Description
Crock Pot Angel Chicken is the ultimate set-it-and-forget-it comfort food — tender chicken slow-cooks all day in a luscious cream cheese, cream of chicken soup, and Italian seasoning sauce that fills the house with an aroma so good everyone starts hovering before dinner is ready. Spoon it over angel hair pasta for a dish that tastes like a neighborhood Italian-American restaurant with a fraction of the effort or cost.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts (3–4 large breasts)
- Salt and black pepper, to season
- 4 oz (½ block) full-fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 can (10.5 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
- ¾ cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 packet (0.7 oz) dry Italian salad dressing mix (Good Seasons recommended — use dry powder only, NOT prepared liquid dressing)
- 12 oz angel hair pasta, cooked according to package directions
- Fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, for garnish
- Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
Instructions
1. Spray the slow cooker insert generously with nonstick cooking spray or drop in a liner bag. Season chicken breasts on both sides with salt and pepper and place in the bottom of the slow cooker in a single layer.
2. Combine softened cream cheese and softened butter in a medium bowl. Whisk vigorously until the mixture is completely smooth and creamy with no lumps. Add undiluted cream of chicken soup, chicken broth, minced garlic, and dry Italian dressing mix. Whisk until fully combined and glossy.
3. Pour the cream cheese sauce over the chicken, tilting the slow cooker so the sauce flows around and beneath each breast. Every surface of the chicken should have sauce contact — this produces the deeply flavored, sauce-soaked result that makes this recipe so popular.
4. Cover and cook on LOW for 4–5 hours or on HIGH for 2–3 hours. The chicken finishes when it reaches 165°F and pulls apart very easily with a fork. Check at the 4-hour mark on LOW and pull as soon as the meat shreds cleanly — overcooking past this point makes the chicken fibrous and dry.
5. Use two forks to shred chicken directly in the slow cooker and stir into the sauce, or remove whole breasts and slice on a cutting board against the grain. Shredded chicken absorbs into the sauce like a pasta ragu; sliced chicken gives a cleaner, restaurant-style plate presentation.
6. Cook angel hair pasta in generously salted boiling water 3–4 minutes until al dente. Drain and either toss directly into the slow cooker to coat with sauce, or plate the pasta and ladle chicken and sauce over the top. Garnish with fresh parsley and grated Parmesan. Serve immediately.
Notes
SOFTEN CREAM CHEESE FULLY: Cold cream cheese clumps badly and never fully incorporates into the sauce, leaving dense white pockets throughout. Pull it from the fridge 30 minutes before cooking or microwave in 20-second intervals until fully soft.
DRY PACKET ONLY — NOT LIQUID DRESSING: The recipe uses the dry powder from the seasoning packet, not a bottle of prepared Italian dressing. Liquid dressing makes the sauce oily and diluted. Find the dry packets near the ranch dressing packets in the salad dressing aisle.
CONDENSED SOUP GOES IN UNDILUTED: Use the soup straight from the can with no added water. The concentrated form gives the sauce the right thick, creamy consistency. Diluting it produces a thin, under-seasoned sauce.
PASTA COOKS LAST: Cook angel hair right before serving and serve immediately. Pasta sitting in warm sauce absorbs all the liquid and turns mushy within 15 minutes. Cook it, serve it, eat it.
TOSS PASTA IN THE SLOW COOKER: For the most flavorful result, drain the pasta and toss it directly into the slow cooker. Every strand absorbs the Italian cream sauce from the inside out rather than just having sauce ladled on top.
MUSHROOM UPGRADE: Layer 1 cup of sliced cremini mushrooms on top of the chicken before pouring in the sauce. They cook down and release earthy depth into the sauce over the full cook — add them at the start, not at the end.
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 5 hours
- Category: Dinner, Pasta, Main Course
- Method: Slow Cooker
- Cuisine: Italian-American, American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 chicken breast + 1 cup pasta with sauce
- Calories: 560
- Sugar: 3g
- Sodium: 830mg
- Fat: 22g
- Saturated Fat: 11g
- Unsaturated Fat: 9g
- Trans Fat: 0.5g
- Carbohydrates: 46g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 44g
- Cholesterol: 145mg