Going through a season of unemployment has its perks, believe it or not. For one, Travis and I get to spend more time together. Another plus side is he now splits homeschooling duties with me. It has been a joy to watch him work with the kids and teach them their lessons. He’s even discovered a few topics he wants to teach them.
Cooking food is also another perk of unemployment. What do I mean by that? Well, when you are on a very tight budget, you can’t afford to go over your grocery budget or eat out. We’ve been creating new recipes and learning to be more mindful of using the food and ingredients we have in our kitchen. That way we don’t overspend on groceries.
One recipe we created on the whim is loaded sweet potatoes with shredded barbecue chicken. We had originally planned to make barbecue chicken in the slow cooker. I realized we also had a few sweet potatoes leftover and I didn’t want them to go to waste. I decided to bake the sweet potatoes and turn our barbecue chicken meal into loaded sweet potatoes with shredded barbecue chicken. The dish turned out to be a hit and we have now added it to our list of family recipes!
What You’ll Need:
at least a 5-quart slow cooker (We use a 7-quart Crock-Pot)
baking sheet
aluminum foil
Ingredients
3 chicken breasts
6 sweet potatoes
1/2 bag of shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sriracha
16-18 oz. barbecue sauce
lemon pepper
white pepper
garlic powder
1/3 cup apple juice
1/3 cup water
Cooking Directions
1. Spray your slow cooker with cooking spray.
2. Preheat oven to 350°.
3. Wrap sweet potatoes with aluminum foil and then place on baking sheet.
4. Once the oven is finished preheating, place the sweet potatoes in the oven. Cook for an hour.
5. Pour the apple juice and water into the slow cooker. I do this to keep the chicken from drying out.
6. Season the chicken breasts with lemon pepper, white pepper, and garlic powder. Then place the seasoned chicken into the slow cooker.
7. Adjust your cooking settings to what works best with your schedule. We cooked our chicken for 4 hours on high.
8. Halfway through the cooking time, use tongs to chop up the chicken. This will help it have the shredded texture you want for your chicken.
9. Pour the entire bottle of barbecue sauce into the slow cooker. Stir the mixture to blend well with the chicken.
10. Add the brown sugar and sriracha sauce to the chicken mixture and stir it all together. Cover the slow cooker once you finish.
11. When the chicken finishes cooking, check to see if you need to cut the chicken some more to shred it. You can use your tongs for this, as the chicken will be very tender and fall apart easily.
12. Take the cooked sweet potatoes and slice it open in the middle of the potato.
13. Add shredded barbecue chicken to the sweet potato. Top it with shredded cheese if you like or use any other topping of choice.
14. Serve your loaded sweet potatoes with barbecue chicken with any side item you like!
Travis was really surprised how good my quick loaded sweet potato recipe tasted. If you make this recipe, let me know how you like it. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it or if you ended up making a different version of it!
A few other recipes you may like:
I hear you about the perks of unemployment. In my experience, that’s when my food choices have improved–some of the healthiest foods are the least expensive foods, and I didn’t have the cash for creamy indulgences!
Hi, Mimi!! I agree with you about food choices changing. That is happening to us, too. We’ve been making healthier food choices and cooking meals that last longer. We’ve also been paying close attention to sales. That’s been a big help, too. Hope you are doing well! Happy Easter! xoxo