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Why You’ll Love My Recipe
Ignore the name and try this casserole for the delicious flavours! Juicy chicken, gooey cheese, and crunchy bacon make for an indulgent and filling weeknight meal.
Why not make your very own Ranch Dressing for this recipe? Serve up a generous side of Roasted Broccoli or a Kale Caesar Salad to balance out the meal. If this recipe isn’t quite your jam, try something equally simple like Homemade Hamburger Helper.
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: Like most casserole recipes, this one is very easy.
- Total Time: This recipe will take you approximately 60 minutes from start to finish. If you’ve got some cooked chicken available, you can use that and save yourself a few minutes.
- Variations: So many options for variations! Try a different type of cheese, or even multiple cheeses. Use a different variety of bacon, maybe something hickory smoked or even a turkey bacon. Make your own ranch dressing or try something different like Thousand Island Dressing. Add a splash of your favourite hot sauce or some chili flakes for spice.
- Tools Needed: For this recipe, you’ll need an 8×8 or 9×9 square casserole dish, a large skillet, a medium bowl, a whisk, a knife, a cutting board, and some foil. An instant read meat thermometer would be helpful as well.
What You’ll Need For Ingredients
Chicken: Boneless, skinless chicken breasts will work best for this recipe, staying juicy and tender with all of the other ingredients. However, if you have some leftover cooked chicken in the fridge, you can absolutely use that and save yourself the step of cooking chicken.
Bacon: If you’d like to add another element of flavour, try some hickory smoked bacon. Depending on your dietary needs, choose a low-sodium bacon or some turkey bacon. If thick sliced bacon is in your budget, go for it.
Cheese: We just used grated cheddar for this casserole, but go ahead and try whatever cheese you like best. You’ll probably want to stick to cheeses with a fairly distinctive taste to cut through some of the richness. Try something like extra old aged cheddar, or something with hot peppers mixed in.
Egg Mixture: This mixture of eggs, cream, sour cream, and ranch dressing will be the glue that holds the casserole together. Salt, pepper, and onion powder add some flavour, but feel free to ramp up the taste with your own additions. Hot sauce or salsa would work well, as would garlic powder or whatever seasoning you like best.
How To Make Crack Chicken Casserole
This is a brief overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Cut chicken into cubes. Add chicken and oil to large skillet and fry over medium heat until chicken is brown and cooked through. Remove chicken from skillet and set aside.
- Cook bacon in skillet until desired crispiness. Remove from heat.
- Put cooked chicken in casserole dish. Sprinkled half of the cooked bacon on top of the chicken. Add 1/2 cup of cheese, spread out.
- In a medium bowl, beat eggs with a fork. Add cream, sour cream, ranch dressing, and onion powder. Whisk lightly. Pour over the chicken and bacon in the casserole dish.
- Top with remaining cheese and cooked bacon. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.
- Cover casserole with foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven, let rest for 5 minutes and top with chopped green onions.
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for Making Crack Chicken Casserole
All About Balance: This casserole is delicious, but it is heavy on dairy and meat rather than vegetables. Fill out your meal by adding on a vegetable side or a salad so that your body is still getting those nutrients and some fiber. Try a Classic Wedge Salad, some Sautéed Green Beans, or Roasted Broccoli.
Chicken Choices: While chicken breasts are easy to work with and not usually too expensive, chicken thighs tend to have more fat and flavour. You can also use meat from a rotisserie chicken, or some leftover roast chicken or turkey from a previous meal.
Crunchy: Why not try sprinkling some breadcrumbs on the top of the casserole? They’ll soak up a bit of the oil from the melted cheese and make the topping extra crispy. You can even make your own breadcrumbs and have them around for other recipes.
Storage Instructions
Fridge: Once the casserole is fully cooled, you can store the leftovers in a sealed container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Freezer: You can safely freeze this casserole either whole or in individual portions for several months. However, due to the cheese and all of the other dairy, you will not end up with the same texture or consistency when you defrost this. You may have better luck freezing it whole and uncooked. Then you can take it out of the freezer a few hours in advance and cook it at that point.
More Delicious Casserole Recipes
Looking for more tasty Casserole recipes?
Try this Classic Chicken Divan or a Broccoli Rice Casserole or
Want some Ukrainian food? Why not make this easy Crock Pot Lazy Pierogi Casserole or Lazy Cabbage Roll Casserole?
Make a Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole or Blueberries and Cream Breakfast Casserole for an easy holiday morning meal.
There you go, friends. A casserole full of cheese, bacon, and chicken that feels a bit indulgent and will fill you up. Try it out and let me know how you like it.
Happy Cooking!
Karlynn
Crack Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
- 3 cups chicken, cooked and cut into cubes
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 10 slices bacon, cooked and chopped up
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 cup cheddar cheese, grated and divided
- 3 eggs
- 4 tablespoons sour cream
- ½ cup whipping cream
- ½ cup ranch dressing
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F
- Slice the chicken into cubes. In a large skillet over medium heat add the oil and brown the cubed chicken until it is cooked and has reached an internal temperature of 165°F. Remove it from heat and set aside.
- Cook the sliced bacon just until crisp.
- Place the cooked chicken into the bottom of an 8×8 or 9×9 casserole dish.
- Sprinkle half a cup of chopped bacon on top of the chicken.
- Cover with ½ cup of shredded cheese
- In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with a fork and add in sour cream, cream, onion powder and ranch dressing stirring lightly with a whisk.
- Pour over the chicken and bacon in the pan.
- Top with the remainder of cheese, and sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of bacon on top.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes cover the pan with foil making sure the foil does not touch the cheese, and put back in the oven for another 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven, and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
- Top with green onion before serving.
Notes
- This crack chicken casserole goes well with a side of broccoli or a great Caesar Salad.
- You can even put this Crack Chicken Casserole in a bun for dinner.
- I used Cheddar Cheese and it was great. But feel free to mix it up. You can try some Swiss cheese, Colby Jack, or pepperjack to add some heat!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
linda says
I don’t know for sure how the recipe originally got its name, but “crack” or “crackin'” were words used to describe really good things way before crack cocaine became famous. I don’t know anything about crack cocaine except I think you sniff it, lol, nor why it is called crack, but theremay be something that literally cracks in using it but it, too, might come from the meaning I mentioned. Something is crack if it’s really good, cool, desirable. You might also go to a party or on a date and have a “crackin’ good time.” It was mostly used in the past but in some areas, I still hear it used.
So, maybe you needn’t think drugs, addiction or ruined lives when you hear it called “crack chicken.” It just means really good. chicken, which indeed, it is!
shortstuff42 says
“Crack” is also used to describe things like she’s a crack shot . . .
Dureene says
I prepared this recipe for my family last night. I believe it’s my first that the family hated. Very disappointing, it ended up being thrown out. I find it hard to believe this recipe went through your test kitchen.
Betty says
I also support ditching the word crack from recipes. Offensive. I will try this recipe but will not refer to it as crack casserole.