Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken
on Dec 28, 2019, Updated Jan 11, 2024
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Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken is a comfort food classic that the whole family loves. This delicious meal is one of our most popular slow cooker recipes and is perfect for a big family or a delicious dinner for two.
The best part of this crock pot chicken is that it has a prep time of eight minutes! Read on, and I’ll show you how to make this delicious dish using a few very simple ingredients.
Table of Contents
What is Crock Pot Chicken Recipe?
Slow cooker creamy chicken is part of our collection of popular slow cooker chicken recipes. I’m speaking of many different recipes like our honey garlic crock pot chicken quarters, our slow cooker Mexican chicken soup, and our slow cooker roast chicken.
There’s something magical about coming home to the aroma of Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken. This delicious dinner recipe is a staple in our home, especially on those nights when comfort food is a must.
It’s a recipe that’s been perfected over time and cherished by the whole family, making dinner time a delightful moment of togetherness. Whether it’s your first time or you’re a seasoned pro, this crock pot creamy chicken never fails to impress.
What’s in it
- Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts or Tenderloins: We’re talking about tender chicken that falls apart with a fork. Shredded chicken is also a great option if you prefer. I always prefer free-range organic chicken in all of my chicken recipes. It costs more, but I know I’m not buying a preservative-filled bird, pumped with antibiotics and hormones and forced to live its life in a show box-sized cage. Plus, there is no comparison in the quality of meat and flavor!
- Cream of Chicken Soup and Sour Cream: These basic ingredients form the backbone of our creamy sauce, giving that rich, comforting texture.
- Cheese: I love using a mix of cheddar and parmesan cheese, and sometimes, I even add a bit of mozzarella cheese for extra gooeyness.
- Seasonings: A blend of garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning, and a touch of salt and pepper. For a bit of kick, red pepper flakes are my go-to.
- Vegetables and Herbs: I use a prepackaged mix of vegetables and garnish with green onions for a fresh touch.
- Egg Noodles: The perfect canvas for our creamy sauce, but you can also try this with wild rice or even a simple rice recipe.
How to Make Creamy Crock Pot Chicken
Towards the end of cooking, add your vegetables and prepare your side dish, be it egg noodles, white rice, or homemade mashed potatoes.
Remember, the full measurements and ingredient quantities can be found at the bottom of the page on the printable recipe card.
- Using your crock pot, combine the creamy elements at the bottom of the pot. Add the soup, shredded cheese, sour cream, garlic, onion powder, salt, pepper, and water, in a crock-pot.
- Add the raw chicken on top of the mixture, ensuring the top of the chicken is well-coated. Cooking on low heat allows the flavors to blend beautifully.
- Towards the end of cooking, add your vegetables and prepare your side dish, be it egg noodles, white rice, or homemade mashed potatoes.
- Add an optional garnish of fresh chopped parsley and serve this slow cooker creamy chicken!
Finally, this creamy crockpot chicken is an ideal choice if you want to contribute a meal to your local homeless shelter. We have more Ideas for Making Meals for the Homeless as well.
Recipe Tips
- Set the slow cooker on low, when adding the ingredients.
- Omit carrots and noodles to cut carbs.
- Substitute chopped onions or dry onion soup mix for onion powder.
- You can also use cream of mushroom soup.
- This reheats well, just follow our directions to reheat alfredo sauce.
Variations and Substitutions
- Dairy-Free: Use corn starch mixed with low sodium chicken broth as a thickener instead of cream.
- Spice it Up: Add Italian seasoning or garlic powder for an extra zing.
- Other Recipes: This method is versatile; swap out the chicken for a pound of beef tenderloin strips! You can also try things like creamy Tuscan chicken, slow cooker crack chicken, or even white chicken chili.
- Protein: Swap chicken breasts for boneless skinless chicken thighs or even go for creamy Italian chicken.
Food Safety Tip
Food Safety Tip: The FDA recommends chicken to have an internal temperature of 165° F before serving it. This instant-read thermometer is the best one out there and it is the one I always recommend using.
How do you serve it?
This creamy chicken soup-like dish is best served over a bed of egg noodles, brown rice, or even cauliflower rice.
Pair it with a side of steamed broccoli, a green salad, or some delicious homemade mashed potatoes for a complete meal.
