Keto Queens Crack Chicken Recipe

This recipe is from our e-book, 20 Low-Carb Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Recipes. In the e-book we call it “Better Than Crack Chicken”, which it really is! We switched up the seasoning a little (omitted the Ranch mix and added our own keto-friendly seasonings), and this takes it over the top in terms of deliciousness. Our e-book is now on sale on for just $4.99!

For only $19.99. It includes all 9 of our ebooks and meal plans! If you love the ebooks, join our affiliate program and earn 40% on each ebook sale you refer!

The wildly popular Crack Chicken is actually pretty simple in its ingredient list: chicken, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, bacon, scallion, and Ranch seasoning! The end result is creamy and rich, and packed with flavor. It’s proof that a recipe doesn’t have to be complicated to taste great. Crack Chicken is deliciously addictive, which is where the name comes from.

Spicy Keto Crack Chicken

A question we frequently get asked is whether you have to defrost boneless, skinless chicken breasts before making this recipe, or if you can just use them frozen. If you forgot to pull the chicken out of the freezer in the morning, we have good news for you! Crack Chicken can easily be made with frozen chicken. If using an Instant Pot, just add 5 minutes on to the cooking time (for a total of 20 minutes on Manual High Pressure).

Note that the U.S. Department of Agriculture advises against cooking frozen chicken in a slow cooker or crock pot because slow cookers cook at a low temperature and may not heat chicken up to 165F, which is the minimum temperature to destroy any dangerous bacteria and ensure that chicken is fully cooked. So if you’re using a crock pot or slow cooker to make Crack Chicken, make sure to defrost it first!

Sometimes we all have leftover chicken on hand that needs to be used up. Maybe you roasted a couple of chickens on the weekend to prep for the week ahead, maybe you had company over and grilled up too many chicken breasts.

Creamy Skillet Keto Crack Chicken

Or maybe rotisserie chicken was on sale at your local grocery store and it was too good a bargain to pass up or you made some Instant Pot shredded chicken breasts. Whatever the reason, we all can use a few ideas on how to use up leftover chicken.

If you have cooked chicken in your fridge just waiting to used, we have good news for you! Leftover chicken works great for making Crack Chicken. If using an Instant Pot, keep the chicken breasts whole if possible (don’t pre-shred them), and decrease the cooking time to 5 minutes (for a total of 5 minutes on Manual High Pressure).

One of the things we love most about Crack Chicken is that there are so many different ways you can make it! We love our electric pressure cooker, but if you’d rather throw everything together in the slow cooker in the morning and come home to dinner waiting for you, you’ll be happy to know that Crack Chicken can also be made in a crock pot.

Best Keto Crack Chicken Recipe

To make Crack Chicken in a slow cooker, add the chicken and cream cheese to the slow cooker. Whisk together the water, vinegar, chives, garlic powder, onion powder, crushed red pepper flakes, dill, salt, and black pepper in a small bowl and pour on top. Cook on LOW for 8 hours. Remove the chicken and shred it, and then add it back to the pot and stir in the cheddar. Cook the bacon in a skillet on the stovetop until crispy; cool the bacon and then crumble it on top.

After so many people have asked we made a keto baked crack chicken recipe! This recipe is just as good as our original keto crack chicken made in the instant pot!

There are a number of methods for shredding cooked chicken breasts, most of which take less than a minute! Choose the one that works best for you. Note that all of these methods work best when the chicken is still warm, so be sure to shred it before it cools, but not when it’s still too hot to safely handle.

Keto Crack Chicken Instant Pot 15 Min Recipe, Buffalo Style

Add the chicken to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Put on the splatter guard. Turn the mixer on until the chicken is shredded, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary.

Add the chicken to a large bowl. Beat the chicken on low speed with a handheld electric mixer until the chicken is shredded, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary.

Add the chicken to the bowl of a food processor fitted with the dough blade (this dough blade is for this Cuisinart food processor).

Easy Keto Instant Pot Crack Chicken Recipe

Add the chicken to a high speed blender (such as a Vitamix or Blendtec) and pulse a few times until the chicken is shredded.

Place the cooked chicken breasts onto a cutting board. Pierce the center of a piece of chicken with one fork and use the other fork to pull the chicken into shreds.

The main ingredients in this recipe (chicken, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and bacon) are all part of a low-carb, ketogenic diet. We skipped the store-bought Ranch seasoning mix because it usually contains sugar, quite a bit of salt, and preservatives that we try to avoid if possible. Instead we used a keto-friendly mix of dried chives, garlic powder, onion powder, crushed red pepper flakes, dried dill, salt, and black pepper to season our Crack Chicken.

Easy Crack Chicken Recipe

To keep this meal keto, an important thing to keep in mind is what you serve with this Crack Chicken; we share a few keto-friendly serving suggestions below.

This crack chicken recipe can be made super cheap! And if you’re looking for other budget friendly keto recipes, check out our 5 Day Keto Meal Plan. This keto meal plan is great for people looking to do keto on a budget. With our keto budget meal plan you can eat for less than $5 per day!

If you’re big into meal prepping, we have something for you! We wrote a post about keto chicken meal prep that you may enjoy!

Keto Crack Chicken Recipe

We love hearing from you! You can also tag # on social media. To stay up-to-date, FOLLOW US on Instagram @, Twitter, and Facebook.

We've tested this recipe upwards of 10 times and have never had the burn warning come on; however, several readers have had the warning come on, so we want to give a tip. In step 1 of the Instructions above, after removing the bacon from the pot, we recommend adding a splash of water, and use a wooden spoon to scrape up any brown bits that have formed on the bottom to deglaze the pan. After that, continue on with step 1 and press Cancel to stop sauteing.