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Instant Pot Crack Chicken is a delicious combination of chicken breasts, cream cheese, crispy bacon, and ranch seasoning mix, all cooked together to create a creamy, cheesy, and incredibly excellent meal.
Crack Chicken in the Instant Pot
This instant pot recipe makes creamy chicken that’s comforting, hearty, low-carb, and keto friendly. It is the Instant Pot chicken recipe of our dreams! We are talking about a dinner that includes chicken + bacon + cream cheese + ranch seasoning. I meeeean… ?
Crack Chicken is great in tacos, served over plates of pasta, and in sandwiches, of course, BUT it’s also just as good (if not better) in lettuce wraps – I LOVE that lettuce wrap crunch. Or, you can serve it with a side of mashed cauliflower and zucchini noodles.
For our soccer/football/game parties, I keep it inside the Instant Pot on the “warm” function for people to scoop it onto their plates or to fill up their sandwiches.
If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you need one if just for this recipe, only. AND for my Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken.
Seriously, KETO Crack Chicken will change your life, especially when you can make it in no time because of the Instant Pot. Let me just tell you how easy this recipe is because of it.
How To Make Crack Chicken
Creamy crack chicken makes an easy low carb, Keto dinner that you’ll go back to again and again because, one, it’s delicious, but 2, everything is going into the Instant Pot for only 20-ish minutes.
- Start heating your Instant Pot and add diced bacon; cook for a couple of minutes or to a desired crispness. Remove bacon and set aside.
- Heat some oil in the Instant Pot and brown the chicken breasts for 2 minutes per side. You don’t have to brown the chicken – it’s up to you – but I think it’s better if you do.
- Add chicken broth to the Instant Pot, a block of cream cheese, and your ranch seasoning mix that includes; dried dill, dried chives, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.
- Cook on HIGH PRESSURE for 12 minutes, then do a quick release.
- Remove chicken from the Instant Pot and shred it.
- Stir the chicken back into the Instant Pot, place the lid back on the Instant Pot (powered off), and let stand for 5 minutes to thicken the sauce.
Slow Cooker Crack Chicken
- Add the chicken, cream cheese, and ranch seasoning to a slow cooker; cook on low for 5 to 6 hours or on high for 3 to 4 hours or until the chicken shreds easily. Once shredded, toss it back in the slow cooker and stir. Add in crumbled bacon and serve.
Tips and Variations
- IF the sauce is too thick, stir in a little bit of chicken broth or water.
- IF the sauce is too thin, make a slurry with cornstarch and a little cold water; mix until smooth. Stir the mixture into the hot liquid until it’s blended.
- You can use a store-bought Ranch Seasoning packet if you want, but I suggest making it from scratch, recipe below. The store-bought stuff has too much sodium.
What To Serve with Instant Pot Crack Chicken
Crack chicken is basically a chicken filling meant to be used in sandwiches, but we can always go a step further and add crack chicken to:
- Salads
- Lettuce Wraps
- Low Carb Flour Tortillas
- You can also serve it as a dip for crackers and veggies.
Obviously, this chicken is an easy dinner recipe, the kind of dish that requires very minimal work on your part. All you have to do is get out your Instant Pot, toss in the ingredients, and turn up the heat. Then, EAT! ??
Storing Crack Chicken
- In the Fridge: Place leftovers in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 3 days.
- To Freeze: Let the chicken cool down completely, then transfer it to a large freezer bag or airtight container. Store 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 and serve.
More Instant Pot Chicken Recipes
- Instant Pot Chicken Breasts
- Instant Pot Chicken Zoodle Soup
- Instant Pot Lemon Butter Chicken
- Instant Pot Sticky Chicken Thighs
ENJOY!
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Instant Pot Crack Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 slices thick cut bacon,, diced
FOR THE CHICKEN BREASTS
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil or olive oil
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
- ½ teaspoon sweet or smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- salt and fresh ground black pepper,, to taste
FOR THE CREAM CHEESE + RANCH SEASONING MIX
- 8 ounces cream cheese,, room temperature
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon dried dill weed
- ½ teaspoon dried chives
- salt and fresh ground black pepper,, to taste
- 1 cup chicken broth
FOR GARNISH
- chopped fresh parsley
- sliced green scallions
Instructions
- Press the "Sauté" button on the Instant Pot and wait for it to heat up.
- Add the diced bacon and cook for a minute or two or to a desired crispness. Remove from the Instant Pot and set it aside.
- Heat the oil in the Instant Pot.
- Season the chicken breasts with paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
- Once olive oil is hot, add the chicken breasts and brown on both sides; about 2 minutes per side.
