This Italian Creamy Crockpot Chicken comes together in a snap. Take a look in your pantry, add your items, and in 4 hours dinner is done!
Creamy Crockpot Chicken – Just 5 Ingredients!
This is one of our family's favorite recipes for the slow cooker, because it's quick, yummy and e-a-s-y! This Creamy Crockpot Chicken with Italian Dressing can be ready in just a few hours – and it's SO good too.
One year, we were even traveling a bit for Spring Break, and brought Mrs. Potts along for the ride. (I know, how nerdy is it that I brought my crockpot with me on vacation? Seriously! Who does this stuff?)
When our family left Alabama earlier that week to ski in Colorado (yes, a twenty four hour DRIVE with three kids, a road-trip-lovin'-hubby, and of course Mrs. Potts in the back seat), and were ready to enjoy some amazing days in what has to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet.
This reminded me of one of our favorite ways to penny pinch on a not-so-penny-pinched vacation: cook simple meals on the road!
Since skiing is probably one of the least frugal vacations out there, we were trying to squeeze at least a few pennies by cooking a few of our own meals while traveling. We ate out twice during the two-day drive there, and were eating our breakfasts as well as many of our dinners in our condo. (Somehow it's just more fun to cook in someone else's kitchen. . . and after a full day of skiing my kids are would rather head to the pool or back outside to play in the snow than sit and wait food at a restaurant!)
I've shared a few times on how we save towards vacation, but for us, it's one of those amazing things that we're able to do because we live frugally most of the time. So, while I feel a little guilty splurging on such a frivolous trip (really, it's very hard for me not to feel like it's so wasteful!), well, it's something our family loves and one of the reasons that we choose to pinch those pennies.
Okie dokie, enough chatting, right? On to the recipe. . . Slow Cooker Creamy Italian Chicken. This is the MOST delicious crockpot chicken dish you'll ever taste. SO GOOD.
And I'm betting you've seen this recipe before, but if you haven't, it's one of those no fuss kind of meals totally worth pulling out the crock pot for on a busy day. And, if you happen to be heading out on vacation, you can always take your crockpot along for the ride too. (And be a slow cookin' nerd, like me.) 🙂
Slow Cooker Creamy Italian Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 lb Chicken Breast Refrigerated or Frozen
- 1 Packet Dry Italian Dressing Mix
- 1/2 Cup Water
- 8 oz Cream Cheese Softened
- 1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup or Homemade Substitute
Instructions
- Place Chicken in slow cooker
- Combine water and Italian salad dressing mix together - pour over chicken
- Cook on low for 3 hours
- Shred the Chicken
- Use a hand mixer to combine Soup and Cream Cheese
- Mix until creamy, and then add to Chicken
- Cook 1 additional hour
- Serve over pasta!
If you'd like to try rice instead of pasta, you certainly could. This could probably also stand on it's own for a lower carb meal, or you could pair with zoodles (Zucchini noodles) instead of pasta. Pair with a salad and some other veggies – maybe some fresh bred – and you've got dinner done!
Does it get any easier than that? We were in such a hurry when we were on vacation that I just threw all the ingredients in Mrs. Potts in the morning and cooked it all on low for five hours and it was perfect when we got home. Our new favorite Perfect Slow Cooked Pot roast recipe is also a favorite to have while we travel!
Do you have any tips on how to save money while traveling or easy recipes to take with you on the road? Please leave a comment to share!
Isn’t this your Alfredo chicken recipe? Our family calls it creamy chicken, since it isn’t what we’d typically think of as Alfredo. I wish I’d thought of calling it creamy Italian chicken. Does waiting to add the soup with the cream cheese change the taste?
If I make this again, I will drain the chicken juices containing the Italian dressing packet before placing the shredded chicken back in the crockpot. The dish was way too salty and my grandchildren wouldn’t eat it.
So sorry to hear that Patty! Draining it first would probably help! 🙂
I can’t have cream cheese. Any substitute ideas?
Hmm, you might be able to use a dairy-free, vegan cream cheese such as Miyoko’s or Violife Amy! If you’re okay with dairy, maybe try mascarpone? Would love to hear how it turns out if you give it a go! 🙂
Maybe plain yogurt?
Not slow-cooker related, but I might have packed a microwave oven, toaster, 2-cup coffee maker, and one whole suitcase full of food when we went to Disneyworld. We just left the microwave behind.
So smart Alison ~ not having to eat all your meals out is a great way to save while on vacay! 🙂
can u cook this chicken dish without using a slow cooker? can u just mix everything together…cook over the stove and serve?
I cook my chicken seasoned up with some salt and pepper sometimes I boil it sometimes I pan fry it just depends on what texture I am up for. Then I combine all the other ingredients in a pit or pan with the chicken and cook over a med heat. Instead of using a slow cooker.
