COSTCO Cooking: Pulled Chicken Sliders

It’s a weird moment, when a customer service rep at the front desk of the local COSTCO does a double-take, and mutters “holy shit”, after glancing at your yearly dividend.

Turns out, having kids is really expensive, and we spend a lot of that money at a wholesale warehouse club. From diapers and formula, to chicken nuggets and string cheese, COSTCO has been with us from the beginning. It’s even turned in to a bit of a destination for us, especially on rainy – grumpy – days. The toddlers are big fans of the pizza, and the fruit smoothie can be a good treat, especially when you need to bribe a grumpy two-year old.

More importantly, unlike most other stores, the carts there hold two children, which means they were tailor-made for our family. Whereas at Safeway we have to take two carts, and at Target we have to hope that the double carts haven’t all be claimed by other families, COSTCO double-wides have used their extra space in a family-of multiples- friendly manned.

Or maybe someone who works there actually realized that people bring more than one kid with them when they shop.

Either way, the food court and double carts mean that we find ourselves at COSTCO at least once or twice a week, which means that I’ve made many a menu-week decision while wandering their plus-sized aisles.

Unless I’m feeling extra lazy, I tend to steer clear of the premade stuff, but there’s one thing I can’t do without: the rotisserie chicken. This $5 wonder should be part of every busy home cook’s repertoire, and after checking out this recipe, it just might become part of yours.

As you can imagine, I’m not very likely to make multiple stops if I’ve got the twins with me, especially if I’m on my own. Each new transition in and out of the car is like pulling out another Jenga block of toddler emotions, which is why this entire recipe can be made using ingredients found in the aisles of COSTCO.

Ingredient List:

Costco rotisserie chicken
- Note: If you’re super lazy/like wasting money, Costco now sells pre-pulled rotisserie chicken for twice as much.
Eat Smart Sweet Kale salad kit
Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce
King’s Hawaiian sweet rolls

Step by step:

Pull the chicken, and add it to a medium sized pot. Make sure to get all the meat; you don’t want to miss out on any of that deliciousness!
Place the pot on the stove, and turn the burner on mid-low. You don’t want it too hot, because you’re just heating it up, not cooking it from raw.
Add as much BBQ sauce as you prefer. It’s always best to start with less (maybe a half cup or so), mix it in, give it a taste, and then add more as necessary.
Mix the salad according to the directions on the package. It’s simple. Dump it together in a bowl, and mix it around.
If you like toasted rolls, take out the Hawaiian rolls in groups of four (because they stick together) and slice them like a bagel. Place the slices in your toaster, and toast to your desired doneness.
Assemble the sliders by placing a scoop of the BBQ chicken on the bottom half of a single toasted roll, topping it with a forkful of salad, and – if you’re feeling saucy – another blorp of Sweet Baby Ray’s.
Enjoy (preferably with a nice cold beer)!