Delicious and hearty chicken bacon ranch soup, as known as crack chicken soup, takes the soul-satisfying flavors of chicken, bacon, and ranch seasoning and combines it into a one-bowl dish your favorite won't be able to get enough of! Plus it cooks in less than 30 mins if you already have chicken and bacon on hand! It's a WHOLE LOTTA YUM!
Chicken Bacon Soup
With my husband being on a keto diet for over a year now, we've definitely eaten the popular keto dish called crack chicken. For some reason, it wasn't ever a favorite of mine, but maybe it's because I didn't create my own version and just pulled random recipes off of the internet 😉
Soup, however, is a totally different situation! Just taking the classic ingredients of chicken, bacon, and crack chicken seasoning mixed with a creamy broth takes crack chicken from good to amazing!
The chicken bacon soup was SO delicious, my husband already asked me to make it a second time that week AND to make sure it got into our monthly meal rotation.
Why You'll Love This!
- When you start with pre-cooked chicken and bacon, the recipe comes together in 30 mins or less.
- You get your favorite chicken bacon Ranch flavors in a hearty, comforting bowl of soup
- If you're eating low carb, this is a terrific soup option for you, plus its keto-friendly and gluten-free too
- Easy to lighten up by using almond milk instead of cream but still retaining the richness
Do you have a pressure cooker? Then be sure to check out our variation for Instant Pot crack chicken soup--it's the exact same recipe adapted for the Instant Pot but with spinach added.
If you're a super lover and always on the lookout for new tasty soup recipes, then you'll want to try our Crockpot taco soup, Pizza soup, Instant pot broccoli cheddar soup, or Eggdrop Soup.
On Keto? Grab our FREE keto foods list here OR Snag our Keto Binder HERE
What is Crack Chicken Soup?
What exactly is considered crack chicken really depends on who you ask! Many will say that crack chicken and crack chicken soup are called that because it's so addictive. When you search for crack chicken recipes on the internet, the majority will be a combination of bacon, chicken, cheese, and Ranch powder turned into a hearty casserole, soup, or dip.
Hence, how we came up with our chicken bacon ranch soup recipe 😉 It combines all of the yummy flavors that hit every note.
The "original" creators of Crack Chicken is actually a business called the Eastside Fish Fry & Grill in Michigan who use a secret chicken crack seasoning to coat their chicken and fish. According to locals, anything other than the Eastside recipe is an imitation, but like most home cooks, we love to take what tastes delicious and adapt it to our own kitchens!
For most crack chicken recipes, including this yummy chicken bacon soup, the crack chicken seasoning actually comes from powdered Ranch seasoning, which of course is easy and accessible from your local grocery store. And instead of using the chicken crack seasoning to coat the chicken, the seasoning is mixed into the soup instead.
Why maybe creamy chicken bacon soup with Ranch seasoning isn't the original, one thing we can ALL agree on....
It IS addictive!!
Ingredient Notes
You'll just need a handful of basic ingredients to put the chicken bacon soup together.
- chicken breast, cooked and diced or sliced
- large onion, diced
- Ranch seasoning packet - Simple Organics makes one without artificial ingredients if that's of consideration for you
- cream cheese, cubed and softened
- shredded cheddar (shred from a block of cheese, do NOT use pre-shredded)
- bacon, cooked and crumbled
- chicken broth
- almond milk or half n half
- Green onions, sliced to garnish (optional)
How to Cook the Chicken
Buying a rotisserie chicken would be the quickest way to have pre-cooked chicken for this recipe. One note of caution is that rotisserie chicken is saltier than plain boiled chicken breast and it could make the soup too salty. If you use a rotisserie chicken, consider cutting back on the Ranch seasoning or even the bacon. We have not tested this recipe with rotisserie chicken.
If you'd rather not purchase a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken, the easiest and one of the cheapest ways to quickly cook chicken for recipes is to pan fry chicken tenders. Cooking chicken tenders on the stovetop takes just 10 minutes, plus it stays moist in the middle, yet gives you a crispy crust on the outside.
We also love to cook boiled chicken breast on the stove top instant pot chicken tenders from frozen or bake chicken breasts to meal prep for the week.
Cooking the Bacon
And to easily cook bacon when you want to cook an entire pack at once, you'll want to cook bacon in the oven! Our favorite way to make bacon.
Step by Step Instructions
You won't believe how easy it is to make crack soup and you'll be wondering why you didn't try it earlier! Especially if you already have pre-cooked chicken tucked away in the freezer, and pre-cooked bacon on hand, putting this together is a breeze.
Because we love to prep a batch of bacon on weekends to add to dishes like this, to have on hand for breakfast, or to add to salads or meal prep lunches, we also love to save the bacon grease!
Prep
Cook the chicken or bacon if you're making it fresh for the recipe.
If you're just making your bacon fresh to use in this recipe, keep 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease set aside to fry the onions.
