Creamy Southwest Chicken in Crockpot
This crockpot southwest chicken is made with juicy shredded chicken, black beans, corn, a can of rotel and cream cheese to make it rich and creamy. Bursting with southwest flavors, this slow cooker recipe requires very little of your time.
Slow cooking makes your life easy because you toss everything in and let it do its thing. If you don’t have one, you can cook this in an instant pot. Follow the same instructions but reduce the cooking time to 20-25 minutes.
This is my favorite thing to make when I want something with tons of flavor that I can make different each night. Serve it over cooked rice, cauliflower rice, in a hamburger bun or in taco shells. You can also serve as a dip with tortilla chips or fresh veggies.
For more crock pot recipes, try slow cooker French onion chicken or crockpot jalapeño popper cottage cheese dip.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- 23g of protein.
- Gluten-free.
Ingredients and Substitutes:
These are the main ingredients and substitutions. See recipe card below for full ingredients list and instructions for crock pot southwest chicken.
- Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts: or boneless skinless chicken thighs. If using frozen chicken, be sure to defrost first.
- Black Beans: pinto beans, kidney beans or white beans. Be sure to rinse and drain prior to adding to the crockpot.
- Sweet Corn: this adds crunch and color. To lower the carbs, omit the corn and add bell pepper. My favorite is red pepper with this one.
- Rotel: I love a good Rotel moment. It adds so much flavor to any dish. You could substitute with diced tomatoes and green chilies or your favorite chunky salsa.
- Cream Cheese: this adds the creaminess to the chicken You can use full fat, less fat, greek yogurt or a dollop of sour cream at the end.
Variations
- Add my homemade taco seasoning for extra flavor.
- Add your favorite fresh veggies.
- Drizzle with cottage cheese avocado crema or add shredded cheddar cheese.
- Serve over rice, in tacos, in a wrap, on buns with melted cheese, over a salad or in a baked potato.
Dietary Modifications
- This recipe is gluten-free, as written.
- For dairy-free, omit the cream cheese.
How to make this southwest chicken crockpot:
Step 1: add chicken and season
Add chicken to the bottom of a crockpot. Season with salt, pepper and juice of half a lime.
Step 2: top with everything except cream cheese
Top the chicken with beans, corn, rotel and salsa. Cover and set on low for 4.5 hours or high for 2.
Step 3: shred chicken
When the chicken is fully cooked shred inside the crockpot with a fork and mix together well. Chicken should shred easily.
Step 4: add cream cheese
Optional: add 2 oz. cream cheese directly to the crockpot and mix together until the cream cheese is fully melted and combined with the chicken.
Expert Tip!
Use leftovers in wraps or even on salads!
Recipe FAQs
This one is great leftover because the flavors really develop. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up three days.
Absolutely, you can make this with any type of meat. Ground beef, steak, or pork are great with this one.
Serve over rice, in tacos, in a wrap, on buns with melted cheese, over a salad or in a baked potato.
Yes! Follow the same instructions but reduce the cooking time to 20-25 minutes. Add the cream cheese after cooking everything.
Check out some of our other easy meals!
Southwest Chicken Crockpot
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You can find this recipe and many others on MyFitnessPal and MacrosFirst by searching: Ohsnapmacros – Southwest Chicken Crockpot
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 1 lb. chicken breast
- 15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 15 oz. can corn, drained
- 10 oz. can Rotel® Original Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies
- 1/2 cup salsa
- salt and black pepper, to taste
- lime juice from 1/2 lime
- Optional: 2 oz. 1/3 less fat cream cheese
Instructions
- Add chicken to the bottom of a crockpot. Season with salt, pepper and juice of half a lime.
- Top the chicken with beans, corn, rotel and salsa. Cover and set on low for 4.5 hours or high for 2.
- When the chicken is fully cooked shred inside the crockpot with a fork and mix together well. Chicken should shred easily.
- Optional: add 2 oz. cream cheese directly to the crockpot and mix together until the cream cheese is fully melted and combined with the chicken.Nutrition Facts w/out cream cheese: 159 calories: 22 P / 18 C / 1 F Nutrition Facts w/ cream cheese: 176 calories: 23 P / 19 C / 3 F Serving size remains the same.
Notes
- Nutritional information is an estimate and will vary with substitutions.
- You will have excess sauce. That has been taken into account.
This is a tried and true favorite in our house! It’s on a bi-weekly rotation and it’s sooo good! The only thing we change is adding in pinto beans along with the black beans, changes the macros slightly but it’s what gets everyone in the house to dig in. 3 of us prefer pintos 1 prefers black beans so we meet in the middle and get a little of both. Great recipe!
Super easy! Super delicious!
This makes it on the menu at least 2x a month!
10/10 the easiest tastiest crockpot meal! And to be able to have it done in 2 hours, extra points for that. I served mine over rice and added avocado & sour cream. Delish!
Very good, husband approved, and super easy! Will definitely make this again. I love recipes like this that have minimal ingredients because I am not one who likes to cook. However, I still can not seem to find the serving size on this recipe? I looked above the ingredients as answered in a previous question, but it’s not showing up on my end. I must have read it over 50 times. I had to finally just trust that the serving size is 167g as stated by another reviewer. I also looked in MFP, but it only gives number of servings, but not the serving size in grams. Is the serving size for this recipe 167g?
The serving is 167 grams. It was just left off during the site-wide update as we have had to go through every single recipe card. You can always weigh your final and divide by the total servings to get the total grams per serving which is the most accurate way to get a gram per serving on any and every recipe you make from the internet. 🙂
Thank you!
Do you think this would freeze well? I made a double batch and wanted to freeze a portion of it for later.
Ashlee we just did this! We made double to try out the freezing, made the recipe exactly as written with one exception being adding pinto beans as well as black beans. I left it in the freezer for 1 month, pulled it out and left to unthaw in the fridge and it was fine. I will say slightly watery compared to when it’s freshly made so I used a slotted spoon and served over rice. It surprisingly wasn’t gritty or grainy which I thought it would be because of the cream cheese. I would say it was a 7.5/10 compared to 10/10 when made fresh. Would definitely do it again though.
So easy and delicious! Makes great for meal prep and so versatile in what you can serve it!
Is the approximate serving size of 167G per correct? It just seems like a smaller portion size than most of your recipes. Thanks for your awesome meals and content!
That’s because it’s just the chicken at 170 calories vs. a full meal with pasta or rice, etc. which has a higher volume.
You could always double it too for a larger meal by itself but it’s written so that you could put this over rice, pasta, cauli rice, on nachoed, or a potato. Hope that helps!!
Where can I find the serving size?
Right above the ingredients.
This was delicious! I served it over cauliflower rice and added some avocado hot sauce on top! I can’t believe this was so easy to make and I’m thankful that I don’t have to give up delicious food while tracking macros! My mom even tried it and she loved it! I believe this will be a staple for my weekly meal preps!
Yum!!! Thank you!