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This chicken and noodles dinner goes above and beyond with creaminess. Your slow cooker makes this big bowl of comfort food easy peasy.
The Perfect Comfort Food
Chicken and noodles is usually on everyone’s list as a favorite comfort food. It’s easy to see why because it’s simple, tasty and not in any way “fancy.”
Chicken and noodles always reminded me of pot pie filling and I do love a pot pie. This meal brings back many childhood memories because any time I was on the mend from being sick and was gaining my appetite back, it was usually the first meal my mother would give me.
Back in those days, there weren’t any slow cookers around so mom would make this on top of the stove. In fact, I have a quickie version of Chicken and Noodles that only takes one skillet, but the longer, slower cooking that crock pots are famous for, produces a much more flavorful dish.
About The Noodles
Lots of people think noodles or pasta and crock pot cooking don’t mix. At face value, that’s totally correct. Placing uncooked, or worse yet, cooked noodles at the beginning of long, slow cooking will destroy noodles and pasta.
The very best way to deal with noodles and slow cooking is to partially cook the noodles so they are al dente and add them in the last hour of cooking. If you have leftover pasta or noodles, they just have to heat through so add any cooked noodles in the last half hour of the cooking time.
Totally uncooked noodles may be added at midpoint, but my experiments resulted in a rather poor-tasting product and the only reason I can think of for that is all the starch remains in the food. At least par-cooking noodles washes away some of the starch.
It’s always best to partially cook and add toward the end of cooking.
You Want Creamy, You’ve Got It Here
It’s no secret why this tastes so good and is so creamy. Not only does this use heavy cream but there’s half a bar of cream cheese added as well. Nope, this is definitely not a diet dish. I don’t recommend any lower-fat alternatives either. Reason being is most “diet” products simply do not taste good. So go for flavor and use the real deal. It’s not like this meal is an every-day indulgence.
The Recipe
Slow Cooker Extra Creamy Chicken & Noodles
Ingredients
- 2 medium boneless skinless chicken breast halves cut in chunks
- 1 cup high-quality chicken stock or broth
- 10.75 oz can cream of chicken soup (I use low-sodium)
- 1/8 tsp thyme
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 4 oz cream cheese cubed
- 3 cups partially cooked egg noodles see NOTES
- 1 cup defrosted frozen peas see NOTES
- 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms optional
- 1 cup defrosted frozen sliced carrots see NOTES
Instructions
- Place chicken, stock, soup and thyme in the slow cooker. Stir to blend the ingredients so the mixture is smooth.
- Cover and cook on low 3 hours, high 2 hours (the chicken should be cooked at this point)
- Add the cream, cream cheese and veggies and cook on low 2-3 hours, high 1-2 hours. Times are approximate since all cookers cook differently.
- Add the noodles and cook for an additional 30-60 minutes on either setting.
Notes
Nutrition
evelyn says
what could i use instead of heavy cream………>>>???????
Judith Hanneman says
Anything will be a poor substitute for the cream. The only thing I would suggest–is half-and-half cream and you will have to thicken it as well, else it’d be more like soup if you didn’t. At the very outside, undiluted evaporated milk. If you are lactose intolerant, then this isn’t a dish you could make over.
Carole from Carole's Chatter says
thanks for the tips about how to use pasta in the slow cooker. Have a great week. Cheers from Carole’s Chatter
Judith Hanneman says
Cheers Carole!! xoxo
Miranda says
This sounds like the perfect comfort food! I can’t wait to try it!
Miranda recently posted…Frozen Oreo Tiramisu