Shredding Chicken

This post is just a quick tip about shredding chicken. It is a simple and quick technique that will help volumize the chicken (no, I'm not talking about giving your chicken a stylish hairdo), and distribute it more evenly throughout your dish. I use this technique whenever I make enchiladas (the recipe soon to come) so that I can have plenty of chicken throughout my dish without really using a lot of chicken. So in the long run, this two minute process can help you save some money too!

Do you want to know the grand secret?....Shred it with a fork! It's a no-brainer, right? Well, when I was new to the kitchen, I had no idea about shredding chicken. I had thought that shredding chicken involved shoving a chicken breast into the food processor, pulverizing the poultry to bits. But really, it's even easier than that! Simply hold down the cooked chicken breast with either your hand or another fork and then, using another fork, scrape at the chicken breast. The chicken breast will look kind of stringy and begin to pull apart. Continue to scrape at the breast until the entire breast has been shredded. That's it!

You can use this technique for making pulled-chicken sandwiches, for soups, or basically anywhere where a recipe calls for "cubed chicken." Shredding the chicken not only distributes it more evenly throughout your dish, but it also makes it a little softer to chew for those of you who don't particularly like nomming on a rubbery chunk of chicken.

So shred away, readers!