Halloween Monster Chicken Sliders are a ghoulishly fun way to feed a spooky crowd. They are an easy Halloween party food to make in the slow cooker before trick-or-treating. Assemble a platter of these cute Halloween sandwiches for a grab-and-go dinner option.
Halloween chicken sandwiches are the perfect meal for both kids and adults before a fun night running around the neighborhood.
If you're looking to round out your Halloween buffet, also try this Shriveled Ogre-Nose Pizza, Mozzarella Stick Mummy Bowls, or Pizza Roll Ups Mummy Snacks.
Whenever Halloween comes around, I love to throw a party with friends or make something to bring to the trick-or-treat festivities.
And some of you may think it's important to make sure the kids eat something substantial before they start snacking on all of the candy! This Halloween chicken recipe is sure to do the trick for any holiday need.
The goggly eyes on my Halloween monster chicken sliders will bring all the Wonder Women and Storm Troopers to the table (wink!).
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Make-ahead Halloween party food
The ultimate party food for Halloween is the kind you can make-ahead. These sliders are easy to put together when you've already prepared the BBQ chicken in the slow cooker.
The ingredients for these sliders can be prepared ahead and assembled just before eating. What are you waiting for? Get scary!
The Tex-Mex taco-seasoned chicken, topped with guacamole, will make both kids and adults happy on Halloween night!
I use a store-bought BBQ sauce here, but I also have some great easy BBQ sauce recipes that would work great as well. I have a recipe for how to make store bought BBQ sauce better, plus a great Memphis style BBQ sauce that has warm spices and honey if you want to try your own.
Slow cooker spooky sliders
The slow cooker filling makes preparing sliders so easy, and the additions of fun food accoutrements make them so cute and spooky.
These pulled chicken sliders have googly eyes! Well, not exactly, but they look like them and they're made of delicious cheese and olives.
Did you hear about that fish shop that was putting actual plastic googly eyes on the fish to cover up their eyes and make them look fresh? Gross! I'll stop with the googly eyes because these tasty Halloween sandwiches are neither fish nor gross.
I love BBQ pulled chicken, easily cooked in a slow cooker. I added a Tex-Mex twist to the barbeque chicken sliders and topped them with guacamole for something really crowd pleasing – and monster-friendly!
What to serve with Halloween Monster Sliders
Don’t you always need a cute-little-something for your Halloween party? And usually it’s cupcakes or cookies, however, you really need to eat dinner! That's why these spooky chicken sliders recipe is the start of the dinner table.
To fill out the rest of the eerie dinner table, my awesome Cat Cupcakes and Skeleton Cookies fill the sweets category. Plus, Pumpkin Milkshakes keep the costumed guests happy later into the trick-or-treat evening.
The best part of these Halloween monster chicken sliders are the crazy googly eyes kids will love.
I'm hosting a fabulous Halloween recipe swap with my friend Melissa at Bless This Mess blog. We are sharing our favorite Halloween recipes and she has the most amazing Halloween Snack Board on her site.
Add all of these fun Halloween recipes to your party buffet and you'll be the hit of the haunted mansion! Search both of our sites for Halloween party food ideas.
How to make Halloween sliders
Now, let's get started: pull out the slow cooker, some skinless, boneless chicken and BBQ sauce.
I usually have some taco seasoning in the cupboard and chipotle in adobo in the fridge, and I use these to really perk up a regular old slow cooker BBQ.
- Mix together the sauce and seasonings.
- Add chicken to a slow cooker with onions, BBQ sauce, taco seasoning, and chipotle.
- After cooking, shred the cooked chicken and return it to the slow cooker in the sauce. Keep warm until ready to use.
- Next, prepare your googly eyes with string cheese, olives and cucumbers.
- Assemble sandwiches on rolls with store-bought or homemade guacamole.
- Finally, add the eyes on top and serve.
I cook the chicken on high for 4 hours, but you could leave it on low for 6 if you are going out and about.
To keep this meal simple (there are costumes to get into!), I bought guacamole prepared and some cute little potato rolls.
Make edible googly eyes for Halloween treats
The best part is the edible googly eyes. Monsters have scary eyes, so let’s make it so.
I cut string cheese into rounds and cut black olives with a straw! (just blow on the other end and the black circle pops out).
Slice little slits on the top of each roll and set the little monster eyes in the slits to stand up straight. Watch the BBQ chicken sliders come alive!
My best party tip: Make the slow cooker BBQ pulled chicken ahead and have it ready before your party!
The shredded chicken in sauce is topped with guacamole, more red onion and cilantro (if you like). For the kids adjust this recipe to your taste. You can leave out the chipotle, or serve the guacamole on the side with chips.
Play around with the recipe, but keep an eye on the monsters!
FAQs
Cook either on low for 6 hours or high for 4 hours. The chicken should be warm and register 165ºF on a thermometer.
Use the prongs of two forks to shred chicken.
You want to add enough liquid to cover the chicken but not too much or the shredded chicken could be too liquidy. I recommend 1 ½ cups of barbecue sauce as the liquid for this recipe.
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📖 Recipe
Halloween Monster Chicken Sliders
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups BBQ Sauce
- 2 tablespoons taco seasoning
- 1 teaspoon chopped chipotle pepper in adobo
- 2 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 small red onion
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 string cheese sticks
- ¼ cup black olives
- 1 baby cucumber
- 1 cup guacamole
- 8 slider buns
- Cilantro
Instructions
- Mix together the BBQ sauce, taco seasoning and chipotle. Add the chicken to a slow cooker. Slice half the onion and add the slices to the chicken, then sprinkle with the salt.
- Pour BBQ sauce mixture over the chicken, cover and cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 6 hours. Remove chicken from the slow cooker and sauce and shred with two forks. Return shredded chicken to the sauce.
- Prepare the monster eyes by slicing the string cheese in rounds and cutting the black olives with a small and bubble tea (large) straw for little circles. Or cut small triangles with a paring knife for the scary eyes. Slice baby cucumbers for the cyclops eyes. Cut slits in the top of the rolls to insert eyes so they stand up.
- Fill the rolls with chicken, top with guacamole and top with the remaining chopped red onion and cilantro. Serve warm or room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
Fantastic Halloween Recipes
Tara Teaspoon
I’ve been in food publishing for over 25 years, creating recipes & food-styling for magazines, books, television, food brands, & advertising. With two cookbooks under my belt and thousands of my recipes at your fingertips, I hope you'll be inspired to spend more time in the kitchen!
Recipe and Photography Tara Teaspoon. Updated September 2023.
Melissa Griffiths says
Long live all the cute things my kids will still eat that are made in the slow cooker. THIS has it all!
Mary Bench says
Great! Cutest things ever and they look yummy too! I love these!
Janette says
These are darling but how do you keep the olive eyes on the string cheese? Thanks!
Tara says
Hi Janette! My little bits of olive had enough juice on them to adhere to the cheese circle. It's not jiggle proof, but it works just long enough to get them to the platter for serving. Sure, some of the pupils fall off when you start to eat it, but that's ok for me! You can also totally use a bit of "glue" like mayonnaise to stick everything together.
Val says
This looks amazing! How spicy is it though! Would love to make this for my 2 year old twins.
Tara Teaspoon says
These aren't very spicy. They are as spicy as taco seasoning, but if you'd like to make them even milder, leave out the chipotle pepper in adobo. Enjoy!