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A single blender can make our cooking adventures in the kitchen a walk in the park. It has options to help us chop, process, puree, and blend food into fine and smooth pieces. The best blender food processor combinations can do most of the job because you can now process large chunks, letting you save time.
We’re going to answer a question for our food fanatics at home: can you shred chicken in a blender? Yes! You can shred chicken with high-powered blenders. Using a heavy-duty or high-quality counter blender is a faster way to shred chicken. You can cook shredded chicken recipes faster than other methods to save time!
High-quality blenders can chop thicker food like chicken! We all know the variety of recipes you can make with chicken. One way of being creative within your kitchen is by preparing shredded chicken for your meals.
Shredded chicken is a great filling and topping for meals and snacks like pasta, tacos, soups, and more! But preparing it can be a bit of a long process, especially if you’re chopping it up on a cutting board. Luckily, we now have appliances that can do most of the job for you.
Interestingly enough, chicken isn’t the only food that can be shredded in a kitchen appliance.
For this blog post, we’ll be giving you a step-by-step guide to learn how to shred chicken for an easier cooking experience.
Can you shred frozen chicken in a blender?
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Frozen chicken can be smelly and sticky to place on your blender and is often a job for food processors. To blend frozen chicken, you’ll need to cook it first at high pressure, making it slightly cooked.
You’ll still need to cook your frozen chicken to have that shredded effect otherwise, placing it directly into your blender would result in ground chicken, which is different from shredded.
How to make shredded chicken in a blender?
Shredding chicken in a blender is a piece of cake when you have a high-powered blender. Making delicious shredded chicken involves cooking, steaming it off, and finally placing it in your blender!
The best to shred is the chicken thighs and chicken breast area. These parts provide more meat. But how much chicken you’ll need depends on your chosen recipe. You can also use a whole chicken for a large batch as long as you cut it into large pieces and remove the skin and bones before shredding!
Here are the steps to follow in making quality shredded chicken by Kitchen Habit:
Step 1 – Cook your chicken
Shredding frozen chicken won’t just result in ground chicken, but can also lead to uncooked parts; this is also dangerous as you might have left bones inside the chicken.
You should always cook your chicken as the first step before making it into shredded pieces. You can either cook it in an instant pot, oven it, or boil it. Boiling, however, is the most common option, says Kitchen Habit. It makes the meat tender and moist, being easier to shred because of its softness.
- You can season your chicken breasts with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper, and even bbq sauce! It adds more flavor to the chicken, it depends especially on what recipe you’re cooking.
- Cook chicken breast or whole chicken for about 20 minutes in the instant pot.
- Ensure your chicken is cooked by doing the fork method! Cut into the larger pieces of your chicken with two forks to check if the inside part looks tender and white.
Another way to know your chicken is fully cooked is by using a meat thermometer to check the cooked chicken’s temperature. Once it hits 165 degrees Fahrenheit or 75 degrees Celcius, you can remove your chicken from the heat.
Step 2 – Cool down the cooked chicken
Let your cooked chicken rest from the heat before the next steps for shredding. Cover it using foil or plastic wrap and let it cool down to room temperature on your countertop or kitchen table.
Cooling the cooked chicken before shredding allows it to absorb the juices from heating, making it more flavorful and juicy than just shredding it right after cooking.
Step 3 – Remove the chicken bones and skin
Remove the chicken skin and place it into a separate bowl to snack on later! You won’t need chicken skin since we’re going to shred the chicken meat.
Next, carefully remove any bones in your chicken with a tweezer or kitchen pliers. You can also remove the bones before cooking if it’s easier.
Removing the bones is optional because you can blend chicken bones with a powerful blender. But larger bones can also damage your blender’s blades. Your shredded chicken meat would also have a gritty texture and may cause injuries by accidentally swallowing tiny bone shards.
For a whole chicken, cut the chicken into large pieces and remove all the skin and bones, especially the large bones.
Using a boneless chicken breast can cause less stress by not needing to remove chicken bones. But, you’ll still need to check if there are any remaining bones to ensure your final shredded meat is soft and tender.
Step 4 – Shredding your chicken in the blender
Place the chicken into your high-powered blender and press the pulse button at low speed to start shredding; you can also do this in batches, depending on how much your blender can carry. Slowly turn your blender to high speed and let your blender run until your chicken is fully shredded.
Optional: you can occasionally stop the blender and shake your blender jar to ensure all parts of your chicken are fully shredded.
Though you can shred chicken using other appliances like a stand mixer, or food processor, a powerful blender can help a slow cooker on a time crunch. It makes tender and moist shredded meat with ease.
Can you shred chicken with a hand mixer?
You can shred chicken using a hand mixer, but it may take too much time and leave your hands aching because shredding chicken requires more power and time, especially when preparing for larger batches. A countertop blender can do the work for you while you multitask on other things in the kitchen.
How to store shredded chicken?
You can also freeze your ready-made shredded chicken for later or future occasions. You can store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days, while it can also live up to 4 months when stored in a freezer.
Shredded chicken needs to be stored properly to keep its flavor and texture. The best type of plastic to use when packing shredded chicken is reusable containers with lids made of silicone or BPA-free plastic.
