I have made this meal three times now, so I felt pretty confident making it again.  I've based my own recipe from Rita's Recipes Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken Chile [sic].  I followed it pretty closely, but you will see where I made some changes.  

I was smart this time and put this meal together the night before (this bit of advice is really from my mother).  I started by adding 2 frozen chicken breasts to the bottom of the slow cooker bowl.  Then I added the beans, corn, Rotel tomatoes and cream cheese.  I put the cover on and stuck the bowl in the fridge overnight.  

I measured out the spices and stuck them in a small plastic zip top bag for the morning.  Better safe than sorry with a dog that likes to eat bacon off my counters and tables!  As always, I add more spice than what is called for, so my recipe below has a measurement range for the spices, so you can add them to taste.  I've also used a Chipotle Spiced Ranch Dressing Mix that makes it taste wonderful too.  This recipe is so simple it's easy to experiment with the flavors.   

Before going to work I took the pot out of the fridge and placed it in the slow cooker and threw the spice in the pot and put it on low for eleven hours. I work an eight hour day so I figured eleven hours on low would give me two extra hours cook time so I could take the dogs out to the dog park for a good run, set the table plus have some down time.

At the end of the cook time, you should be able to shred the chicken breasts with two forks and mix it all together. However, next time I'll do a shorter cook time because it cooked so long that it got a little dry and my husband had to add some broth to it.

I was thinking I would add chicken broth or even a can of creamy soup to it next time to make it more like a soup. But when I make it thick my husband loves to put it in tortillas.

So for our meal, we topped the chili with sour cream and paired it with chips and guacamole! 

Yum

I used to work with a lovely Southern lady who was my boss at a local school district.  When she retired we had a last potluck party to celebrate her many accomplishments.  When we had staff meetings we often started with “get to know you better” questions.  That is when I learned that she liked North Carolina pulled pork sandwiches topped with coleslaw.  I have never been to the South and in Colorado we have lots of barbeque places, but none that I know of that make a North Carolina style pulled pork.  Quite honestly I never thought about how many different ways there are to make pulled pork, even in North Carolina they are divided about whether or not to use barbeque sauce at all, in Georgia their sauce is made with mayonnaise (huh???) then of course as you come west there is Kansas City barbeque (with a red sauce), I’m sure there is probably a special Louisiana or Creole barbeque (never looked, but should), a Southwest barbeque (smoky and spicy of course), probably a special California barbeque, and of course a Hawaiian barbeque.  I could eat my way across the country just in barbecue!  

This pulled pork meal is super easy to put together since it is made in the crockpot.  The vinegar style BBQ of North Carolina meets Pacific Islander with pineapple juice to balance out the tangy with sweet.

I learned that that a North Carolina pulled pork is cooked in vinegar and topped with sweet coleslaw lending a tangy-sweet taste to the entire sandwich.  Sounded oh so yummy to me, so my food contribution for the party was the pulled pork.  Never having made it, I found an easy crockpot recipe on Pinterest to bring to the party and she loved it.  Of course she was a true Southern lady so I’m sure she would never have admitted if it hadn’t been good, but I remember that my crock pot was empty by the end of the day so it must have been successful. 

Top off your bun with some sweet coleslaw and you have a wonderful, crunchy and messy dinner that is so fun to eat!

It has been many years since I made that recipe, but lately I have had a hankering for pulled pork sandwiches topped with coleslaw thanks to a radio commercial I hear on the way to work every morning.  My entire family knows that when I cook, I make it up as I go.  If there is a recipe, I may follow the basics, but I change anything I don’t like and substitute if I feel like it.  Generally it works out pretty well, sometimes not so much.  But I enjoy the trial and error, it’s a learning experience.  So, when I decided to have my children over for dinner last weekend I decided I needed to make pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw, in a semi-Hawaiian style.  I can never go whole hog!  When I looked at Pinterest recipes all the pulled pork sandwiches that were listed under Hawaiian style had ingredients which would make them taste sweet, piled on top of Kings Hawaiian Bread (also sweet) and topped with coleslaw . . .  more sweet than my taste buds could possibly handle.  So I went back to my trusty recipe for North Carolina pulled pork via 'Lil Blue Boo, but instead of adding all of the apple juice required, I substituted some pineapple juice instead.  We called it “Sowaiian” barbeque sandwiches.  We used basic wheat bread buns piled them high with pulled pork and topped them with coleslaw for added sweetness and crunch.  It was just the right amount of tangy-sweet my taste buds were searching for.  They were sloppy yumminess in our tummy swiftly devoured by all.  Even the leftovers disappeared quickly, which never happens in my household! 

I almost didn't want to stop eating to take this photo!

What would I change if I tried this again you ask?   I might exchange all the apple juice with pineapple juice to see if it brings out that tropical flavor more.   In the alternative I could just use the Kings Hawaiian bread for authenticity and continue using half apple juice half pineapple juice.  I could even add actual pineapple pieces to the coleslaw for that tropical flavor.  One thing I have learned, there is no wrong way to eat barbeque, try experimenting like I did; you never know what new flavor combination you will enjoy!

For the coleslaw, I just mixed together a sweet coleslaw dressing (like Marie's) with a bag of pre-packaged coleslaw.  Let it sit, refrigerated for about 20 minutes before serving.

Yum