulled chicken tacos on game day. We prepare our toppings ahead of time and then assemble our taco first chance we get.
🛒 Ingredients
Note: The full list of this slow cooker pulled chicken crockpot recipe ingredients with their amounts and options are listed in the recipe card below.
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- Chicken breasts -- we use boneless and skinless.
- Jarred Salsa -- we like it spicy, use your favorite.
- Taco Seasoning -- adds that great Tex-Mex flavor.
- Corn tortillas
- Bagged salad or cabbage mix
- Ranch dressing
- Cilantro
- Fresh lime
🗒 Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Place chicken in a slow cooker, sprinkle on the taco seasoning and top with salsa. Cook on low heat for about 4-6 hours or until the chicken pulls apart easily.
- In a medium mixing bowl combine salad mix, ranch dressing, and reserved salsa.
- Once chicken is done, shred with 2 forks and stir to combine the pulled chicken with the salsa. Over the slow cooker pot or sink, drain the chicken using a strainer or colander.
- Heat the tortillas in a small skillet until slightly browned on both sides. Add desired amount of salad mix to a tortilla and top with chicken. Garnish with a sprinkle of cilantro and a squeeze of lime or use your favorite toppings.
🔪 Equipment
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You’ll need the following items to make the Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken Taco recipe.
- Slow Cooker medium size -- this cooks the meat easily ensuring the chicken is a snap to shred.
- Mixing bowls -- for combining the salad ingredients.
- Two forks -- use for shredding the cooked chicken.
- Skillet -10 inch -- needed for heating the tortillas.
- Strainer or Colander -- use to remove the liquid from the pulled chicken.
🤔 FAQs
These are the questions we are most frequently asked about making (recipe name)
Yes. Raw chicken cooked on a low setting, will usually cook in 4-6 hours if you haven't overfilled your slow cooker with ingredients. The more sauce in the pot and the fewer pieces of chicken, the shorter that time is needed to cook.
Depending on the size and thickness of the chicken pieces, it will take 6-8 hours on low or high for 3-4 hours.
For the best results, always cook your boneless skinless chicken breasts on low. Cooking boneless chicken breast on HIGH could make them dry. I always recommend using the low setting for chicken breast.
Yes, it is possible! If the meat is cooked too long it could end up dry and not juicy and tender. It's wise to follow the recommended times in the recipe for the best results.
👩🏻🍳 Tips
- Slow cookers vary in cook time so be sure to check the chicken breast to make sure they're done. Mine was done in about 4 hours.
- For this recipe, you can use fresh or frozen boneless ,skinless chicken breasts.
- Use your favorite salad or cole slaw mix. If a salad dressing is included in the package, use it at a later date. This recipe is for the Salsa-Ranch dressing combination.
- Be sure to drain the chicken after shredding and combining with the salsa. This helps prevent the tortillas from getting soggy and ripping.
- Slightly cooking the tortillas brings out their flavor. Don't skip this step.
📚 Variations
You may use pulled pork or bbq pork in place of the shredded chicken.
Make a seafood taco with shrimp, salmon, even fresh tuna.
If you don't like corn tortillas, you may use flour tortillas instead.
Your toppings are endless: sour cream, avocados, jalapeños, guacamole, diced peppers, diced tomatoes, etc.
🥫 Storage
Store leftover shredded chicken and salad mix in the refrigerator. Reheat the meat in the slow cooker of microwave.
If you use fresh chicken, you can store it in an airtight freezer container for up to 3 months.
📗 Related Recipes
If you love Tex-Mex flavors, you'll really enjoy our Beef enchiladas with an amazing cheese sauce.
And you'll find a delicious fusion of food cultures in our Chipotle Cashew Chicken with Brown Rice.
Nutty about tacos? Then this Blackened Mahi-Mahi Tacos with Cilantro Lime Sauce will make you swoon.
Instead of using packaged seasoning, make some Homemade Taco Seasoning Mix, it's so much better.
🍽 Serve with
The shredded chicken tacos would be delicious served along with nachos and Creamy Guacamole Dip.Easy Creamy Guacamole Salsa Recipe. If you like a chunky salsa, then our Italian inspired avocado salsa is what you want.
Let family and friends make their own pulled chicken taco. Supply all the toppings you think the gang will want:
- Black beans
- Homemade Salsa
- Pico de Gallo
- Sour Cream
- Tomatillo Salsa Verde
- Mango Salsa
- Pineapple Salsa
- Guacamole
- Chipotle Sauce
- Shredded cheese
- Roasted corn
The list is endless -- Sweet, spicy, savory, whatever floats their boat.
📞 Chiacchierata (chat)
Anytime I say that we're having Mexican for dinner I get a standing ovation. Well, I may be exaggerating a bit but it is super popular. If I really want to jazz up this recipe I'll even add some taco seasoning to it before flipping on the crockpot. Taco night is easy when the chicken is already made!
What's new? Check out my All Our Way Store on Amazon. We'll be adding more items we love and use or wish we had to make cooking fun and easy.
📝 Recipe Card
What I love best about this crockpot pulled chicken recipe is that it’s just so easy to make! If you have chicken, and salsa, you can cook up the most tender and flavorful tortilla filling in no time at all. These crock pot chicken tacos are on my regular dinner menu rotation, and they’re always a hit.
If you're as crazy as we are for Mexican inspired dishes, you're going to go nuts over our White Chicken Enchiladas that's super easy to make.
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
📖 Recipe
Slow Cooker Pulled Chicken Tacos
Ingredients
- 1 pound Chicken breasts skinless, boneless
- 16 ounces Salsa remove 2 Tablespoons for salad
- 2 Tablespoons Taco Seasonings
- 8 Corn Tortillas
Salsa-Ranch Salad
- 12 ounce Salad Mix may use coleslaw mix
- 2 ounces Prepared ranch dressing
- 2 Tablespoons Salsa your favorite jarred variety
Equipment Needed
- Forks
Instructions
- Place chicken in slow cooker, sprinkle with the taco seasoning and top with 12 ounces salsa. Cook on low heat about 4-6 hours or until chicken pulls apart easily.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the Ranch dressing and the reserved salsa. In a medium size bowl mix together the salad and the salad dressing. Mix well and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Once the chicken is done, shred with 2 forks and stir to combine with the salsa.
- Heat tortillas in a small skillet until slightly browned on both sides. Over the slow cooker or sink, drain the chicken using a strainer or colander.
- To serve, add the desired amount of salad mix to each tortilla and top with the pulled chicken.
- Garnish with your favorite toppings. We like to sprinkle some fresh cilantro over the chicken and add a squeeze of lime.
Notes
- Slow cookers vary so check cook time. Mine was done in about 4 hours using frozen chicken breasts.
- You may use fresh or frozen chicken breast.
- Use your favorite salad or cabbage mix or chop your own. This recipe is for a salsa-Ranch dressing. Some bagged mixes come with dressing. This recipe does not use the dressing included in the bagged mix. You can use that dressing at a later date.
- It's important to drain the cooked chicken. This helps prevent the tortillas from ripping.
- Corn tortillas are best slightly cooked, be sure not to skip this step. You can also use flour tortillas if you wish.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator and reheat in the slow cooker or microwave.
- If you use fresh chicken for this recipe, you can freeze it for up to 3 months.
