Crack Chicken Chili

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Crack chicken chili is a slow cooker chili made in your crockpot. Juicy shredded chicken in cream cheese, ranch dressing and cheddar, topped with crispy bacon. A great family meal that you can be your go-to any day of the week. Served with chips or a delicious cornbread.

Recipe Highlights

• How does it taste: Crack chicken chili is made with beans, corn, tomatoes and is mixed with ranch in a cream cheese sauce. Cheddar cheese helps bring in a nice bite to the overall recipe. Crunchy bacon is added on top for a final salty, crunchy finish.
• Skill level: It’s made in the crockpot. A perfect set it an forget it recipe for new cooks or someone who needs dinner ready but has other things to do.
• Storing: Crack chicken chili can be kept in a covered container in the fridge for several days or frozen if needed.

Ingredient tips

• Meat: Chicken breast are used and shredded right before serving. The slow cooker keeps the chicken breast juicy while making them tender. Other cuts of chicken such as legs or thighs can be used in place. Just remember to remove the bones if you make that change.
• Veggies: The veggie used are tomatoes and corn. But, there is also black beans for the added fiber and the filling factor. These are veggies that are typically used with crack chicken recipes but you can have fun with these such as subbing for mixed vegetables or using other beans.
• Ranch: Ranch seasoning is the key to the chili being so addicting. But, you can’t just change the ranch seasoning for dressing. The ranch seasoning has thickening agents that help thicken the crack chicken chili. If you swap for ranch dressing, be sure to add a little cornstarch in the mix so that the chili isn’t soupy.
• Cheese: This is not a recipe for pre-shredded cheese. You’ll want the cheese to melt evenly into the chili and pre-shredded cheese doesn’t do that very well. For subbing, Monterey jack cheese , gouda and mozzarella are good replacements.

How To Make Crack Chicken Chili

1. To start, in the crockpot add the chicken.
2. Now, all the canned items need to drained and rinsed. Do that then add them into the slow cooker on top of the chicken.
3. Then, cut the cream cheese in slices and place throughout the slow cooker.On the side, mix together the ranch packets and the chicken broth. Doesn’t need to be smooth just give it a simple whisk. Then, pour it over the ingredients in the crockpot.
4. Cover the lid and cook on high for 3 hours or low for 6-8 hours. When the chicken is cooked remove it and shred it with two forks. Then take a knife and chop it up a bit.
5. Place the chicken back into the crockpot with the other ingredients. Grate a block of cheddar cheese and toss it in. Give everything a mix then cover for 15 minutes. At this point, cook the bacon and chop it up.
6. When you come back all the cheese should mix together perfectly when you give it a stir this time. Do not use pre-shredded cheese, if you do there may be some separation in the sauce from the starch on the cheese.
7. When serving each bowl of the crack chicken chili add about 2 pieces of crumbled bacon across the top of each bowl.

Chef’s tips

• Do not add the bacon in the slow cooker. Save the bacon when it’s time to serve to keep the bacon crispy. Honestly, if you’re going to cook the bacon to only make it soggy in the crockpot you can just toss in the raw bacon to cook. It will be soggy anyways? Saving it for later you’ll be able to get those great textures from the crispy bacon while eating.
• If swapping out the ranch packets for dressing, be sure to add in some cornstarch to help thicken the chili. One tablespoon of cornstarch mixed in with the dressing should be perfect.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Serving suggestions

Crack chicken chili or any chili pairs perfect with a bread. Cornbread to be exact. Below are a few options to try out that pair deliciously with the chili:

• Jiffy Cornbread w/ Creamed Corn
• Fried Cornbread
• Skillet Cornbread
• Pumpkin Cornbread
• Honey Cornbread
• Blueberry Cornbread
• Sweet Potato Cornbread

Crack chicken recipes to try next

• Crack Chicken Sliders
• Crack Chicken Dip
• Crockpot Crack Chicken
• Crack Chicken Noodle Soup
• Crack Chicken Rice Casserole
• Skillet Crack Chicken Keto Thighs

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