Slow Cooker Crack Chicken is one of my favorite, easy, and addictive recipes. Filled with chicken, cheese, bacon, and all of the yummy things that make your palate do a happy dance.
If you love crack chicken recipes, you might also enjoy my Instant Pot Crack Chicken Pasta or my Crack Chicken Chili recipe.
Or you might want to save a little time and money by meal prepping with these Freezer Crockpot Meals.
I’ve been making crack chicken in this house for a long time, and it started out with this simple and delicious Instant Pot Crack Chicken. It’s just a quick and easy meal that everyone enjoys in our house.
After that one recipe, I just exploded making all of our favorite crack chicken recipes, including an Instant Pot Crack Chicken Chili. I love to make soups, stews, and chili’s and this has definitely been the recent favorite.
But if you’re looking for something with fewer ingredients and just as hearty, you might also like this Crockpot Chicken and Gravy.
If you need to grab the recipe fast, make sure you head down to the bottom of this page for the full printable recipe card. We will have all of our notes and information in one spot for you to easily print and go.
If you have a couple of minutes, keep reading! We like to add some additional information that won’t fit into the card, such as why we choose to use chicken thighs in this recipe versus chicken breast meat.
Can I Use Chicken Thighs for Crack Chicken?
This is by far one of my favorite chicken recipes, and it’s also because I like to use chicken thighs. Ok, now all of my chicken breast fans reading this, hear me out. You can use chicken breasts, but let me give you the reasoning behind why I use chicken thighs over chicken breasts.
Chicken thighs are darker meat and are made up of red fibers which yield more fats and proteins. Chicken breasts are white meat and can dry out easily if overcooked. I won’t go into too much detail because this article helps explain the differences between flavors, cooking, colors, and more when it comes to the different cuts of chicken.
Basically, if this was a heart-healthy dish I would use chicken breasts. Since this recipe is all about the flavors and the fats, I choose to use the juicier chicken thighs.
If you love recipes with chicken thighs, check out this Crock Pot Chicken Thighs recipe.
How to Make Crack Chicken
I explained above why I like to use chicken thighs over chicken breasts in this recipe, but let me share with you all of the other yummy ingredients needed to make this dish.
- boneless skinless chicken thighs – remove any excess fat if needed
- cream cheese – I like to cut these up in cubes.
- bacon – cooked and crumbled
- ranch seasoning packet – you will only need one
- cheddar cheese – you can use packaged cheese, but I like freshly shredded if available
- green onion – take one bunch and cup of the tops, then chop.
- butter – unsalted butter is all that is needed
- Salt and pepper to taste – if desired, but this recipe is full of flavor so I don’t think you need more than a pinch
Once you have all of the ingredients there are just a few simple steps for this easy recipe.
- Prepare the slow cooker liner with nonstick cooking spray.
- Line the bottom of the crockpot with the boneless skinless chicken thighs.
- Sprinkle the ranch seasoning mix (and a pinch of salt and pepper if desired) over the chicken thighs.
- Cover the chicken with cubes of cream cheese and add the butter.
How Long Should I Cook?
- Place the lid on the crockpot and cook for 7 hours and forget about it. No stirring needed.
- Remove the lid after 7 hours and shred the chicken. It’s easy to keep the chicken in the crockpot and use two forks to easily shred the chicken thighs. Stir to mix the chicken and cream cheese well.
- Add the crumbled bacon and stir to mix. Top with freshly shredded cheese (if available) and green onion tops. Cover with the lid and cook for an additional 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.
- Serve!
What Can I Serve it With:
You really don’t have to serve this dish with anything else, it’s good all by itself! If you think you want to serve it with something else, here are a few of my favorite options.
- All by itself (it’s that good!)
- noodles
- Rice
- bun
- over a baked potato
- With Ritz crackers
- on a tortilla shell
- as nachos.
There are tons of options, but those are just a few of my favorites.
How do I store leftovers?
Sometimes we rarely have leftovers. When this happens, make sure you store the leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days. If you do have leftovers, consider warming the chicken up and serving it with small crackers, on a baked potato, or on a bun. I love the versatility of this recipe because you can serve it differently every time you make it.
This recipe is definitely rich and creamy and is one of our family, kid-approved favorites. I make this recipe at least once per month, everyone loves it that much! I personally love it because it’s just really easy, and as busy as life can get, we all need delicious and easy recipes like this.
Speaking of delicious recipes, I have quite a few additional recipes you might be interested in.
Here are a few Slow Cooker Recipes you might enjoy:
- Crockpot Chicken Spaghetti
- Crockpot BBQ Chicken
- Slow Cooker Lasagna
- Crockpot Chicken Thighs
- Crockpot Freezer Meals (15 of them!)
Slow Cooker Crack Chicken
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken thighs boneless, skinless
- 16 oz cream cheese cubed
- 10 pieces bacon cooked and crumbled
- 1 ranch seasoning packet 2 tbsp ranch seasoning
- 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese freshly grated if possible
- 1 bunch green onion tops
- 2 tbsp butter unsalted
- salt and pepper to taste only a pinch if needed
Instructions
- Prepare the slow cooker liner with non stick cooking spray.
- Line the bottom of the crockpot with the boneless skinless chicken thighs.
- Sprinkle the packet of ranch seasoning and a pinch of salt and pepper over the chicken thighs.
- Cover the chicken with cubes cream cheese and the butter.
- Place the lid on the crockpot and cook for 7 hours.
- Remove the lid and shred the chicken. Keep the chicken in the crockpot and use two forks to easily shred the chicken thighs. Stir to mix well.
- Add the crumbled bacon and stir to mix. Top with freshly shredded cheese and green onion tops. Cover with the lid and cook for an additional 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.
- Serve over noodles, rice, on a bun, over a baked potato, with a tortilla shell, or as nachos. There are tons of options!
Notes
- Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
- Lots of serving options! Over noodles, rice, baked potato, on a salad, with chips, with crackers, on a bun, in a tortilla, and more. It’s also good all by itself.
- You can substitute chicken breasts for chicken thighs if desired, but check out our explanation as to why we like to use thighs in the full written post.
- Consider using freshly grated cheese as pre-shredded has extra oils and doesn’t melt as “clean”.
Nutrition
*Nutritional information is a calculated guesstimate. Please note that this can change with different brands and modifications you may make to the recipe. For the most accurate information, use a nutritional calculator with the exact brands and measurements you’re using with each recipe.
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