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Mexican Pulled Chicken is easy to make, super flavorful and the basis for so many delicious meals!
Jack recently prepared a wonderful Mexican-themed dinner for us, and this Mexican Pulled Chicken recipe played a starring role in several of the dishes he made. This chicken is perfectly flavored with a spicy blend of tomatoes and peppers as well as other seasonings. It’s cooked in the oven until fork-tender, then shredded. Scroll down to the recipe card below to watch a video to see how it’s made.
A good Mexican pulled chicken is a great recipe to have in your go-to recipe collection! It can be eaten as-is or as part of a sandwich, or it can be used in many other recipes! In fact, several of our other very popular recipes here on A Family Feast use this recipe including our enchiladas, Mexican lasagna, and our chicken chimichangas!
The key is to use a mix of white and dark meat in this recipe (we used a combination of boneless chicken thighs and breasts) – because the thigh meat lends so much more flavor and juiciness to the finished dish than using the breast meat alone.
Since originally posting this recipe back in February 2013, this Mexican Pulled Chicken has become one of our most popular recipes of all time. We’ve updated the photos and created a video (scroll down below to watch it) since our original post.
Can I make Mexican Pulled Chicken in the slow cooker?
Over the years, we’ve been asked if this Mexican Pulled Chicken recipe can be made in the slow cooker. The answer is YES!
While we haven’t cooked it in the slow cooker ourselves, several of our readers have posted in the comment section below that they saw great results making this recipe in their crock pot. Enjoy!
Interested in more chicken recipes?
Click here for our 100+ Best Chicken Recipes.
You may also like these other recipes made with this Mexican Pulled Chicken:
- Chicken Enchiladas with White Sauce
- Chicken Chimichangas
- Pulled Chicken Chilaquiles
- Pulled Chicken Tacos
We love seeing what you made! Tag us on Instagram at @afamilyfeast or hashtag #afamilyfeast so we can see your creations!
Mexican Pulled Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 sweet red pepper, stemmed and seeded and cut into large rings
- 1 large onion, trimmed and cut into large rings
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast halves, trimmed
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, trimmed
- 4 tablespoons cider vinegar
- 2 14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes
- 4 tablespoons tomato paste
- 4 tablespoons Agave Nectar
- 2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano (leaves)
- 1 tablespoon coriander
- 2 tablespoons Rocket Fuel (or your favorite hot sauce)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.
- Spray a pan or glass baking dish with non-stick cooking spray and lay pepper and onion rings on the bottom.
- Lay chicken over onions and peppers.
- In a medium sauce pan, place all other ingredients and heat to a boil. Stir to combine ingredients and remove from heat.
- Pour the tomato mixture over the chicken. Cover with parchment paper then foil. (The parchment paper will prevent the tomato acids from reacting with the foil.)
- Place in oven for three hours.
- Remove the pan from oven and peel off parchment paper and foil.
- Place chicken on a cutting board and shred with two forks.
- Pour remaining mixture from baking dish into a strainer and strain out most of the liquid then place back into baking dish
- Place pulled chicken meat back in with tomato mixture in baking dish and mix to combine.
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I was just wondering if this recipe is just as good done ahead of time and reheated or made in the slow cooker?
Just made this last night in the crockpot and it turned out amazing! There was a lot more liquid that I had to drain off than I thought there would be but after I shredded the chicken I put it back on and let it simmer in the sauce for and other 30 min. Definitely crock pot friendly.
Thanks for letting us know that it works in the crockpot too Kari! We’re glad you enjoyed the recipe!
How long would you cook this in a crockpot?
Hi Tara – We’ve only made it as written, but I just browsed through some of the earlier comments and it looks like someone made this in the slow cooker and for her, it took 3/5 hours. Hope that helps!
Awesome! I just threw everything in my crockpot and have high hopes!
I’ve just cooked it and it is absolutely delicious! Thanks from the Czech Republic 🙂
Thank you Michaela!
Love your recipes and can’t tell you how much our family loves anything Mexican.
Thank you so much Barb!! Happy New Year!
Just a question on this, does the whole grain mustard refer to whole mustard seeds? Sounds silly, but I just want to clarify it so I’m not putting the wrong thing in!
Hi Mattie – Not silly at all! 🙂 Yes – look for the mustard that has the whole mustard seeds in it for this recipe! Hope you enjoy the dish!
Martha, thank you so much for taking the time to share this wonderful recipe. I made the mexican chicken yesterday and it was amazing. I made chimichangas and the chicken with a little pepperjack cheese was all that was needed to make them an instant hit with my husband. This recipe will definitely become a regular in our home. Thank you again!
Thank you so much for writing to us Penny! We’re so glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks for visiting our site too- Martha
I tried this recipe for the enchiladas recipe on your site and it was awesome, actually i’m about to make it again. Hopefully I can stop “tasting” the chicken before I stuff it in the enchiladas this time, lol, it is soooo good.
Thanks Jennifer – so glad you enjoyed the recipe!
This is in the oven right now, house smells wonderful…. I am preparing to make a loaded baked potato an Mexican Pulled Chicken casserole.
Hope you enjoy the recipe Mark! Thanks for visiting our site!
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I love Mexican food and love trying new recipes. This will be added to my list of ones to try.
You sold me at “Mexican”! Mexican’s a huge winner in my house (in fact, we had carnitas tacos tonight!) and we’re always looking for fun recipes. This one’s a keeper!
Thanks for stopping by Julia! Hope you enjoy the recipe!