Shredded Chicken

.
This is a good way of preparing chicken that can be used in many ways, and is nice to have in the refrigerator.

boneless chicken, I like to use half light meat and half dark meat.
extras as you like, such as onions, peppers, spices

My chicken is generally frozen, so I weight the chicken I'm going to use. Then I set the microwave to defrost, but I only put in about 2/3 the weight, because I don't want to completely defrost the chicken in the microwave. Then I transfer the semi-defrosted chicken to a large enough pot and cover with water and add salt. Bring to a boil and simmer for long enough to finish cooking the chicken, maybe 10-15 minutes. You don't want to cook it to death, but this is not an exact science, or like trying to cook a steak to medium rare.

note: if your chicken is not frozen just skip to the putting it into the pot and cover with water part.

While chicken is cooking you can cook up ingredients you would like to put into the shredded chicken. You don't have to put anything into the shredded chicken if you like. I like to add some fried onions and maybe a hot pepper and garlic, and some spices put into the frying pan just towards the end of cooking to release their flavor.

When chicken is cooked I lift it out with a tong and place on a cutting board. Cut the chicken into hunks and place into a food processor fitted with the plastic blade. Add any thing extra you have chosen and pulse for several seconds. Then open up the porcessor and stir the chicken a bit to get the unshredded hunks towards the center, and pulse for a while longer. Pour out into a bowl and if you have any unshredded bits of chicken, just break them up with your fingers.

You can use this in:

tacos

quesadillas

burritos

tamales

salad

ramen soup

pizza

casseroles

etc, etc ...