This Creamy Crack Chicken Soup recipe is loaded with incredible cheesy flavor! The perfect winter comfort food prepared with bacon, chicken, cheese, spinach, and ranch seasoning. Low carb and Keto approved, too!
Looking for more crack chicken recipes? Try this Baked Crack Chicken Breasts or this Instant Pot Crack Chicken recipe!
CRACK CHICKEN SOUP
Warm up to a big bowl of this Creamy Crack Chicken Soup! Judging by the popularity of my Baked Crack Chicken Breasts AND the Instant Pot Crack Chicken, me thinks you will absolutely LOVE crack chicken in soup form.
SO good, so comforting, and really easy to make, this soup is by far my favorite homemade chicken soup. Ready in less than 30 minutes, you will enjoy every spoonful of it. Crack Chicken Soup makes an ideal meal for cold winter nights, but we enjoy it year round, no matter the Season.
Just pick up a cooked rotisserie chicken and let’s get on it! OR, you can use leftover cooked chicken breasts.
HOW TO MAKE CRACK CHICKEN SOUP
- We start with cooking some bacon in a Dutch oven or a soup pot; cook bacon to a crisp, then, remove bacon from the pot, but keep the bacon grease.
- Melt butter in the same pot with the bacon grease and stir in the onion and garlic; cook until softened.
- Stir in chicken broth and add homemade Ranch Seasoning Mix. You can use the store-bought ranch mix packets – you will need 1 tablespoon – but those contain a lot of sodium. I suggest just going with my mixture of dried dill weed, dried chives, onion powder, and garlic powder.
- Bring all that to a boil; reduce heat and keep at a steady boil for 5 minutes.
- Next, shred some cooked chicken – use leftover chicken breasts or rotisserie chicken – and stir it into the pot. Continue cooking for 5 minutes.
- Then, add a block of softened cream cheese to the pot. If the cream cheese is not soft enough, put the block of cream cheese on a plate and pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds.
- Whisk the cream cheese into the soup pot until it’s completely melted and combined.
- Stir in the cheddar cheese and continue to whisk until melted and combined.
- Add baby spinach and heavy cream.
- Taste for seasonings and adjust accordingly.
- Top with sliced scallions and prepared bacon; serve.
Tasty and creamy soup, it will have you drooling while simmering away in that pot.
CRACK CHICKEN SOUP VARIATIONS
- Instead of spinach, you can add in kale or zucchini noodles.
- For those not following a low carb/keto diet, add pasta noodles to the boiling chicken broth and cook for 8 minutes. Then, continue to add the rest of the ingredients per the recipe directions.
- If you don’t have any leftover cooked chicken to use, I suggest to make my Oven Baked Chicken Breasts. Use these shredder claws to shred afterwards.
CAN YOU FREEZE CRACK CHICKEN SOUP?
- YES! I say make a double batch and freeze it. Just pour soup into freezer bags and keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- When ready to serve, remove from freezer the night before and let thaw in the fridge overnight.
- Reheat over medium heat, stirring frequently. Do not boil.
HOW TO STORE LEFTOVER CHICKEN SOUP
- Store soup leftovers in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 3 days.
- Reheat over medium heat, stirring frequently.
WHY IS IT CALLED “CRACK CHICKEN”?!?
I get this question on ALL my crack chicken recipes; the basic internet explanation is that the flavors of dry ranch seasoning mix paired with the creaminess of cream cheese and cheddar cheese make this chicken 100% addictive, just like crack. 🤷♀️
MORE CHICKEN SOUP RECIPES
- Instant Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup with Chicken
- Instant Pot Creamy Chicken Tortellini Soup
- Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Soup
ENJOY!
TOOLS USED IN THIS RECIPE
Creamy Crack Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon, diced
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 to 6 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
- 1/2 teaspoon dried chives
- salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 cups cooked shredded chicken
- 1 package (8 ounces) softened cream cheese
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 3 to 4 cups baby spinach
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- sliced green scallions, for garnish
Instructions
- Cook diced bacon to a crisp in a Dutch Oven or soup pot.
- Remove bacon from pot with a slotted spoon, leaving bacon grease in the pot.
- Add butter to the pot and melt over medium-high heat.
- Stir in onions and cook for 3 minutes.
- Stir in garlic and cook for 20 seconds.
- Add chicken broth and scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
- Season with garlic powder, onion powder, dill weed, chives, salt, and pepper.
- Add bay leaf and bring to a boil; lower heat to medium low and cook for 5 minutes.
- Stir in shredded chicken; cook for 5 minutes.
- Add cream cheese and whisk in until completely melted and combined.
- Stir in shredded cheese; whisk until melted and thoroughly combined.
- Add baby spinach; cook for 2 minutes.
- Stir in heavy cream and cook for 1 minute.
- Taste for seasonings (salt and pepper) and adjust accordingly. Remove bay leaf.
- Remove soup from heat; top with scallions and previously prepared bacon.
- Serve.
Notes
WW FREESTYLE POINTS: 8
- Reduce points down to 3 by using fat free cream cheese, fat free cheddar cheese, and turkey bacon.
NET CARBS: 4g
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
Made this tonight and eating it now. Yum! I added celery and carrots. Also a little Tony Chachere’s creole seasoning and 3 top of sugar. I add sugar to most of my soups and stews. Will be sharing with family tomorrow. Thanks for the deliciousness!
3 tsp sugar
I made this last week using a shredded rotisserie chicken. My new favorite soup! Making it again today. Thank you Katerina for this yummy recipe.
That’s great! I’m very glad you enjoyed it! Thank YOU! 🙂
Made this tonight with just a couple of tweaks and it’s AMAZING! I used leeks in place of onions because I had some extra already cut from another recipe. I also added some sliced shiitake mushrooms I need to use when I cooked the leeks & garlic. I also decreased the cream cheese by half because that’s all I had on hand, but we didn’t seem to miss it and it was perfectly creamy with the amount I used. I will definitely be making this again and again!
That’s great! I’m very happy you enjoyed it! Thank you for chiming in! 🙂
We make this soup every couple of weeks, soooo good!
That’s great! I’m very glad you enjoyed it! Thank YOU! 🙂
Made this yesterday for dinner. It is my #1 favorite right now. My whole family loves it and wants me to make more. Great recipe!
Amazing! I made it as it was laid out and added cauliflower florets at the same time as the broth. I think we have a new winter/fall favorite soup!
PS- former addict- loved crack. I know how good it is so do not worry about people who says its disrespectful. Crack is almost as good as this soup! (But today I choose soup)! 🙂
Thank YOU! 🙂 I am very glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Im going to make a dairy free version of this but I am really appalled by the named including “crack” it is very insensitive to people with addiction issues. Please consider changing the name to something more elegant and respectful.
Seriously!!! That’s such a snowflake comment. Don’t take everything so seriously. If you’re an addict, own it, but don’t expect everyone else to tippy toe around you!
I agree with your comment. There’s Christmas crack candy. No one says anything about that. Jeez
What an awesome soup! My 80 old Father said it was the best soup he’s had in years. My 2 old had seconds. A easy soup to make, for all generations!!!
That’s wonderful! I’m very glad everyone enjoyed it! Thank YOU! 🙂