Saute
Preheat a soup pot over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of bacon grease if you have it, if not substitute an oil like olive oil or avocado.
Sauté the onion until it's soft, which took about 6-7 minutes.
Simmer
Add the chicken stock and Ranch seasoning packet and stir the ingredients together.
Bring the chicken stock and almond milk to a gentle boil over medium-high heat, and then turn down to medium-low heat as soon as it starts bubbling.
Add the pre-cooked chicken and simmer until the chicken is heated through, which should take 1-2 minutes.
Add Dairy
Then the softened cream cheese cubes to the hot broth and stir until combined.
Slowly stir the shredded cheese into the soup.
Right before serving mix in the chopped bacon.
Garnish with more bacon, shredded cheese, and green onion slices. Enjoy!
Recipe Tips
- Having pre-cooked chicken on hand prepped and stored in the freezer makes this recipe even easier.
- Using a store-bought rotisserie chicken, which comes salted, could make this dish too salty for some. You might need to cut back on the Ranch seasoning or even the bacon to reduce the sodium in the soup if you have a rotisserie chicken
- Bake the bacon in the oven so you don't have to cook more than one batch as you might in a skillet
- Fully soften the cream cheese so that it melts into the soup (instead of clumping)
- Grate cheese from a cheddar cheese block, pre-sliced cheese is coated with potato starch and doesn't melt well
- Use almond milk or half n half to make it creamy, to make it even richer substitute whipping cream
Common Questions
Keto Chicken Bacon Chowder?
If by chance you're following a keto diet like my husband, rest assured, this keto crack soup or keto chicken bacon chowder--whichever you prefer to call it--is definitely low carb and keto-friendly! Make sure to use full-fat dairy products to keep the carbs as low as possible.
this crack chicken soup only has 4 net carbs per serving.
Can I Freeze Crack Chicken Soup?
Crack chicken soup is NOT a good soup for freezing. Any soups with dairy in them generally do not freeze well and might separate.
Fortunately, because the crack soup is so addicting, you won't have to worry about leftovers going bad! 😉 You can, however, store it in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
More Soup Recipes
Please leave a review if you make our chicken bacon Ranch soup recipe! We love feedback from readers, plus it helps others too.
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Recipe
Chicken Bacon Ranch Soup (Crack Chicken Soup)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 lb chicken breast cooked and diced or sliced
- ½ large onion diced
- Ranch seasoning packet
- 8 oz cream cheese cubed and softened
- 1 cup shredded cheddar shred from a block of cheese, do NOT use pre-shredded
- 8 pieces of bacon cooked and crumbled
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup almond milk
- Green onions sliced to garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat a soup pot over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of bacon grease if you have it, if not substitute olive oil or avocado.
- Sauté the onion until it's soft, which took about 6-7 minutes.
- Add the chicken stock and Ranch seasoning packet and stir the ingredients together.
- Bring the chicken stock and almond milk to a gentle boil over medium high heat, and then turn down to medium low heat as soon as it starts bubbling.
- Add the precooked chicken and simmer until the chicken is heated through, which should take 1-2 minutes.
- Next add the softened cream cheese cubes to the hot broth and stir until combined.
- Slowly stir the shredded cheese into the soup.
- Right before serving mix in the chopped bacon.
- Garnish with more bacon, shredded cheese and green onion slices.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
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Leslie says
My husband is in love with this soup! We had it as soup a few nights ago, and then as a sauce for our pork chops tonight. The best ever!
WholeLottaYum says
Hi Leslie, I'm so glad he loves it so much! Jen
Danielle says
This was really yummy! I used 8 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese and added a little half and half and heavy cream that I needed to use up. I also added 1 bag of frozen cauliflower florets and 2 cups of frozen okra. I made mine in the instant pot. I placed my Frozen chicken breast, chicken broth, seasonings, okra, and cauliflower into the instant pot and set it for 15 min. Once done I took out the veggies with a slotted spoon and placed them into my blender along with the cream cheese, almond milk, half and half, heavy cream, and some hot broth just to get everything melted together. I then I added the purée back to the soup, shredded chicken and then stirred the cheddar cheese into the soup until melted. Hidden weight loss veggies!
Kay Lynn Lee says
I would not use a pre-packaged ranch dressing product; regardless of keto friendliness, those have maltodextrin as the first ingredient and MSG not far behind. Having adopted a keto diet for migraines, not weight loss, these are triggers for me and other migraineurs. There are ample ranch dressing recipes out there which are equally delicious and less harmful. Otherwise, sounds like a great recipe.
WholeLottaYum says
Hi Kay, that's why we suggested using an organic brand of Ranch seasoning like we did in the recipe--it doesn't include artificial ingredients. But it might not be sold at all grocery stores. People of course can make their own homemade Ranch seasoning if they have time. And yes, it's really really good soup!