The best picnic food is easy to eat, and our shredded BBQ chicken sliders fit the bill perfectly! We’ve designed this chicken sliders recipe to be quick and easy, featuring juicy rotisserie chicken that falls off the bone.
The end result is an abundance of saucy, moist meat that’s so good, you could eat it on its own. (If you’d rather go that route, take a look at our roasted chicken tenderloins recipe!
Top your mini sandwiches off with a simple, sweet, and smoky homemade BBQ sauce, and you’ve got a winning meal for summer picnics and potlucks or a crave-worthy party food super bowl.
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Why We Love Shredded BBQ Chicken Sliders!
- Versatile recipe.
We’ll show you how to shred rotisserie chicken in a snap. This allows you to use the meat in various recipes, from sandwiches and chicken street taco recipe to soups and chicken stuffed crescent rolls. - Easy 30-minute meal.
Using prepared and ready-to-shred protein is much quicker, and definitely easier, than slow-cooking or smoking the meat. There’s a time and place for those labor-of-love pulled pork sliders recipe, but this meal is all about speed and convenience. - BBQ chicken makes great leftovers!
Shredded meat reheats very easily, and it sometimes tastes even better the next day after sleeping in the barbecue sauce.
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Rotisserie Chicken – Remove the skin and bones as you prepare the meat. Learn how to shred rotisserie chicken painlessly in the section below!
- Chicken Seasoning – Create your own by mixing salt, pepper, paprika, garlic and onion powder, and some dried rosemary and thyme.
- BBQ Sauce – Make it yourself with our easy 3-ingredient BBQ sauce recipe, or use your favorite brand.
- Slider Buns – Sourdough hamburger bun or easy burger bun recipe are good substitutes for making full-size sandwiches. If you can’t find slider buns, you can use Parker house rolls or soft sourdough rolls instead.
How to Shred Rotisserie Chicken
Rotisserie chickens are such a great way to save time and energy preparing breakfast, lunch, or dinner! The meat is always easy to shred and can be quickly seasoned to suit any recipe.
When deciding how to shred rotisserie chicken, there are two methods. Some people like to use two large forks, but an even quicker method is with a stand mixer. For either method, you’ll first have to remove the skin from the bird.
The fork method can be used while the meat is still on the bone, which can save you a bit of time and stress. Simply dig two forks into the meat while pulling in opposite directions to shred and pull the meat off the bone.
To use the stand mixer, you’ll need to get the meat off the bones in large chunks and transfer to your mixing bowl. Use the paddle attachment on low speed for a minute or so — it does the rest of the work for you!
Chicken Sliders Recipe Tips
- Use pull-apart rolls to build all of the sandwiches at one time.
Make these into pull-apart sliders for a fun game-day dish! You’ll see the gooey cheese spread and sauce drip as everyone grabs their bite — talk about appetizing!
Purchase a pack of rolls that are still connected at the edges, not cut all the way through. Remove the top buns while maintaining that connection to the bottoms.
Lay that entire layer of still-connected bottom buns into the dish, and make sure the top buns are still connected when you place them back on top.
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- Don’t use all of the sauce right away.
As you assemble the BBQ chicken sliders, keep in mind that some of the sauce goes into the meat. The rest goes on top of the meat and cheese before you bake the sandwiches.
So, if the meat looks a little dry when you first add the sauce and seasoning, it’s perfectly okay. The cheese adds a little layer of protection to keep the sliders solid.
Avoid mixing too much of the BBQ sauce with the meat itself. Otherwise, the excess can make the bottoms of the buns very soggy.
- Brush the tops with melted butter for better color and flavor.
It isn’t the end of the world if you forget, but just a little bit of melted butter adds a whole lot of flavor to the shredded chicken sliders!
Serving Suggestions
For the perfect meal to complement this recipe, consider serving a tangy coleslaw. We always recommend serving a cabbage cucumber slaw either on the side or right on top of this rotisserie chicken sliders recipe. It adds a nice change in texture! A creamy pasta salad garnished with fresh parsley is also a good option.
To elevate the sliders, top them with pepper jack cheese or cheddar cheese for that irresistible melty cheese goodness, then bake them in a baking dish until golden brown. Pair these with garlic butter rolls or roasted veggies to add depth to the meal.
Sliders are fabulous game-day food. So, you could serve them with chips or fries for a lighter meal. We like to make them to serve with other game day foods, like the best fried chicken wings recipe!
Then there’s the chunky, crispy Tex Mex corn and black bean salad — an avocado, tomatoes, peppers, and onions are a nice break from the tangy BBQ sauce.
A side of slow cooker baked beans with caramelized red onion makes for a hearty finish, perfect alongside an ice-cold drink! We also recommend our post on how to make pinto beans in crock pot! These can simmer in your crockpot to build those bold, savory flavors that seal the deal in any barbecue spread.
Recipe FAQs
Our first recommendation for this chicken slider recipe is provolone cheese. It melts perfectly and has a creamy texture that’s much better than mozzarella.
Monterey Jack is also good, though it doesn’t melt quite as well, and Pepper Jack is both creamy and spicy if you want to kick up the heat an extra notch.
Plan on making enough for 2 to 3 chicken sliders per adult. For kids younger than 10, one mini sandwich should be plenty.
The chicken in this recipe is wonderfully moist with the right amount of barbecue sauce.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container and placed in a refrigerator for up to 3 days. Store any unused meat separately from the rolls to keep the bread from getting soggy in the fridge.
Reheat already-assembled BBQ chicken sliders on a sheet pan at 350°F. oven. 15 to 20 minutes should be plenty to warm them through, while also toasting the buns.
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Shredded BBQ Chicken Sliders
Ingredients
- 1 rotisserie chicken (about 3-4 pounds) or 2 1/2 pounds cooked boneless skinless chicken
- 1-2 teaspoons all purpose seasoning or our chicken seasoning recipe
- ½ cup BBQ sauce divided
- 8 slices provolone cheese
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
For Serving
- 12 slider buns Parker house dinner rolls, or divide the dough in our fast and easy hamburger buns by 12.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Remove and discard skin and bones from the rotisserie chicken. Add meat to a large bowl.
- Use two forks to shred the meat, or use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Run the mixer on low speed.
- Add seasoning and stir well to combine. Then stir in 1/3 cup of barbecue sauce.
- Spray your casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray.
- To assemble chicken sliders: Place bottom half of rolls or buns in the casserole dish. Add 1/3 cup of meat to each slider bun (2/3 cup for hamburger buns). Lay cheese slices over the shredded meat. Drizzle remaining BBQ sauce over each, then add tops of rolls/buns. Brush tops with melted butter.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, until sliders are golden on top.
- Separate slider buns and serve.
Anne says
What a great tip to put the chicken in the blender! I used Costco already cut up rotisserie chicken but it was in big chunks so that tip was great! I didn’t use the seasoning as my chicken was already seasoned and salty. I used pepperjack cheese instead. Other than that, I followed your recipe. Everyone loved it. Thanks for posting this! (PS we served these with tater tots and a coleslaw mix that came with honey mustard onion dressing…..SO good!)
K. McLeod says
Great and easy to make famiky loved them , anytime i offer to make sliders they always want theses bbq chicken ones they dont want to try anything new .