BBQ Chicken Stuffed Baked Sweet Potatoes

in Chicken & Turkey, Condiments, Lighter & Healthier, potatoes, Starches, The Great Detox of 2015, Whole30

BBQ Pulled Chicken Stuffed Baked Sweet Potato

We’ve eaten some pretty good stuff over the last almost three Whole30 weeks (hello, fire-sale King Crab legs!) but our favorite meal (besides the crab) has been this a baked sweet potato half topped with barbecue “pulled” chicken, served along side something green.

And not just because it’s an incredibly budget-friendly meal… but that helped, because I totally end-of-the-world hoarded me some crab legs last week. It’s delicious, insanely filling, and we haven’t minded eating it for lunch and dinner several times.

Jason, he’s a barbecue sauce junkie. You know how you use sriracha? How 6-year olds use ketchup? And how I use ranch? That’s how he uses barbecue sauce. And because his favorite sauce is thick and wonderfully overloaded with way too much brown sugar and molasses, he hasn’t eaten any of it lately.

Now, don’t get me wrong. The Whole30-approved barbecue sauce that I made isn’t the barbecue sauce we’re used to. I thought I was going to have to toss the whole batch at first but it was much better the next day. I’ve since discovered if you add a few dates to simmer in the sauce and then blend it in the blender, it’s even fine the first day.

And if you’re not Whole30-ing it up, just use your favorite barbecue sauce.

BBQ Chicken Stuffed Baked Sweet Potatoes

Tangy pulled barbecue chicken tops a baked sweet potato.

Ingredients

  • 1 medium sweet potato, halved
  • Olive or coconut oil
  • 1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded
  • Green onions, for serving
  • Chopped red onions, for serving
  • For the barbecue sauce
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 3 cloves minced garlic
  • 15 oz can tomato sauce (or tomato puree - it is thicker and reduces cooking time)
  • 3-5 small dates
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce (the individual cups are perfectly portioned)
  • 1/4 cup cider vinegar
  • 1/4 cup coconut aminos
  • 1 Tbsp creole mustard
  • 1 tsp Tobasco
  • 2 tsp chili powder (I used half chipotle, half regular)
  • 1 tsp paprika

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 425.
  2. Lightly brush oil over the cut halves of the potatoes and bake 30-35 minutes, until fork tender.
  3. While the potatoes are baking, heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
  4. Cook garlic just until it begins to brown.
  5. Add tomato sauce, dates, apple sauce, vinegar, coconut aminos, stirring to combine.
  6. Whisk in the mustard, tobasco, chili powder, paprika, and cloves.
  7. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook for ~30 minutes (10-15 if using tomato puree).
  8. Transfer the dates and about half the sauce to a blender and blend until smooth, then return to the pan and stir.
  9. Will keep at least a week in a jar in the fridge.
  10. Toss the shredded chicken with a few generous spoonfuls of sauce.
  11. Serve the chicken on top of the sweet potato halves, with additional sauce, red onions, and green onions.

Notes

Yields: 2 servings

Source: Confections of a Foodie Bride; sauce adapted from It Starts With Food

Estimated time: 45 minutes

27 comments… add one
  • Yum. I love sweet potatoes topped with pretty much anything. These look delicious!

  • MY husband absolutely LOVES barbeque sauce too!! Can’t wait to make these for dinner. YUM!!!

  • That looks so good! I’m a BBQ sauce junkie, too. I love to dip my fries in it. There’s a restaurant that serves BBQ like this over a white potato that I love, but I’ll have to try it with a sweet potato. Sounds really good!

  • I love topping sweet potatoes with just about anything and everything and yet I don’t think I’ve ever done anything with barbecue sauce! Awesome idea for grilled summer foods.

  • I love dipping my sweet potato fries in bbq sauce, so I can only imagine how much more delicious this is! Trying this for sure!

  • Um yeah, that looks awesome. Pretty sure the first ingredient in my favorite BBQ sauce is High Fructose Corn Syrup. Ugh. Time to try something a liiiittle better for us.

  • YUM! This looks fabulous! Definitely trying for dinner this week – pinning!

  • Yum!! This sounds so delicious! It’s on the short list to try, for sure.

  • I love the twist with chicken and bbq on the sweet potato. Looks like a winner to me!

  • I’ve been wanting to try something like this foreva! It looks SO good… and I think I can safely say I’ve never been more jealous of someone else’s lunch!

  • My oh my does this look great!

  • This looks soo good!!! What a perfect springtime meal!

  • Those are some nice sweet potatoes!

  • That looks delicious! I amde Whole30 barbeque sauce, and wasn’t super happy with it, as I felt it just tasted like spicy tomato sauce. I may have to try yours, though it is pretty similar. My husband is OBSESSED with barbeque sauce, so I just may be able to get him to try this whole30 recipe(because he hasn’t been super in to the lack of grains).

    • My husband says that the Whole30 sauce is a cross between a vinegary bbq and Heinz 57. I’d agree. But we felt like it “settled down” a bit the next day. And I think that the cloves and olive oil helped rein it in a little bit, too. But it’s still not the sauce we’d choose outside of Whole30 🙂

  • Everything is better on a baked potato.

  • This looks really great, Whole30 or no!

  • Genius!! This looks amazing, I’m SO going to try this! I wonder if you blended a date or two into the BBQ sauce, it might add a little extra sweetness? I’ll try it and let you know if its a disaster 🙂

  • This looks absolutely amazing! What a delicious combo, we both love sweet potatoes and pulled pork.
    Cheers!

  • Yum! What a fun way to stuff a potato! Looks delicious!

  • Barbecue and sweet potatoes — two of my favorite things! I’m definitely making this as soon as I can handle eating chicken again (stupid morning sickness . . . )!

  • Madonna

    We are doing Whole30 as well! We are so thankful for this dinner tonight, it’s been a rough week. One minor change we did to the sauce was use apple butter, instead of apple sauce, which gives it a taste a bit more similar to the molasses type sweetness in typical BBQ sauce.

  • J

    OMG!! This is heaven!! I used rotisserie chicken and BBQ sauce mixed with sriracha reheated in a pot until sauce was well incorporated into chicken. Seriously one of the greatest things I’ve ever eaten. I’m not paleo, so I don’t know if rotisserie chicken or sriracha is allowed (sorry if I offended anyone), but this is the way I made it. Either way, highly, highly recommend this recipe!

  • I came across your blog during my lunch break, and this recipe is definitely happening for dinner tomorrow. One question – what are coconut aminos? Are they difficult to find or am I being a bit of a doozy? I live in Scotland and can’t say I’ve ever heard of them before.

    Mahalo,
    Kisa.

    • It’s a soy substitute. Feel free to use soy in its place or just use your favorite purchased barbeque sauce.

  • Qunia

    can you advise how you cooked the chicken?!

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