Easy Creamy Rotel CrockPot Chicken recipe
You only need five simple ingredients to make this easy slow cooker recipe! This easy creamy Mexican inspired chicken takes minimal effort and is a favorite recipe around here on busy weeknights.
Rotel Crock Pot Chicken was inspired by a conversation I had with another mom at a basketball game, she told me that she uses her crock pot all the time. “For instance last night I just threw in chicken breasts and a jar of salsa and we had it over rice.” she told me. My recipe creating wheels were spinning, and I missed the whole next half of my son’s game while I thought about what I would add to chicken breasts in my crock pot. I’m easily distracted by food.
No meal prep needed! Dinnertime doesn’t have to be hard. Using your slow cooker is a great way to get an easy meal done and your people around the table. This great recipe will become one of your favorite recipes guaranteed!
Gather these ingredients:
Instructions:
Equipment: you will need a crockpot or an instant pot. Directions for the instant pot are in the FAQ section.
- Place raw boneless skinless chicken breast in bottom of your slow cooker / crockpot.
- Open a can of Rotel Original Diced Tomatoes and green chilis and pour it over the chicken breasts.
- Place lid on crockpot and cook on low temperature for 3-4 hours, on high temperature for 2 hours.
- After chicken mixture is done cooking, remove lid and shred chicken .
- Add in block of cream cheese, drained and rinsed beans, and drained can of corn. Return lid and allow cheese to become melty about 10 minutes, now you can stir in the cheese making a creamy sauce. It’s ready to serve!
Place 3-4 boneless, skinless Chicken Breasts in crock pot, pour can of rotel tomatoes over top of the chicken. Cover with lid.
After you have let chicken and Rotel cook for the appropriate time, take a fork and shredd chicken into bite sized pieces.
We prefer Rotel Chicken with black beans, but all I had this day was cannellini. It was still delicious.
While draining your beans, toss in 1, 8 ounce block of Cream Cheese.
Drain and rinse beans and add along with drained corn to the pot.
Gently stir ingredients around, and turn crock pot temperature to Warm. Cover and wait for the family to show up and eat. I have left this meal in the crock pot for 4 hours on warm.
FAQs
- What if I don’t have rice? You can serve it as chicken tacos. Creamy Chicken Taco Tuesday! We have been known to eat with as a dip with tortilla chips. Serve on top of a baked potato, sprinkle cheese, and a little bit of fresh cilantro on top and call your self Lucky!
- How do I serve Rotel Chicken to my family? I usually make this into a DIY. I put out our favorite taco toppings (shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, diced onion, chopped cilantro, salsa, crushed tortilla chips, guacamole). This is the perfect recipe to use for burrito bowls.
- What if I don’t have black beans? Honestly you can use any type of bean you like. I have used black, pinto, kidney, and cannellini.
- What if my family won’t eat beans or corn? Get a new family. Just kidding! Leave them out!! Its fine. It is still creamy and delicious without beans or corn.
- Can I use bone in chicken? Yes certainly can you will need to cooking times will increase by an hour. Making sure that internal temperature of the chicken is at least 160 degrees when you insert a cooking thermometer. However if the meat if falling off the bone this is a good indicator its fully cooked. Pull meat from the bones, and be careful to remove all bones, from the shredded chicken, before serving.
- How can I spice this recipe up? You are speaking my love language! Here are a few of my favorite ways to spice this recipe up: use your favorite salsa in place of the rotel tomatoes, chop up a jalapeno and add at the beginning of cooking, add a packet of taco seasoning. Other spices you could add would be cumin, coriander, smoked paprika, or cayenne pepper.
- Can I make this in my Instant Pot? I am currently testing this method out and will update as soon as I have it perfected. Feel free to try it and let me know how it turns out!
- Storage: Store an leftovers in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to 3 days. Or place in a freezer bag and freeze up to 4 weeks. This is also a great meal prep recipe for lunches, it tastes even better the next day!
Update: I have recently updated this post, it is now the year 2024, and this little girl is all grown up and in medical school. Excuse me while I go suck my thumb in the corner. In the meantime you can print out the recipe card below, or if you are on your tablet or phone use the cook mode to prevent your screen from going nigh-night on you.
Rotel Chicken
Equipment
- 6-8 quart slow cooker
Ingredients
- 3-4 boneless skinless Chicken Breast
- 1 can Rotel any variety. I use original.
- 8 ounce brick Cream Cheese
- 1 can Black or Cannellini Beans drained
- 1 can Fiesta Corn drained
Instructions
- Place chicken in crock pot, pour can of Rotel over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours or on high for 2.
- When done cooking, use fork to shredd chicken into bite sized pieces, add cream cheese, beans, and corn, gently stir.
- Turn crock pot down to warm heat, cover and serve over rice or with tortilla chips. This will keep on warm in crock pot for up to 4 hours.
i found your recipe for chicken chili. It sounds so good that I partially thawed a couple chicken breasts, opened a can of corn, black beans, & rotel, put it all in my crock & turned it on! Currently waiting for the wonderful smells to begin. Oh I forgot, I put an onion in—no powdered onion. Yes it’s a hot summer day here in Denver but the air conditioner will be on!
I saw a previous comment for ribs I want to try too!
I think this post is worth at least a nickel! Hehe.
Ha! Thanks for stopping by! XOX I hope you enjoyed it! Sheila
Made this tonight and served over tortilla chips. Huge hit at my house. Will definitely be making again. Thanks!
