So you want to prepare a mouth-watering delicacy and shredded chicken is on the recipe. You’ve got your chicken and all the other ingredients you need. But there’s just one problem. You’ve got nothing to shred your chicken with except your household blender. So now you’re thinking; can you shred chicken in a blender? This article tells you all you need to know and more!
Can You Shred Chicken in a Blender?
The simple answer; Yes! You can shred chicken with a blender. And really, that’s all the answer you need! Shedding chicken in a blender can be done, and here is how.
How To Shred Chicken In A Blender In 4 Easy Steps
Shredding chicken in a blender is possible, but it takes some processing to get done right. Thankfully, you can get all of this done in 4 easy steps.
Step 1: Prepare Your Chicken
The first step when trying to shred your chicken in a blender is to prepare it. This is where so many people get it wrong and ruin their blenders. Raw chicken doesn’t shred well, even with a hand mixer which is the best tool for shredding chicken, the result isn’t so great. It’s even worse with a blender and could even damage the blender’s blades. So before attempting to shred your chicken, it needs to be nicely prepared. This can be done in several ways with the most common being to cook it.
Want to learn how to cook your chicken? Here’s an article on how to boil chicken to shred.
Other methods include:
Frying Your Chicken
Frying is relatively easy if you want to go with that method. Firstly, you’ll want to heat your non-stick skillet. You can also use a cast iron or stainless steel pan.
Add olive oil to the pan; not too much, though, so your chicken doesn’t become too oily. While that heats up, add some salt and pepper to your chicken on both sides. Once your oil is well heated up, carefully place your chicken into the pan. Be careful not to let the oil splash on you.
You can cover it a bit, so the oil doesn’t stain or splatter your kitchen, but make sure to leave a little part open. You wouldn’t want to seal all the heat in.
Once that’s done, let it fry for about three to five minutes per side until the internal temperature is about 165 Fahrenheit.
Once you’re done, your chicken should be golden brown on the outside and perfectly cooked on the inside.
Baking Your chicken
This method is excellent because you can cook a lot of chicken at once by placing them in a sheet pan and baking them all at once.
You can either marinate your chicken using a zip bag or season them on a plate. Next, you’ll want to prepare your baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper so the baking sheet can easily clean afterward.
You can drizzle in a bit of olive oil over the parchment paper and then place your chicken on top. Then drizzle a little more on top of your chicken.
Next, place your chicken in the oven for twenty to twenty-five minutes, depending on the thickness of your chicken. It’s best to let your chicken bake until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
Poaching Your Chicken
To poach your chicken. Get an empty pot and place your chicken inside it. Add cold water to cover your chicken about two inches above them. When seasoning your chicken using this method, you’ll want to over-season it because the water tends to reduce the effect of your seasoning.
Then, turn on the heat and let it cook on low heat for about ten minutes. Poaching your chicken is perhaps the easiest way to get it shredded with your blender because it’s soaked in water and is extra tender.
Step 2: Allow Chicken to Rest
This step is essential, especially if you’re making a recipe that requires the flavor of the chicken to be evident.
Once you’re done preparing your chicken with whatever method you choose, allow it to rest so the juices can be distributed evenly. This is what brings out the flavor. To let it rest, simply wrap it in plastic wrap or foil and leave it to rest until it’s warm enough to touch.
Step 3: Separate Chicken from Bones.
When we say you can shred chicken in a blender, we mean the chicken, not the bones! So what should go into the blender should just be the chicken. While some high-watt blenders will have no problem crushing chicken bone, blenders with lower watts will have a hard time and could even get damaged in the process.
Learn more about blender wattage.
Removing the bones from your chicken can be done before or after cooking. Here’s an article on how to remove bone from raw chicken.
Step 4: Blend Your Chicken
This is the last and the most obvious step. Place your cooked chicken into the blender and let it blend on high. Using a high-watt blender like the Ninja BL660 is the preferred option, but a good low-watt blender should still get the job done.
When blending, make sure not to put your chicken in all at once but put them into the blender in batches to give the blender enough room to do its work. Once you begin blending, let the blender shred the chicken until it reaches your desired consistency.
Conclusion
Blenders are the most versatile kitchen appliances and are so great because they are small yet very powerful. Furthermore, using a blender other than other kitchen appliances like hand mixers and food processors makes cleaning up afterward easy.
So there you have it; you can use a blender to shred chicken. Try the steps listed above and see how it works for you.