These plastics won’t cause freezer burn and will not affect your meat’s flavor! Another plus is that you can reuse them for other meats and packaging purposes which is sustainable and extremely practical compared to having to buy disposable bags now and then.
Labeling the packs are also important so you don’t mix up the meat later on, especially if each batch has its flavor and use.
How to Reheat shredded chicken?
Reheating shredded chicken is simple and fast. All you need is your skillet or saucepan on the stove. However, you can also use an oven or microwave.
Here are some guides for effectively reheating delicious shredded chicken:
What is the best way to reheat shredded chicken?
The fastest and simplest way of reheating your shredded chicken is with a microwave or skillet on a stove. This allows you more freedom to stir your chicken around while reheating.
Reheating in an oven is possible, but this may be dangerous because you need to stir your chicken to be evenly heated, this can risk burns from sticking your hand into the oven or removing the chicken from time to time.
Reheating on the stove
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- Add butter or oil to the skillet or saucepan, and turn the stove on to medium heat only.
- Place the frozen or defrosted shredded pieces of chicken on the heated skillet.
- Schicken chicken frequently in the pan until it has reached your desired warmth.
- Make sure your chicken is around 165 degrees after heating.
Note: You can check your chicken’s heat with a food thermometer.
Reheating in a microwave
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- Make sure your chicken is in a microwavable container.
- Cover the chicken with a damp paper towel or plastic. If you are using plastic, punch a few tiny holes for the steam flow.
- Microwave the shredded chicken for up to 5 minutes. For every minute, stir the chicken around.
- Remove the chicken from the microwave and let it cool down for a minute on the counter at room temperature.
- Remove the cover and add your chicken to your desired recipe! Reheating in an oven
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- Defrost your chicken.
- Place chicken in an oven-safe dish and cover it with aluminum foil.
- Bake your shredded chicken in the oven at 425 degrees for around 25 minutes or until the internal temperature of your chicken reaches 165 degrees. Stir the chicken periodically so it can be evenly heated.
How do you shred chicken without a mixer?
Alternatively, you could shred chicken manually. Cook the chicken on an oven-proof plate, then use 2 forks to pull it out. Once boiled the meat is soft and easy to break.
What is the easiest way to shred chicken?
How to chop chicken? Place chicken in the large mixing bowl and use a hand mixer at slow speed to chop the chicken into thin strips. This is an absolute time saver, especially in case of bigger profits.
Other questions
Aside from knowing how to shred and prepare chicken for your next tasty meal, here are some concerns that come up when making shredded chicken according to Foods Guy.
What to do if my shredded chicken has dried out?
You can bring back moisture into your chicken meat with the help of chicken broth! Add a small broth to a skillet pan and heat your broth. Then place the chicken on the heated pan and stir for around 5 minutes, don’t take too long!
How to tell if my shredded chicken is spoiled?
You can tell if you’re food is spoiled by smell and sight. Chicken is supposed to look brown or white when it’s fresh. You’ll notice it’s spoiling when it takes a more green and greyish color and has a slimy texture.
Bottomline – Can you shred chicken in a blender?
So to answer your question: can you shred chicken in a blender? You most definitely can!
A blender can help you shred chicken fast compared to other methods. It can help you make your meal prep quicker for busy days and assist you well with large batches for family occasions or get-togethers. Using shredded chicken also spices up your chicken recipes with the variety of healthy and delicious dishes you can make.
On top of that, a blender is handy for pureeing different kinds of food and serves as a great substitute for food processors so you won’t be fussing over other types of meal preparations!
References
Blendtec. “Blendtec Tip: How to Shred Chicken in Seconds.” Blendtec, Blendtec, 13 Apr. 2019, https://www.blendtec.com/blogs/news/blendtec-tip-shred-chicken-in-seconds.
“How to Reheat Shredded Chicken.” Foods Guy, 10 June 2020, https://foodsguy.com/reheat-shredded-chicken/.
House Hunk. “How to Grind Your Own Chicken at Home.” House Hunk, 11 Aug. 2022, https://househunk.com/recipes/how-to-grind-your-own-chicken-at-home/.
Jessica. “Can You Shred Chicken in a Blender: Simple 4 Step Process.” Kitchen Habit, 5 Dec. 2021, https://kitchenhabit.com/can-you-shred-chicken-in-a-blender/.
LaRue, Kristina. “How to Shred Chicken Breast – 3 Easy Ways to Make Shredded Chicken.” Love & Zest, 18 Apr. 2019, https://www.loveandzest.com/how-to-shred-chicken/#:~:text=Shred%20chicken%20using%20a%20blender,get%20all%20the%20chicken%20shredded.
Lewis, Evan. “Can You Shred Chicken in a Blender?” Indoor Guider, 1 Mar. 2022, https://indoorguider.com/can-you-shred-chicken-in-a-blender/.
The Best Way to Shred Chicken – Mexicali Blue. https://www.mexicali-blue.com/the-best-way-to-shred-chicken/.
“Can You Shred Chicken in a Ninja Blender and Get the Best?” Homkitchn, 4 May 2022, https://www.homkitchn.com/can-you-shred-chicken-in-a-ninja-blender/.
I am a physician who cares about healthy living. I strive to be as healthy as I can be so that I can thrive in my own life. By sharing what I know I want to help others to live a healthy life.