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
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.
- 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
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.
WW FREESTYLE POINTS: 8
- Reduce points down to 3 by using fat free cream cheese, fat free cheddar cheese, and turkey bacon.
Slow Cooker
Instant Pot
Beef
Please consider calling this recipe something other than “crack.” I’m sure you mean no disrespect, but the word carries a lot of history.
Omg really?! The name crack got my attention and not because I’m on crack or ever thought of being on crack. But I can assure you the name is not disrespectful. I really doubt that any one of those folks would get on here to look for a recipe anyways. Good grief. This recipe is excellent btw! Thank you for sharing
I am very glad you enjoyed it! THANK YOU!! 🙂
Would it ruin the soup to use frozen spinach? We don’t get fresh spinach on our island, and normally I can’t stand frozen spinach, but this looks too amazing to pass on.
Hi!
It should be OK, but do thaw the spinach and drain it as well as possible, just to avoid all the extra liquid.
This soups looks so tasty! I was thinking about adding some type of white bean to it. Would that be a good mix?
Loved this soup! So flavorful! I cannot wait to make this again!
I am very glad you enjoyed it! Thank YOU! 🙂
I didn’t see where and how much ranch seasoning to add!!! Am I missing something??? I’m so excited to make this I can barely stand it!!!
Hi!
So the recipe is to be made with homemade ranch seasoning, and that includes the garlic powder, onion powder, dill weed, chives, salt, and pepper. Those are already included in the recipe above. But, if you’re going to use store-bought Ranch seasoning, you will need 1 tablespoon. Also, if going with the premade seasoning, don’t use the garlic powder, onion powder, dill weed, chives, salt, and pepper that are in the recipe. I hope that makes sense. 😁
Thank you so much!!! We love this recipe!!
THANK YOU! 🙂
This will quickly become a favorite at my house! It looks SO good!
Your crack chicken recipes are the best! Love this soup!
Turns out fabulous every time!
This Creamy Crack Chicken Soup recipe looks totally awesome!
My family is going to be really happy when I serve this. It has all of their faves… chicken, bacon, cheese, and ranch!
This is amazing thank you for sharing!
I love soup and this soup is soooo good! All the flavors combine to make it a wonderful hearty soup.
Oh heavens, so many tasty flavors in this soup. I wasn’t quite sure about the dill, but it added a subtle flavor that was so yummy! Can’t wait to make this again with my homemade breadsticks for dipping!
I love how comforting this is! Perfect for weeknights!
DeliciouS!! Easy n Fast!
The creamy crack chicken soup recipe is new for me. I will try it home very soon. Thanks for nice recipe.