First, let’s make our sauce mixture. In your slow cooker, combine the BBQ sauce, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, and salt. Give it a good stir until the brown sugar dissolves – you don’t want any grainy bits hanging around.

Place the chicken breasts in the slow cooker and use a spoon to coat them well with the sauce mixture. Make sure each piece is nicely covered. If some chicken is sticking up above the sauce, don’t worry – the condensation during cooking will keep everything moist.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 3-4 hours. You’ll know the chicken is done when you can easily shred it with two forks – it should practically fall apart when you touch it. If it’s still tough to pull apart, give it another 30-45 minutes.

Once it’s done, remove the chicken to a large plate or cutting board, leaving the sauce in the slow cooker. Shred the chicken using two forks – I find it’s easiest to hold one fork steady while pulling with the other fork.

Here’s a key step: After shredding, return the chicken to the slow cooker and stir it into the sauce. Let it cook for another 10-15 minutes on low. This allows the shredded chicken to soak up all that delicious sauce and get even more flavorful. Your sauce should be thick enough to coat the chicken – if it seems too thin, leave the lid off for the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Give it a final taste and adjust the seasoning if needed. Sometimes I find it needs an extra pinch of salt or splash of BBQ sauce at the end, depending on how much liquid the chicken released during cooking.