Meals · Roasts, ribs & slow cooker
Bacon ranch shredded chicken
Chicken breast cooked slowly with cream cheese and a homemade ranch seasoning, then shredded and folded through crisp bacon and melted cheddar. Rich, savory and very easy, and it spoons just as well into lettuce cups as over steamed vegetables.
- Time
- 265 min (15 prep + 250 cook)
- Servings
- 4
- Per serving
- 545 kcal
- Protein
- 59 g
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 lb chicken breast
Ranch seasoning
- 1 tbsp dried parsley
- 1 1/2 tsp dried dill
- 1 1/2 tsp dried chives
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 6 oz cream cheese, cubed
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 6 slices, cooked crisp bacon, crumbled
- 2/3 cup cheddar cheese, grated
- 3 green onions, thinly sliced
Steps
- Lay the chicken in the slow cooker and sprinkle over the parsley, dill, chives, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Dot with the cream cheese. Add no liquid; the chicken gives up enough of its own.
- Cover and cook on high for 3 1/2–4 hours, or on low for 5–6 hours, until the thickest piece reaches 165°F. While it cooks, fry the bacon over medium heat for 8–10 minutes until crisp, drain and crumble.
- Shred the chicken with two forks right in the pot and stir everything together. Stir in the lemon juice, most of the bacon and the cheddar. Leave the lid off and cook on high for another 10–15 minutes, until the sauce clings to the chicken.
- Top with the rest of the bacon and the green onions. Keeps 4 days in the fridge; reheat gently at half power with a splash of water.
Good to know
Can I use light cream cheese?
Yes. It melts a little looser, at about 65 instead of 59, so give it an extra 5 minutes with the lid off.
What do I serve it in?
Butter lettuce cups are the classic. It is also good over steamed broccoli or spooned into a halved avocado.
Per
- Calories
- 200
- Protein
- (44%)
- 22 g
- Fat
- (52%)
- 11 g
- Carbohydrates
- (4%)
- 2 g
- of which sugar
- 1 g
- Fiber
- <1 g
- Sodium
- 381 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 2181 kcal goes into the pot and 1148 g of ingredients comes out as about 1088 g of food: 200 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.