A new sterically shielded carbene with branched aromatic substituents (9a) and two palladium halogenide complexes (11a,b) have been prepared. The single crystal X-ray structures of free carbene 9a and palladium carbene complexes 10b and 11a were determined. Very high catalytic efficiencies were evident for the sterically shielded palladium carbene complexes 10b and 11a,b when the latter complexes were employed as catalysts for hydrodechlorination of the chloroarenes p-dichlorobenzene and hexachlorobenzene. When optimized, the foregoing approach is significantly more effective than those of currently known transition metal carbene complexes. The most active catalysts were found to be the monocarbene complexes of palladium chloride and iodide, both of which feature highly branched aromatic substituents (11a,b).