Crock Pot Rootbeer BBQ Pulled Chicken; Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Nut Free Recipe

As usual I’m playing catch up and I’m still trying to finish up all of the posts surrounding my son’s second birthday party.  I cooked everything from scratch (with help from my mom and step mom) and happily, everyone complimented me on both the party itself and all of the food (which was really awesome because although I planned the meal, I was winging the recipes – some I had made before but didn’t write down, like this one, and some I completely made up)! We eat gluten free, dairy free, soy free, and nut free all the time but most of our guests have no allergies or intolerances (at least that they know of) so I wanted to come up with a menu that is naturally gluten free, dairy free, soy free, and nut free.  What did I decide on? Crock Pot Root Beer BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches! Yum right!?

I came up with this recipe last Super Bowl Sunday. I wanted something that I could cook in the crock pot so I didn’t have to dirty a ton of dishes. Same idea for the birthday party. His party was from 3pm-6pm so I could pop them in first thing in the morning (about 8am) and they would be done when it was time for dinner. Don’t forget that there’s a step that you need to do about a half hour before everyone eats. I had to scramble in and leave my cutie bouncing in the bounce house with some 6 year olds. He had the biggest grin on his face, laying upside down in the middle of the bounce house while the big kids bounced around him. Oh, I wish I had gotten a video! Instead I thought, oh no, the chicken! And ran inside to finish it.

Rootbeer BBQ Pulled Chicken (for Sandwiches)

**I made 2 batches of this to feed about 25 people and it was GONE – maybe I should have made more?**

5 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs

1 can Root Beer (we use Everyday 365 from Whole Foods because we don’t like corn syrup!)

Seasoned salt

1 cup Heinz Organic Tomato Ketchup

3 tbsp Organic Dark Brown Sugar (In a pinch light brown sugar or even white sugar would work too)

2 tbsp Worchestershire Sauce (we use Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce because it’s gluten free)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

Place your chicken thighs into the crock pot and sprinkle liberally with seasoned salt. Pour over half a can of root beer. Cover and cook on high for about 6 hours.

In a bowl mix ketchup, sugar, worchestershire sauce, garlic salt and the last half of the rootbeer. Shred the chicken in the crock pot using two forks. Mix in the sauce. Cover and let cook for another half hour to hour.

Enjoy over gf buns (or without like I do most of the time). It is absolutely delicious topped with my homemade corn relish (which I made for the party too, I just made it to keep in the fridge, not can)!

All of my recipes are gluten free, soy free, dairy free, and nut free, meaning that they are peanut free, cashew free, tree nut free, walnut free, pecan free, and almond free.  They are also free of a lot of other grains and legumes because I’m intolerant to them, along with gluten.  My recipes are amaranth free, barley free, chick pea free, buckwheat free, fava bean free, flax free, garbanzo free, oat free, rye free, sorghum free, spelt free, and teff free.  If there are easy substitutions to make the recipe egg free I try to include them. My recipes are dairy free – I personally am intolerant to whey and therefore can eat butter. Most recipes can be made completely dairy free with a butter substitute. Feel free to leave any changes you’ve made in the comments for others to see!