- In the meantime, place the cream cheese in a mixing bowl and season it with garlic powder, onion powder, dried dill weed, dried chives, salt, and pepper; mix to combine. OR season the cream cheese with 1 tablespoon of store-bought Ranch Seasoning Mix.
- On the Instant Pot, press "Cancel" to stop sautéing.
- Add the cream cheese mixture to the Instant Pot.
- Pour in the chicken broth.
- Turn the pot on Manual High Pressure for 12 minutes; then do a quick release.
- Remove the chicken, and transfer it to a cutting board to shred it with two forks or meat shredder claws.
- Stir the shredded chicken back into the Instant Pot; place the lid back on the Instant Pot (powered off) and let stand for 5 minutes to thicken the sauce.
- Top with previously prepared bacon, fresh parsley, and scallions.
- Serve.
Notes
- Ranch: Please follow the above recipe for making your own Ranch Seasoning Mix OR use 1 tablespoon of store-bought Ranch Seasoning Mix.
- Chicken Broth: If using low-sodium chicken broth, remember that you’ll need to adjust/add more salt to your dish. You don’t want a salty flavor, but salt intensifies the flavors of the other ingredients and eliminates the bitterness.
- Slow Cooker Method: Add the chicken breasts, cream cheese, and ranch seasoning to a slow cooker; cook on low for 5 to 6 hours or on high for 3 to 4 hours. Remove the chicken from the slow cooker and shred it. Once shredded, toss it back in the slow cooker and stir. Add in crumbled bacon and serve.
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.
Okay how much ranch dressing?
Hi!
Do you mean store-bought ranch seasoning mix? You’ll need about 1 tablespoon.
The listed spices ARE the ranch seasoning. You’re just making it from scratch 🙂
Very flavorful! I only added half the broth but was still too soupy. Next time I’ll skip the broth. Hubby put his over noodles, I put over sautéed broccolini-delish!
If you skip the broth it will burn it has to have liquid to make the steam to cook. just turn it to saute and cook the broth down while you shred the chicken.
Ohhhh my LANTA! This chicken was beyond amazing. I used organic herbs that were fairly new so maybe that made a difference in taste (in regards to some people saying theirs lacked flavor). The flavor in this for my partner and I was 10/10. He’s asking me to make it weekly now. SO good. The spices make this. Hard to believe it’s keto-friendly. We did lettuce wraps, but next time I will put it over a bed of steamed broccoli.
This was not as flavorful as I thought it would. It was good though. I took the suggestion of another person and served it over noodles for my kids and broccoli for me. It never thickened up. This could easily be made into a soup by adding more broth or cream and some veggies. I will make it again.
This was my first attempt of cooking with my InstaPot. Flavor is great, sauce was thin. Added some cornstarch to thicken it up. Served over a bed of steamed broccoli for me (low carb) and over noodles for the kids.
I doubled recipe and used frozen chicken breasts. They were not cooked all the way through, so cooked them for about 5-7 additional minutes. Plenty of leftovers. Overall, definitely a keeper.
Stop calling it Instapot!!! It’s Instant Pot!!! I bet you say PIN number and ATM machine too! #SMDH
Relax.
Woah……. Of all the things going on in the world, I think we can give this one a pass…
Wow. Calm down nomenclature cop!!!
Oh Bendover, why did that upset you so much? Just go cook something really good and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Would leftovers hold up well in the fridge?
This recipe is amazing! I made mine into more of a soup. I added and extra half cup of broth and 2/3 C of heavy cream. I also used chicken thighs for extra flavor. Might be one of the best “soups” I’ve ever ate!!
I have made this with several times. Once with chicken bone broth, and ( accidently) beef bone broth. It was great with the chicken broth, and amazing with the beef broth. Great recipe!!!
Maybe I’m overlooking it, but how much broth does this recipe call for?
1 cup. But I removed some after and didn’t add the cream cheese till the end – shredded the chicken and then sautéed to melt the cream cheese so it was a thicker sauce.
I used Jalapeno Bacon and it really kicked the flavor way off the charts! I did have to thicken the broth as per the instructions given. The chicken though!!! OMG ! so tender, fall apart! Easy to shred. I looked at the ingredients in the Ranch dry seasoning and was not impressed so I went with the advice…from scratch. I just could not find dried chives so I added dried parsley instead. Flavor was soooo so good! Fast, easy to make. If I were not on a keto diet I would spread this over rice in a heartbeat!!!
David you can dry fresh chives in the oven .All you do is cut up the chives into 1/4 inch pieces .Get a cookie sheet and put a piece of parchment paper down on the sheet add the chives and bake at 185F until dried usually between 1-2 hrs .
I found it a little boring. I was looking for a little more depth. Maybe next time I will try some peppers. It is a good base recipe.