Save This Recipe

Just drop your email here and We'll send it right away!

This Slow Cooker bacon Chicken pasta is the kind of dinner that does all the work for you. Five ingredients, a few minutes of prep, and by the time you need to get food on the table, it’s done — tender shredded chicken, smoky bacon, and a creamy savory sauce clinging to every piece of pasta.

Why You’ll Love It

Only 5 ingredients — chicken, bacon, a can of soup, a seasoning packet, and pasta. That’s it.
Truly hands-off — dump everything in before noon and dinner is ready when you need it, no stirring or babysitting required.
Incredibly flavorful — the bacon renders down into the sauce as it cooks, adding smoky depth you’d never guess came from a Slow Cooker.
Kid-approved — the Creamy Ranch-bacon sauce is the kind of thing even picky eaters go back for seconds on.
Easy cleanup — one Slow Cooker, one pasta pot, done.

A Few Notes on the Ingredients

The bacon matters more than you’d think. I’ve made this with the regular thin-cut stuff and it just… dissolves. Goes almost invisible by the time it’s done cooking. Use thick-cut if you can find it. I usually grab whatever’s on sale at the grocery store as long as it says “thick cut” somewhere on the package. Doesn’t need to be fancy.
For the soup, I use the standard condensed cream of chicken — the red and white can. I have tried the lower-sodium version and it works, the salt is just a little flatter. You adjust. The ranch packet is the Hidden Valley original, because that’s what I buy, though I’m not so devoted to it that I’d drive to a different store. Store brand is probably fine.
The pasta — I like rotini because the sauce gets in all the little spirals, but honestly this works with whatever you have open. Penne, bowties, egg noodles. Egg noodles might actually be the most Amish-appropriate choice, if you care about that kind of thing. I sometimes do and sometimes don’t.

Ingredients

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 3 or 4, depending on size)
8 slices thick-cut bacon
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup — the 10.5-ounce size
1 packet ranch seasoning mix (the 1-ounce envelope)
12 ounces dry pasta, cooked right before you serve — I’d say about 3/4 of a box, give or take

How to Make It

Spray your slow cooker or just wipe a little oil around the inside. I use olive oil on a paper towel because I never remember to buy the spray. Either way, it just makes cleanup less of an ordeal.
Lay your chicken breasts in the bottom. If they’re really thick — and sometimes they’re enormous now, I don’t know what they’re doing with chickens — you can cut them in half lengthwise, or just give them a couple of good whacks with a rolling pin to even them out. I’ve done both. I’ve also done neither, and it usually works out, it just takes longer.
Mix the ranch packet into the can of soup in a little bowl. Whisk it together until it’s smooth. Pour it right over the chicken. Use a spatula to push it around so everything’s coated.
Now lay the bacon over the top. Overlap the slices so the chicken is pretty much covered — you want that fat to baste everything as it cooks. If your bacon is really long, fold it in half. Don’t overthink this part.
Lid on, low heat, somewhere between four and six hours. I usually do five, which gets me through school pickup and the homework argument and the figuring out what I should have already taken out of the freezer. The chicken should be very tender — you’ll know it’s done when it basically falls apart when you poke it with a fork.
About twenty minutes before you want to eat, get your pasta going. Boil it, salt the water like you mean it, drain it when it’s just barely done. It’ll cook a tiny bit more when you mix it in.
When the chicken’s ready, use two forks and shred it right in the pot. It comes apart easily. Mix it into the sauce and the bacon — at this point the bacon has sort of melted into everything, which is either wonderful or horrifying depending on your relationship with bacon, but the flavor is incredible.
Dump the drained pasta in and toss it around until everything’s coated. Or plate the pasta and spoon the chicken stuff over it if you want it to look nicer. I do the dump-and-toss method because there are only so many dishes I want to wash at the end of a day.

Variations

You can stir in cream cheese during the last half hour to make the sauce richer — four ounces, softened, just let it melt in before you add the pasta. It’s good. A little heavy, but good.
You can swap in turkey bacon if you’re trying to lighten things up. I won’t pretend it’s the same, but it works. Some people fold in frozen peas or broccoli at the end, which is a reasonable way to feel better about the meal without actually changing much.
I’ve also made it with an onion soup mix packet instead of ranch. That’s a more old-school flavor — earthier, less herby — and some people actually prefer it. I notice things.

Storage

It keeps in the fridge for three days, maybe four if you’re optimistic and your fridge is cold enough. The pasta absorbs the sauce overnight, which means leftovers can be a little dry. Splash a little milk or broth in when you reheat it and it loosens right back up.
Freezing works, technically, but cooked pasta doesn’t thaw great — it gets a little soft and strange. If you know you want to freeze it, keep the pasta separate, or just freeze the chicken and sauce and cook fresh pasta when you’re ready.
I’ve eaten this cold, standing at the fridge at 11pm, and I have no regrets.