BBQ Chicken Braided Loaf

Yes this was as delightful as it looks. AND it was really easy, but looks really fancy. The homemade dough was super yummy, and you know if I can make it ANYONE can make it. This recipe was adapted from a recipe by Melanie from My Kitchen Cafe. Yummers. I am pretty sure I spent the entire weekend copying down recipes from her site. 

This recipes differs from hers in a couple of ways. I cooked the chicken in a crockpot in bbq sauce, which made the chicken super fall apart fantastic. I used bread flour for the braid, which will make your braid fluffier. I also omitted the onions, not because I don't love onions, I simply didn't have them on hand. Lastly, I did not make two braids, I used the rest of the dough for a small batch of rolls and simply followed her roll instructions ( I will give those instructions at the end).

BBQ Chicken Braided Loaf


Hopefully this recipe is not too hard to follow. Do in this order: chicken in crockpot; make dough about 2 hours before you want to eat; when dough is done rising, put together with rest of ingredients.

Ingredients:

French Roll recipe
2-3 chicken breasts
your favorite BBQ sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Place 2-3 chicken breasts in crockpot. Cover with your favorite BBQ sauce. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours.

Remove chicken and shred. Place back in crockpot and turn it off. Place in your prepared braid dough.

French Roll Recipe:

1 1/2 cup warm water
1 tablespoon of yeast
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of salt
4 cups bread flour

Combine water, yeast, and sugar. Set aside for about 10 minutes until it is foamy.

Add oil, salt and 2 cups of flour. Start mixing the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time until dough starts to pull away from the bowl. For me this was about 3 1/2 cups, I used the other half to dust and incorporate in the dough once it was on the counter.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.

Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, turning to coat. Cover with a damp cloth and set in a warm place. Let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Punch dough down. Divide the dough in half. Here is where I used one half for the braid and the other for rolls. If you want to do that...take the half for rolls and set aside.


Roll the half of your dough out into a rectangle, roughly 11x17, no I did not measure.

Transfer to a cooking sheet. With a knife or cookie cutter. Cut slits from each side toward the center, about 3 inches long. Repeat this down the entire length of each long side, every two inches.

Place BBQ chicken down the middle. Place cheeses on top.

Fold over the top of braid. Then fold over one strip at a time, right to left, working your way down the loaf. When you get to then end fold it up and make sure to pinch closed.

Preheat oven to 400. Once you have finished your braid. Let the loaf set for 15 minutes.

REPEAT for second loaf here, OR cut remaining dough into 6 portions and pinch into balls and place in a muffin tin. Cover and let raise for 40 minutes. When the rolls are done rising you will bake them at 400 for  12 minutes, until golden brown.

Cook braid for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. I buttered the top when it came out.

Let it set for about 5 minutes. Cut and serve it on up.