Easy Baked Crack Chicken, also called Ranch Chicken, is a delicious dish that gets its name from the addictive flavor combination of ranch, cream cheese and bacon. It is low carb and keto friendly. But you don’t have to be on a keto diet to enjoy this recipe. The entire family loves this recipe!
One thing I like about this recipes, besides the fact that it takes just a few simple ingredients to make it, is that you can prep some of the ingredients ahead of time. This makes it a perfect meal for busy weeknights. It will soon become a family favorite.
Baked Crack Chicken Recipe
This recipe calls for ranch dressing mix. You don’t need to use a store bought mix. Making your own mix is easy to do. Try this homemade ranch dressing mix.
After you have made your ranch dressing seasoning mix, or if you are using a store bought mix, you can prep the ranch cream cheese mixture ahead of time. Once you’ve mixed it up store it in the refrigerator until it is needed.
Don’t be surprised if you find other family members dipping into the ranch cream cheese. It’s crazy good on bagels. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Ingredients for Crack Chicken:
- Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/4-inch thickness – you can also use boneless skinless chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts.
- Cream cheese – I used regular full-fat cream cheese. You can easily swap this out for light or fat free cream cheese
- Ranch seasoning mix – store bought or homemade ranch mix can be used. You’ll need 1 ranch packet for this recipe.
- Shredded cheddar cheese – I used sharp cheddar cheese but you can also use a combination of cheese that you prefer such as cheddar, jack or even pepper jack cheese
- Bacon – I like to use thick cut bacon but you can use your favorite type. As you are putting the bacon on near the end of cooking you will want to pre-cook it so you already have crispy bacon to top the chicken.
- Spices – salt, black pepper and smoked paprika
- Green onions – these are added to the ranch cream cheese as well as sprinkled on top of the finished chicken dish as a garnish
How to make Easy Baked Crack Chicken:
As of 5/23/22 I updated this recipe to make it even easier to make. I found that the chicken tasted just as good without browning the chicken before baking it. This makes the recipe even faster to make AND gives you one less thing to wash. A winning combination in my book!
However, if you enjoyed browning the chicken as it was written in the previous recipe simply sprinkle the seasonings over each chicken breast. In a large skillet heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and and the chicken breasts to the skillet. Cook the chicken until it just begins to brown, flip and repeat on the other side. Then continue with the recipe directions below after you place the browned chicken in the pan.
Here’s the new recipe directions:
Preheat the oven to 400F.
Prepare the cream cheese mixture. In a small bowl combine cream cheese, half of the sliced green onions and the ranch seasoning. Mix well and set aside.
Lightly grease a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
Prep the chicken breasts by pounding them with a meat mallet until they are about 1/4-inch thick. Season with salt, black pepper and paprika. Place the seasoned chicken in the baking dish.
Top each chicken breast with about 2 tablespoons of the cream cheese mixture. Spread to evenly coat the chicken breast.
Place the chicken in the oven and bake uncovered for 12 minutes.
Remove from the oven and evenly divide the shredded cheese over the top of the chicken. Divide the diced bacon over the chicken. Return the chicken to the oven and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes (depending upon the size of your chicken breasts) or until the internal temperature of the chicken is 165 degrees.
Remove from oven and garnish with remaining green onions before serving.
How to store baked crack chicken:
Store left over baked crack chicken in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.
Can you freeze baked crack chicken?
Yes you can freeze any leftover chicken after it’s cooked. Place the chicken in a freezer safe container with an air tight top and freeze up to 3 months. Don’t forget to mark your container with a date.
You can also make and freeze the bacon ahead of time. This is one of my favorite time saving tips. I prefer to bake my bacon in the oven. Often I will make at least two packages worth of bacon. To freeze it lay out strips of paper towels, place the cooked bacon strips on them, roll the paper towels up and place in a freezer storage bag to freeze them.
You can also cook and dice up the bacon to freeze as bacon bits. Then, any time you want to add a sprinkle of bacon to a recipe just pull the bag of bacon bits out of the freezer. It’s a huge time saver.
Save the remaining bacon fat as you can use it to sauté other things in it. It will give foods a bit of smokey bacon flavor.
Is baked crack chicken keto or low carb?
Yes it is keto. This is one of my favorite keto chicken recipes. This is such an easy recipe to make. You can keep it keto by serving it with your favorite low carb side dishes such as a side salad, low carb vegetables such as broccoli or cauliflower topped with a bit of butter, string beans or cauliflower mashed potatoes.
Can I use chicken thighs in this recipe?
This dish would taste delicious with either chicken breasts or chicken thighs. Use which ever one your family enjoys.
Can I make this dish ahead of time?
This is a fantastic make-ahead meal. Prepare and assemble it in the baking dish and put it in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake it.
Best side dishes for Baked Crack Chicken
This baked ranch chicken would make a delicious dinner with a side of steamed vegetables, green beans, a salad, a baked potato or mashed potatoes. Here are two of our favorite side dishes to serve with this recipe:
Oven Roasted Loaded Cabbage Steaks
Try these delicious oven roasted cabbage steaks. They are easy to make and you can bake them when you are making the baked crack chicken. View the recipe.
Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
Looking to keep this low carb? Then you might enjoy these cauliflower mashed potatoes as a delicious side dish. View the recipe.
Best dessert to serve with Baked Crack Chicken
Looking for a delicious and easy to make dessert to serve with this baked crack chicken? Then you’ll love this Pineapple Coconut Dump Cake.
Pineapple Coconut Dump Cake
The whole family loves this case. It is so easy to make. With just 3 simple ingredients you can quickly make up this dump cake. The tropical, fruity flavors make a tasty dessert to serve with the baked crack chicken. View the recipe.
Try this recipe and love it? Review it by clicking the star rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ on the recipe card! This helps other readers to find this recipe since the recipe rating will encourage search engines, such as Google, to suggest it to others. This helps support Remake My Plate as we are a reader supported publication.
Easy Baked Crack Chicken Recipe (Keto)
Equipment
- Baking dish
- Mixing bowl
- Mixing spoon
Ingredients
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts pounded to 1/4-inch thickness
- Salt and Pepper to taste to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 4 ounces Cream Cheese softened
- 1 tablespoon Ranch Seasoning mix
- 4 ounces shredded cheddar cheese white or yellow
- 4 slices Bacon cooked, diced
- 2 to 3 scallions finely sliced sliced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Prepare the cream cheese mixture. In a small bowl combine cream cheese, half of the sliced green onions and the ranch seasoning. Mix well and set aside.
- Lightly grease a 9 x13 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
- Prep the chicken breasts by pounding them with a meat mallet until they are about 1/4-inch thick. Season with salt, black pepper and paprika. Place the seasoned chicken in the baking dish.
- Top each chicken breast with about 2 tablespoons of the cream cheese mixture. Spread to evenly coat the chicken breast.
- Place the chicken in the oven and bake uncovered for 12 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and evenly divide the shredded cheese over the top of the chicken. Divide the diced bacon over the chicken. Return the chicken to the oven and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes (depending upon the size of your chicken breasts) or until the internal temperature of the chicken is 165 degrees.
- Remove from oven and garnish with remaining green onions before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
If you enjoyed this recipe you may also like one of these easy dinner recipes:
Fast and easy keto breakfast ideas
Want to get new recipes sent directly to your inbox? Then subscribe to our newsletter (see below) and be the first to know when we post a new recipe as well as get weekly shopping, cooking and meal planning tips. Follow me on Pinterest where you can find links to our recipes as well as other recipes you and your family will enjoy.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy. If you click on the banner below you will be taken directly to my Etsy shop to see the digital items currently listed.
Addictive. I’m on the carnivore lifestyle and this fits. I’ll cook up 12-15 thighs, let them cool, then cut them into strips which can then be used as snacks.
This was super yummy! For a quicker topping I will try flavored cream cheese next time.
Fantastic! It’s so yummy! One of my family’s favorites
Love this recipe. You don’t feel like you are eating low carb with this one.
If a serving size is only 1 gram, this is not low carb. Can you verify serving size?
Hi Andrea, Thanks for pointing that out. Looks like the recipe card program had an update and defaulted the serving size to be listed in grams. It has been updated and should now be showing 1 serving which would be 1/4 of the recipe as this makes 4 servings.
Hi. I have had a couple variations of crack chicken and they are all delicious. I am curious why you modified your recipe to remove pre-browning the chicken. I suppose it saves time but might have a flavor cost. I try to brown meat in recipes whenever I can. The browning from the maillard reaction almost always enhances and adds depth to the flavor. I have had baked crack chicken that was browned first and it was delicious. Do you find you can’t tell the difference in this recipe?
Hi Brian, I modified the recipe a bit to cut down on the prep time. I found that readers were telling me they skipped over browning and just put it right into the pan to bake. Browning meat does add another layer of flavor. If you’ve got the time and don’t mind an extra pan to clean then you’ll enjoy the added flavor from browning the chicken. If you’re short on time the flavor without the browning is still delicious.
I doubled the recipe and served it to my extended family for a birthday dinner. Even my son-in-law raved that it was delisious. And I even left out the bacon and used my own ranch spice mix. I was able to prepare it ahead of time and then just do the last baking part right before we ate.
So glad everyone enjoyed it! It’s a great meal prep recipe since you can prep parts of it before the final bake.
This was the most easiest meal to prepare. I made the Ranch seasoning ahead of time. I used a rotissierie chicken , shredded the meat and added all the ingredients in a cast iron skillet. I served this over zucchini noodles. My son will most likely reheat leftovers and enjoy this over Texas Toast. Super low carb for us Keto-eaters. This was the perfect ending to round out my macros for the day ! We will definatly make this again.
Hi! If you cook the bacon ahead of time what do you use to brown the chicken breast?
Hi Jami, When I cook my bacon ahead of time I save the bacon grease in a container in the refrigerator to use in cooking. If you don’t have any saved bacon grease then you can always use a bit of olive or vegetable oil to brown the chicken.