Chicken, bacon and ranch in a crockpot, with gnocchi cooked right in the sauce for the last half hour.
About four hours in total, and the only pan you use besides the slow cooker is the one the bacon is cooked in.
Why This Recipe Works
- Shelf-stable gnocchi are the right choice and frozen ones are not. They go in dry, cook in the sauce in 20 to 30 minutes, and release the starch that finishes the thickening.
- Cream cheese before heavy cream is the order that keeps this sauce together. The cream cheese is doing emulsifier duty, not just adding richness.
- Splitting the bacon between the pot and the top is the difference between bacon flavour and bacon texture. You want both, and only the topping half gives you the second.
- The lemon juice at the end is easy to dismiss as a garnish. It is not — with a ranch packet, cream cheese, heavy cream, cheddar and bacon in one pot, a little acid is what keeps the whole thing from tasting flat.
Building the Sauce in Stages
This starts as three cups of thin seasoned broth and finishes as something that coats gnocchi. Nothing is thickened with flour — each stage adds a different kind of body, and the order is what keeps it smooth.
Seasoned broth
Chicken shreds easily; broth still wateryRanch packet, garlic, onion powder, pepper, paprika, bacon fat
All of the flavour and none of the body. This is the stage that cooks the chicken, and it deliberately looks too thin at the end of it.
Cream cheese
No white lumps left8 oz, softened and cubed, stirred until smooth
The first real thickening, and an emulsifier. Cream cheese carries fat and protein that hold the later dairy together — adding the cream first instead gives a sauce far more likely to split.
Heavy cream
Coats the back of a spoon1 cup, plus the optional cornstarch slurry
Richness and volume, into a base that can already hold it. The slurry is offered here rather than at the end because it needs heat and time to work.
Gnocchi
Tender and slightly plumped1.5 lb, cooked 20 to 30 minutes on High
The thickening most people do not expect. Potato gnocchi shed starch as they cook and that starch tightens the sauce considerably — which is why the recipe looks slightly loose before they go in.
Then tasteCheese last, then lemon. A cup of hard cheese stirred in off the boil finishes the texture, and the half lemon is there because everything up to this point is fat, salt and starch with no acid anywhere.
Ingredient Notes
- Shelf-stable potato gnocchi
- A pound and a half, from the dry-goods aisle rather than the freezer. Frozen gnocchi release water as they thaw and would thin the sauce at exactly the wrong moment.
- Thick-cut bacon
- Eight slices, cooked before anything else. Thick-cut holds its texture when crumbled; thin bacon shatters into dust.
- Ranch seasoning packet
- One ounce, and it is the main seasoning in the dish. Packets are salty, which is why there is no added salt in the ingredient list at all.
- Cream cheese, softened and cubed
- Eight ounces. Softened AND cubed — a cold block dropped into the crock leaves streaks that will not whisk out.
How to Make It
Crisp the bacon
Cook the bacon in a skillet until crisp, drain it on paper towels and crumble. Reserve a tablespoon of the fat if you want the extra flavour.
Load the slow cooker
Into a 6 to 7 quart slow cooker put the chicken, ranch seasoning, broth, garlic, onion powder, black pepper and paprika. Drizzle in the reserved bacon fat if using.
Cook
Cover and cook on Low 3.5 to 4 hours, or High 2 to 2.5, until the chicken is tender and shreds easily.
Check and shred
Check the chicken with an instant-read thermometer first — 165°F (74°C) in the thickest breast — then shred it directly in the slow cooker with two forks.
Cream cheese
Stir in the cubed cream cheese until it is melted and completely smooth.
Cream, and thickening
Pour in the heavy cream and stir. For a thicker sauce, whisk the cornstarch with the water and stir it in now.
Cook the gnocchi in the sauce
Add the gnocchi and cook on High 20 to 30 minutes, stirring once or twice, until they are tender and slightly plumped.
Spinach and half the bacon
Fold in the chopped spinach if using, along with half the crumbled bacon, and stir until the greens wilt.
Cheese and lemon
Sprinkle in the cheddar or Parmesan and stir until melted and creamy. Add the lemon juice to brighten.
Serve
Taste, adjust the seasoning, and serve topped with the remaining bacon and the parsley or chives.
Success Tips
- Take the chicken to 165°F before it is shredded into the sauce.
- Cream cheese first, cream second. Not the other way round.
- Start checking the gnocchi at 20 minutes — they go from tender to falling apart quickly.
- Keep half the bacon back for the top.
Serving Ideas
It needs almost nothing beside it, and what it does want is something sharp: a plain green salad with vinaigrette, or quick-pickled onions. Bread would be a third starch in a dish that already has gnocchi.
Storage and Reheating
Refrigerate
Refrigerate up to 3 days. The gnocchi keep softening and absorbing, so leftovers are thicker and denser than the first serving.
Freeze
Not recommended. Cooked gnocchi go pasty after freezing and a cream-cheese sauce separates on thawing — this is a dish for eating within a few days.
Reheat
Gently, with a splash of broth or cream, below a boil. Stir rather than beat, so the sauce comes back together without the gnocchi breaking up.
Frequently Asked Questions
My gnocchi fell apart.
They were in too long, or the crock was running hot. Twenty minutes is enough in many slow cookers even though up to thirty is allowed — start tasting at twenty, and remember they keep cooking in the residual heat after you switch it off.
Can I use frozen gnocchi?
It is not what the recipe is built around. They release water as they thaw, which thins a sauce that has just been brought to the right consistency. If it is all you have, hold back some of the cream and add it at the end instead.
The sauce was thinner than I wanted.
Use the cornstarch slurry, and add it before the gnocchi rather than after — it needs heat and time. Bear in mind the gnocchi themselves thicken the pot considerably, so judge the sauce after they have cooked, not before.
