Oct 16

Slow Cooker Crack Chicken

Name: Slow Cooker Crack Chicken
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 360 min
Total time: 370 min
Ingredients: 3-4 chicken breasts (about 2 pounds); 1 package Ranch dressing mix; 8 ounces cream cheese (cubed); 1 cup mayonnaise; 1 pound bacon (cooked until crispy, then crumbled); 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese; 4 green onions (chopped); Pretzel buns or crackers (for serving)

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Creamy and super satisfying with crunchy bits of bacon, melted cheese, and tender shredded chicken in a ranch sauce, this Slow Cooker Crack Chicken is just the thing to serve your family on busy weeknights! It’s a dump and go slow cooker recipe that you can start earlier in the day and have ready to pile on pretzel buns for sandwiches at night!

I love a good slow cooker recipe! If you like this slow cooker crack chicken, you’ll also love our Slow Cooker Applesauce Pulled Chicken Sandwiches, Asian Pulled Pork Sliders, and Slow Cooker Beef and Noodles!

Three crack chicken sandwiches on pretzel buns stacked on a plate.

The slow cooker is a total life-saver for getting dinners ready and on the table. It’s perfect for busy days, lazy days, or even when you’re in a dinner rut and needing a little break from prep work. We all hit those moments in life, right?

We use our slow cooker year round, but it definitely gets used most in the Fall when the weather starts cooling down and we all want something warm and comforting for dinner. This crack chicken definitely fits in the “warm and cozy” category and makes a fantastic dinner that our whole family enjoyed!

A slow cooker with shredded chicken covered in cheddar cheese, bacon, and green onions.

What is “crack chicken”?

Slow Cooker Crack Chicken is a delicious cream cheese, bacon, cheddar, ranch combo that always leaves you wishing you had more. It’s addictingly good and if you’re thinking to yourself that you’ve seen something with similar flavors on this blog before, you’d be right!

I did a variation of crack chicken earlier this summer on our smoker. This shredded, saucy slow cooker version is every bit as delicious as the other, but I really love the hands-off, no hassle feel of tossing together a delicious meal in the Crock Pot and then walking away till dinner time.

Cheesy chicken sandwiches on pretzel buns.

Freaky Friday Blog Hop

This recipe actually comes from Brandi over at Aunt Bee’s Recipes. Once a quarter, I join with some of my blogging friends to do a good old-fashioned blog hop hosted by the marvelous Michaela from An Affair From the Heart. We call it Freaky Friday, and are each secretly assigned another blogger with the mission of recreating one of their recipes to share on our own blogs.

I LOVE Freaky Fridays and always look forward to seeing what everybody creates. Check out my other Freaky Friday recipes! Have I ever mentioned on here how much I love the food blogging community? They are so friendly, supportive, and encouraging and I’ve made some really great friends through these kinds of collaborative events.

This time around I was assigned Aunt Bee’s Recipes, and like usual, it was difficult to choose just one recipe to share! Brandi has hundreds of delicious looking recipes that are all right up my alley. I was super tempted by the idea of these chicken fajita sliders and her southern fried cabbage (this one still needs to happen at our house). And for dessert, maybe this butterfinger poke cake?

You definitely need to check out her site if you are looking for more dinner inspiration!

How to Make Slow Cooker Crack Chicken

Dump and go! Place the chicken breasts at the bottom of the slow cooker. They can be frozen or thawed! Sprinkle them with the ranch dressing and top them with the cubed cream cheese. Cover the lid and then cook on low for 6-8 hours or 3-4 hours on high.

Chicken sprinkled with powdered ranch dressing and cubes of cream cheese in a crock pot.

Shred and serve! When there are about 30 minutes left, shred the chicken with 2 forks. Stir in the mayonnaise and the cooked bacon. Sprinkle cheese over the top and then place the lid back over the pot and cook for the remaining 15-30 minutes or until the cheese had melted. Sprinkle some chopped green onions over the top and then serve this dish with crackers or on buns.

Two forks being used to shred creamy slow cooker crack chicken.

What cut of chicken should I use for crack chicken?

You can use any cut of chicken you like. We used boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but thighs would be great too. They’ll turn out nice and tender!

Slow cooker crack chicken on pretzel buns.

Can I use already shredded chicken instead?

Yes, you could definitely make this recipe using leftover shredded rotisserie chicken, but you won’t need to use the slow cooker. Instead, just toss all of the ingredients together in a baking dish and bake at 350F degrees until hot and bubbly.

Does cream cheese curdle in a slow cooker?

Exposure to high heat or long heat exposure will cause dairy to have a curdled appearance and texture. This is one of the biggest reasons people add it to the end of a creamy slow cooker soup recipe! But, in this recipe, although the cream cheese will look a little curdled during the cooking process, once tossed together with everything the appearance becomes better and the dish ends up creamy and delicious!

Creamy shredded chicken sandwiches on pretzel buns.

Looking for more incredible dinner ideas? Check these out!

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