Readers questions
Yes. Bake at 400° in a covered baking dish, such as a Dutch Oven.
We don’t recommend putting frozen poultry in a crockpot, although many people will do this.
Yes, but add it at the end, just prior to serving.
No. You can use whole, boneless, skinless breasts for this crockpot recipe.
Yes, you can convert this into an instant pot recipe! See our exclusive content below.
Instant Pot Creamy Chicken
Use the same ingredients to turn this slow cooker creamy chicken into an instant pot recipe!
- Place 1 to 2 lbs of boneless skinless breasts in the instant pot.
- Add 1 cup of broth.
- For frozen breasts, pressure cook on a manual setting for 6 minutes.
- For thawed breasts, pressure cook on manual setting for 4 minutes.
- Do a natural release of 6 minutes for both frozen and thawed meat
- If using frozen vegetables, thaw them in a sink of warm water them to the instant pot.
- Remove the poultry from the Instant Pot after a 6-minute natural release, tent with foil, and set aside, reserving liquid.
- For the pasta, either prepare it according to the package instructions on the stovetop or in the instant pot.
- If using the Instant Pot for cooking the pasta, add 12 oz of pasta to the reserved liquid.
- Add tap water to cover the pasta by 1/2 an inch.
- Pressure cook on manual setting for 2 minutes and use a quick release
- Stir in the cheese, vegetables, and sour cream and the cooked poultry to the Instant Pot and serve.
More Slow-Cooker Recipes for Kids
If your family enjoys this slow cooker creamy chicken, be sure and take a look at these family favorites as well!
- Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches
- Slow-cooked pork roast combined with white soda, brown sugar, and some other common pantry ingredients.
- Slow Cooker Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes & Ham
- An easy and affordable crock-pot meal and a good way to use leftover ham.
- Slow Cooker Sticky Caramel Pumpkin Cake
- A crock-pot dump cake that is ready to eat in two hours.
Remember, whether it’s a busy day or a relaxed evening, this Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken is a great dinner option. It’s a simple, easy recipe that the whole family loves.
From creamy chicken pasta to a more traditional creamy chicken soup, the possibilities are endless. So why not make it your dinner tonight? Your family will thank you!
I challenge you to try this creamy crockpot chicken. I know that your family will enjoy it as much as ours did.
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Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 lb Chicken tenderloins or boneless chicken breast
- 1 Family sized can of Cream of Chicken Soup
- 1 cup water or broth, Optional in crock-pot version but not optional in Instant Pot Creamy Chicken version.
- 2/3 cup of sour cream
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- Assorted vegetables, for convenience I used a prepackaged bag with carrots, broccoli and cauliflower
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 12 oz. egg noodles for a side
Instructions
- Combine in a crockpot cream of chicken soup, water, sour cream, minced garlic, cheese and salt and pepper.
- Add chicken into sauce mixture, make certain to cover chicken with sauce.
- Cover and turn crock pot on low. Cooking times will depend on how thick chicken is. Because I used chicken tenderloins which are thinner, chicken was done after 4 1/2 hours. If using a thicker chicken breast, continue in the crock pot until fully cooked.
- Add the vegetables on top of sauce and then add salt, pepper, and onion powder to taste to the vegetables.
- Before you are ready to serve, prepare egg noodle according to directions on bag.
- Stir sauce in crock pot prior to serving.
- Serve over egg noodles.
- Enjoy.
Video
Notes
- Use white or dark meat for this crockpot chicken recipe.
- This recipe is oven-friendly; bake at 400°, covered for 30 minutes.
- Adding veggies at the end will make this less mushy!
- Use either cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup for this recipe.
- Consider substituting Lipton onion soup mix for the raw onion.
- To reduce the carbs in this recipe, omit the carrots.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I’m stumped! I’ve been cooking mine for about 4 hours . Went to stir and it’s really watery. Any suggestions on how to thicken it up? Thanks
Hi Megan, I’m not sure why it is watery! I would sift and stir in a little flour to thicken it up; hope you love it!
The sour cream curdled when I put it in there first. Probably the cheese too. Maybe you should indicate only to add those items during the last 30 to 60 minutes of cooking.
Otherwise I would try this recipe again as the flavors were really good.
Hi Alice, I’m. not sure why that happened. We always add everything at the beginning and have not had this occur. Thanks for the comments.
