Instant Pot Crack Chicken Casserole

This Instant Pot crack chicken casserole is one of the most amazing pressure cooker cream cheese chicken and pasta recipe I have made thus far! Get ready for creamy cream cheese chicken with pasta.

Instant Pot Crack Chicken Pasta

If you need easy Ninja Foodi recipes, you can use that or the Crockpot Express pots instead. Any brand works, we have them all and there isn’t much of a difference other than the names of a few of the buttons.

All three of these have the saute function so you can brown your meat beforehand and high pressure to cook the noodles. Melts the cream cheese and everything stirred together makes the creamiest casserole on the planet. If you love our Ninja Foodi crack chicken recipe you’ll love this one pot meal for sure.

Cracked Chicken Casserole

Making Instant Pot casseroles is the only way to do it during the summertime so you don’t have to turn the oven on. We make this one year round because it’s a creamy hearty casserole with tender pieces of chicken thighs or breasts and diced vegetables. Made in less than 20 minutes it’s always a winner for dinner!

We eat a lot of poultry. Especially when I can find it on sale I will buy a bunch and divide it up into portion sizes. Having a deep freezer saves the day many times. I can save trips to the store which saves me time and money as well as more money when meat is not cheap.

For this we are going to dice it up into bite size pieces so it’s easier for everyone to eat. If you can find boneless skinless then it will make this process a lot easier. Sometimes that is a lot pricier so I will buy it as is and trim it all off myself. Depends on what I can find or what I have on hand.

Here are a few questions you might have before you get started on one of our favorite quick and easy casseroles. If you have others just let us know below.

Why do they call it crack chicken?

Some people don’t appreciate the name, so you can call it whatever you want. It came about because of how addicting it is. When tried people just can’t get enough of it. You can make it with pasta like this or smooth like chicken crack soup instead.

Ninja Foodi Crack Chicken Pasta

Like I said, any brand of electric pressure cooker will work here really. You are going to use the saute and high pressure function so as long as you have those you’re good to go. On Crockpot Express saute is labeled brown, it is the same thing. Allows you to cook everything together without dirtying more than one pot or pan.

Instant Pot Cracked Chicken

The basic ingredient to make this chicken and cream cheese dinner are those two ingredients. Everything is better with cheese and bacon too so we loaded up on the best bacon around. Noodles are a given when it comes to making a casserole, and I feel like you have to throw some type of vegetable in so we used petite peas this time.

You could really use any type of small diced frozen veggie inside this and I think it would be great. Gives it a little bit more texture, flavor, and incorporating veggies in every dish when you have kids gets them to appreciate the taste overall. That’s the way it worked in my house anyway.

One that I think turns out the best would be frozen peas. If my husband isn’t home that is what I use, if he is that is a big no no (childhood pea trauma, let’s not talk about it lol)

• I love one pot meals like this one and our pressure cooker chicken taco bowls. You just throw everything in, let it cook and do it’s thing and it’s ready!
• Very little prep and you have your protein, starch and vegetables all pressure cooked in one pot.

Crack Chicken Pasta in Instant Pot

Typically crack chicken recipes call for chicken breasts, but honestly I am a huge fan of chicken thighs!! For one thing they have SO much more flavor, are more tender, and are dirt cheap at the store…yes I am frugal, let’s be honest here.

So….I used thighs and I think it made for a tastier meal but that is totally up to you as well. Here’s what you need to make our easy Instant Pot crack chicken

Ingredients

• Pressure cooker is where this whole thing begins y’all
  • If you have an Instant Pot I HIGHLY suggest you get a non stick pot too!
• Chicken thighs I love because it is the most tender and adds a lot of flavor
  • Could use chicken breasts if you’d rather
• Cream cheese should be softened ideally, do not buy low fat friends
• Egg noodles work the best and soften very quickly, I like broad or wide version
• Chicken broth – can use water but it’s so much more flavorful with broth
• Bacon – optional but we’re not counting calories on this dish, we’re going for uber flavor y’all
• Ranch seasoning packet
  • If you don’t have the packets above available you can make your own ranch seasoning
• Frozen peas – optional
• Diced onion – optional but at least 1/2 cup is good

There’s a recipe video within this post you can watch showing you how easy it is to make. 

Ninja Foodi Cream Cheese Chicken Pasta

As noted in step 3 make sure you get all the small pcs. of cooked chicken off the bottom of your pot. If not it may trigger the burn message.

This has never happened to me but some pots are more sensitive than others and why I recommend this  non stick pot. You can remove the chicken to make sure everything is off. Another tip is to make sure you quick pressure release. If not the noodles can get overdone and too soft.

If you’d like a crockpot crack chicken recipe we have that too! This is a real winner using frozen chicken or fresh. Just throw it all in when you leave for the day and it literally falls apart cooking by itself all day. That is my kinda’ meal. Just shred when you’re home, throw it on buns and you have a killer meal everyone will love.

Instant Pot Cream Cheese Chicken and Pasta

If you have leftovers it saves quite well actually. You want to keep it as moist as possible so scrape out all of that wonderful sauce and pour as much of it on top. A sealed container is best but if you don’t have that a freezer bag will work with all the air sucked out of it.

Transfer to a microwave safe bowl and heat in 30 second increments stirring in between so it heats evenly. It really is a complete meal so I don’t really serve it with anything else but you could pair with a side salad or roll.

Then after you do try our other favorite Instant Pot chicken recipes;

• Instant Pot sesame chicken is probably my favorite meal served over rice
• Easy Instant Pot butter chicken is amazing if you love Indian recipes
• We have this simple Instant Pot chicken thighs bone in recipe too

The cooking time is short so don’t go far away because you’ll need to cook on high and do a quick release right when it beeps.

How to Make Crack Chicken Noodle Pasta

If you wanted to make this more as a soup I would increase the liquid by another cup. Use broth for more flavor. Or cook as is and thin it out at the end so you can taste both versions and see which you like better. Total time is about 20 minutes to prep and cook it all until done to perfection.

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I have not made this meal in the crock pot yet but I am sure you could precook the chicken or use a rotisserie. If you’re shredding the chicken off an already cooked bird then you could skip the initial cooking step of that. 

If you make it I’d love to hear at what temp. you turn the pot to, and how long you cooked it for.

• The noodles wouldn’t take long and would need to be added at the very end submerged in liquid. I would think 30 minutes would soften them well.