I have also used ranch powder instead of Italian added a can of corn carrots drained some steamed broccoli along with one cup of water instead of the amount called for and cook until everything is combined well then add cooked pasta and serve it like one of the viola skillet meals. Or put it in a casserole dish top it with Ritz crackers and melted butter and my grandkids love this. Even the 2 year old.
You can also use a pack of the chicken and broccoli or chicken and rice knor sides in place of the plain pasta.
Thanks so much for sharing your tips and ideas Pam! 🙂
What you all need is a Thermal Cooker. It is the same concept as a crock pot, but with no electricity. You heat food up to a boil for 2-10 minutes depending on what the food is, then transfer to a thermal Cooker to finish cooking it. It is usually done in 2-8 hours and only looses 4 degrees in temp per hour, so from boiling to done is the same as a crockpot. Check out Saratoga Jacks. I took ours on a 4-wheeler ride and ate hours later. Totally sealed and could be in trunk or backseat- not hot on the outside at all either.
Thanks for sharing Cheri – I hadn’t heard of those before but will have to check them out!
Thank you so much Jennifer!!!
How much water do you add? Thank you so much for your recipes! I shared your recipe for italian beef with a friend who loved it as well! 🙂
It’s a 1/4 cup. It is written in at the very end of the recipe, not a numbered ingredient. Hope that helps! I’ve made this twice and it is very good.
One of our FAVORITE recipes! I also add frozen peas at the end and serve it over rice.
Do you know how many tbsp of italian seasoning mix come in a package? I prefer to make my own mix, but I would like to know the quantity I need to use.
Thanks!
I think mine was about 2 tbsp. Hope that helps!
Yep, when I made this today I measured my Good Seasons Italian packet contents and it was right at 2 tablespoons.
We always pack a cooler with drinks plus take our favorite traveling cups so that we can refill them with water from the soda fountain when we do eat out. The best thing I have discovered to keep things cheap for our family is to put snacks in baggies. Most snacks have more than a serving in them and this keeps the kids from just continuing to eat mindlessly. I will measure out whatever the serving size is and bag it. I throw it all in the center console in our vehicle and when the kids are hungry they can choose whatever we had in the stockpile that I bagged. Last week it happened to be gold fish, fruit snacks, oreos or nutter butters, sunflower seeds and granola bars. Typically, we will make sandwiches to put in the cooler to cover one meal. Also we have found it cheaper to eat lunch out then if we need dinner out we will order a pizza instead.
Love those tips Jacque! We definitely find that eating lunch out is the way to go, and pizza is such an inexpensive option compared to just about anything else. We splurged this time and brought quite a few pre-packaged snacks that were already serving sizes (that Rice Krispies sale at Target a few weeks ago really helped!), but giving our kids a whole bag of goldfish is asking for trouble! 🙂
Laurie:
First, I hope you’ve all had a fantastic vacation and have safe travels home.
Second, I had a question about your statement that you threw everything in Mrs. Potts. Does that mean you put the cream cheese and soup in from the beginning this time, instead of adding it at the end? Sounds more my speed, so if that’s what you did, I’d love to know if it still worked out well.
Thanks!
Thanks Jennifer! Okay… I did put it in all together this time, by just adding chicken and seasoning first, then softening the cream cheese and mixing it with the soup before pouring it over the chicken. (That’s not my normal recipe, but I was in a hurry and wanted dinner to be done when we got home). I like it a *little* better when I wait to add the other ingredients, but it was still good and we ate up every bite! 🙂
I made this today and it was GREAT! I followed the original recipe (instead of adding everything in at the beginning like you did for your vacation version) except I didn’t shred the chicken. I have a very picky eater and I figured it would be too difficult to remove edible chicken for him (plus he doesn’t eat pasta). Well, imagine my surprise when he agreed to have some of the sauce for dipping his chicken!
YUM! Another winning recipe. Thank you, Laurie!!!!
You’re so welcome Jennifer! So glad you liked it, and thanks so much for letting me know! 😉
Hope you had a great vacation! I can not wait to read the tips you have about saving for vacation. We are planning a trip for August and I am trying to plan ahead and save now! Whenever we travel we always take a cooler full of food and snacks because it is so much cheaper than eating on the road! Have a safe trip home!
The snacks definitely help Dawn! Saving year round is my best tip, but I’ll add more ideas shortly. We love vacationing, so any way that we can save more extra moo-lah definitely is worth it!
Dont think your the only vacation nerd out there. We go on vacations with our cooler full of frozen meals that I have prepared ahead if time. Having prepared foods making forking out money for gas and hotel rooms not seem so bad.
Love that Jessica! We were SHOCKED at the price of gas as we came out….. it was crazy (I’m almost wondering if we could have flown for less because it was so bad.) But, the meals definitely help, and I’m glad I’m not the only one who plans her food for the road! (We got one of those plug ins that works off our car battery, and I told my hubby we could cook a meal in Mrs. Potts as we drove!) 😉