Update: I made this recipe in the oven and it was fantastic!! I realize what I did with the crockpot was put it on the four hour setting which is high- Should have put it on low for four hours. In any case this will become a staple around our house 😊
Try already having the crock pot
On low when you’re adding the ingredients in and mix them all together well.
All 14 kids liked it, except the chicken. Only 3 kids ate the chicken. All 4 adults likes it with the chicken served over egg noodles, left out the frozen vegetables. Changed the onion powder to 1/4 C fine diced onion.
When I first read this, I thought you were saying that the kids liked it and the chicken didn’t. Lol
Ha-ha; now that’s funny, Carolynn!
This was truly one of the most amazing recipes I’ve made in a long time. Best comfort food ever! Can’t wait to make it again. I followed the directions without adding or changing anything and it was just amazing
This was the perfect meal, making it for the second time today. I’m cooking challanged, so this was perfect for me…thanks for sharing
Cindy, Thanks for the awesome feedback and we are happy to hear that this easy crock pot chicken recipe works well for you!
Great recipe but I have to make some substitutions for medical reasons. I will use homemade LS Cream of Chicken Soup, it’s not hard, mix the soup with Low Fat Yogurt first plus some flour, that will prevent the curdling issue. Plenty of boneless skinless chicken thighs for more flavor. For vegetables, potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, fresh mushrooms, and some garlic, then add some Bell’s Seasoning, and cracked pepper. I would cook on low 4-6 hours as needed, until it’s ready, then add whole wheat noodles to cook until al dente (only a few minutes). Then serve. My Slow Cooker is 8 qts, so I make a big batch, that’s why the extended cooking time. This could also be served with dumplings, or biscuits. I should use no yolk egg noodles, but they don’t have a whole grain version yet. Increased fiber is far more helpful than the harm caused by a small increase in cholesterol. I can use oat flour to thicken to counteract the cholesterol!
Just made this! My family loves it. To cut the carbs, I omitted the carrots and noodles. Added more cream of chicken to make it more of a soupy consistency then shredded the chicken apart once it was done. It almost tastes like a chicken pot pie without the crust. I will try to add corn next time per my husbands request. This was super easy and will definitely be making it again! Thank you.
Thanks for the feedback on our creamy crockpot chicken recipe; sounds like you nailed it!
I didn’t have time to wait for the slow cooker, so I made this in the oven tonight and it turned out great! It did take longer than 30 minutes to cook, more like 45. But I also used a Dutch oven so I’m not sure if that makes a difference or not? Other substitutions: I used one regular size can of cream of chicken, and one regular size can of cream of mushroom since that’s all I had. Chopped onions instead of using onion powder, and used fresh garlic. For veggies, I used broccoli. I’ll definitely make it again!
Oh my god, this was so delicious and easy. As a single dad I’m always looking for dinner recipes I can throw together quickly. I added half a pack of onion soup mix instead of onion powder which added great flavor. Leftovers were even better the next day . My 8 year old son loved it and asked me to make it again.
Thanks for the awesome feedback, Jake! We are delighted that you and your son enjoy this easy crockpot chicken recipe! The onion soup mix sounds like a genius addition!
Can I use frozen chicken breasts? And if so how would I adjust the recipe?
To help avoid foodborne illness, it is not advised to prepare frozen meats or other foods in a slow cooker. Alternatively, you can thaw them in the refrigerator or microwave prior to placing them in a slow cooker. For this creamy crockpot chicken recipe as written, you should use 1 lb of chicken breast, if that is what you have on hand. Thanks for the question and thanks for reading Platter Talk!
Going to try this out today but i had a question before i throw it all in the crockpot. I don’t have sour cream and don’t have a way to a store at the moment so i googled that mayonnaise can be substituted for sour cream but i wanted to ask first. Would mayonnaise be a good substitute in this recipe for the sour cream? Going to add potatoes and spinach for veggies and serve ontop of fried rice.
You could try mayonnaise with this creamy crock-pot chicken, but I would add it at the end. Good luck and thanks for the question!
Tried this recipe tonight.had everything except the onion soup so I just didn’t add that.and put over top of spaghetti noodles taste fantastic it definitely was a hit with my two girls andy girls are picky eaters.definately be making this again in the future.
Thanks for the great feedback, DeAnna; we’re happy you enjoyed this easy chicken crockpot idea!