The only theme for the potluck seemed to be "clean out your kitchen," so I did just that. I had half a bottle of barbecue sauce and two pounds of frozen chicken thighs, so my mind naturally turned to thoughts of pulled chicken. It seemed that every recipe I looked up required chicken that was not currently frozen. Also, many of them required a grill or the oven, both of which I did not want to bring into play. I had about an hour to get the chicken together, so ran the package of frozen chicken under some hot water, until I could pry the chicken thighs (all still frozen together in one giant piece) from the package. I dumped this giant piece of chicken to a pot to which I'd boiled about a quart and a half of water with a roughly diced onion and seven or eight cloves of peeled garlic that I'd smashed once with my knife. I let the chicken boil for about thirty or forty minutes, until it was cooked through and the water had cooked down. (I'd used that half hour to do a little kitchen cleaning and wash the dishes I'd dirtied from making potato salad).
I shredded the chicken using my fork and set the chicken aside. Then, I heated up a pan on the stove, fishing out four or five of the garlic cloves and some of the onion bits, all of which were really soft and could be mashed in the pan. I added paprika, chili powder, black pepper, orange marmalade, and barbecue sauce to the pan, letting this cook for a couple of minutes over medium high heat. I dumped the chicken into the sauce and mixed it around, adding some of the parsley I had leftover from the potato salad.
This made for a really excellent sandwich, heaped onto a nice, soft hamburger bun. Next time you have some frozen chicken and a deadline, I recommend it!
Procrastinator's bbq chicken
(serves 4-5 people)
Ingredients
2 pounds of frozen chicken (I used thighs, but breasts probably work too)
1 small onion, quartered
7-8 cloves garlic, peeled and bashed once with the flat side of the knife)
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp orange marmalade (apricot or even cherry might work)
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp paprika
1 tbsp chili powder
8 oz barbecue sauce
In a large pot, add one and a half quarts of water, salt, onion, and garlic cloves. Bring to a boil and add frozen chicken. If the water does not cover the chicken, add just enough until it does. Boil for about 30-40 minutes, until chicken is cooked all the way through and water has cooked down. Turn off the heat and let it cool only until you can handle the chicken without burning yourself.
Take chicken out of the pot, shredding it with a fork. Heat a large pan over medium-high heat. To the pan, add some of the boiled onion and garlic (I ended up with about half the onion and 4 or 5 garlic cloves). Smash them into mush and add spices and marmalade. Cook for a couple minutes, stirring constantly, then add in the barbecue sauce. Cook the sauce for a couple more minutes, until warmed through, stirring so the sauce doesn't burn. Turn the heat to low and stir in the chicken. Add the parsley too, if you're using it.
Serve warm or at room temperature on bread. A slice of provolone and/or a dill pickle slice might be good piled on top.
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