Yeh! So glad it was a hit with your family, I know it is with mine! Thanks for taking the time to let me know š Sheila
Ok, so I threw this into the crock pot yesterday and let it bubble away. Served it to my family with great results (over wild rice), but had so much left over today and didn’t want it to go to waste. So, I made a batch of taquitos. I just sprinkled grated monterey jack cheese on warmed corn tortillas. topped it off with some of the chicken mixture, and rolled them up (secured with toothpicks) and fried them until crispy and browned. Served them up with sour cream and salsa on the side…HUGE hit!! Thank you so much for providing a great meal x 2!
You ROCK! That sounds so good. My third child loves taquitos. We had this last night for dinner too, but no leftovers š
Thanks for sharing your great success! ; )
Is it horrible that I could eat corn straight from a can – not even warmed up? I love it – and love my crock pot, so this is a must – make for me. If I don’t eat all the corn…
You are easily distracted by food = love it! I’m the same way with books… š
xoxo michele
This looks great, Sheila! I’m a big crock pot fan. Mostly, I cook beans – we eat lots of them. You can soak them and then cook them in the crock pot. This week, my family rebelled about too many beans and I cooked a pork shoulder in the crock pot. We had pork tacos with beans and fresh salsa. It was delicious!!
Oh we love beans too….but well lets just say beans have an adverse affect on my family, if ya know what I’m sayin. ; )
This looks delicious. Can’t wait to try it in my own crock pot. Had to laugh at crock potter though.
Made this tonight!! Delicious and so easy, will definitely be making again! It was the first time I ever made jasmine rice -wow-I have really been missing out! Husband loved it too, said “this is like real rice, not from a box” nice! Always just make brown rice b/c healthy but it can get pretty boring!
Sheila – – – Thank you so much for sharing this story. It really made me laugh!…and relate. When I was first married, I tried using the crock-pot a few times. My husband and I both agreed that nothing good came from it! LOL!!! I was trying to adapt recipes that just didn’t work well in a slow cooker.
Then I discovered Mable Hoffman’s Crockery Cookery…You know that anyone named Mable is going to have good crock-pot recipes! This gal has wonderful recipes for all sorts of things and everything that I have made from it is delicious. Her Old World Sauerbraten is out of this world! And she has a ton of recipes for all sorts of things and all sorts of tastes.
Oh…and there is a recipe for Chinese-Style Country Ribs that is so good…and it only has 5 ingredients!…The ribs (3-4 pounds pork ribs or baby-backs), 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup orange marmalade, 2 Tbsp. ketchup, and 1 clove garlic – crushed. Rub the ribs well with the last 4 ingredients then throw ’em in the crock-pot pour any remaining rub over the ribs and cook them on low for 8-10 hours…That’s it! You’ll never get Chinese take out spareribs again. All her recipes are like that – quick and easy…and reliable. This was key for me when it came to my earlier failures with the crock-pot! LOL!!!
You can probably find her book on amazon – maybe even used. It should be inexpensive as it is just a paperback. I found my well-worn copy in the clearance section of a used bookstore. But whatever the price – it’s well worth it! ….Update….I just checked on amazon and they have it new for $7.50. š
BTW – – – Your Rotel Chicken looks great. And I actually love that you used canellini beans – they’re one of my favorite. And the cream cheese is genius. It just makes everything better! š
Oh – and I have one more recipe for the crock-pot that always comes out great. I shared it with Sandy at Reluctant Entertainer as something we always enjoy when football is on TV. My girlfriend shared it with me. Basically this is it…
Slow Cooker Texas Chicken Chili:
It is sooooo easy to make and literally one of those open this, open that recipes and your done. She takes two cans of any type of beans, a 16 ounce jar of mild salsa (you could use medium salsa if you want more of a kick), a small can of corn, 2 tsps. ground cumin, 1 tsp. ground corriander, a tsp. salt, a half tsp. black pepper and dumps it all into her slowe cooker. Then she adds in about a cup or two of cut-up left over chicken and about 2 cups of water or chicken stock, if she has it on hand. Then she puts the lid on and lets it slow cook all day on low. The flavors all meld together beautifully. I think itās because it sits in the slower cooker all day as opposed to just on the stove-top for a short time. We top it with grated cheese, sour cream, and a squeeze of lime. Itās out of this world!
Oh – and I just have to say, I loved your comment about how does a stay-at-home mom struggle to get dinner on the table…how I laughed. I think only other stay-at-home moms could relate to that one. My friends who work outside the home always wonder what I do all day! All I know is that I collapse into bed at 10pm exhausted. LOL!!!
So sorry this post went on so long…Before I became a mom, I was an attorney for many years – – – we’re not known for our brevity! LOL!!!
Have a wonderful week.
Love,
Mary
Mary,
I cannot wait to try the ribs! I am definitely going to get that cookbook thanks so much for all your wonderful recipes and stories…I know whatcha mean about collapsing in bed, I am going to do just that as soon as I sign off and go pray with my kiddos. Thanks again! I love your long comments they’re like a hug, new friend! Have a great night, Sheila
Oh Sheila…you are so sweet.
Hugs to you š
Mary
Yummo!!! Making this tomorrow. I love my crock pot and am always looking for new recipes. Thanks
Kristen VanLaecke
Sheila, I love your posts. They make me smile!! Makes me laugh, the name SAHM. Who stays home?? š I love my crock pot and need to use it more! Great recipe.