Sometimes our day is so busy with assignments, our jobs and our families, we don’t have a lot of time to cook anything elaborate for dinner. If you have a slow cooker, it can be a definite time saver when it comes to making something home-made and tasty without taking you away from homework, web conferencing for classes, or the demands of work and home.

This simple and delicious recipe can be served on buns, on tortillas, or with chips or crackers. My personal preference is to make it into wraps, which you can garnish with pickles, cheese, lettuce and tomato, or any way you see fit. I eat the chicken straight on the tortillas for a tasty warm wrap. The leftovers are easy to pack away and reheat easily in the microwave, so if you’re making it for one person, you have plenty left over for a few days of lunch.

There are a lot of variations on this recipe, most of them calling it “crack” chicken. This particular version of the recipe I have tweaked, and I just like to refer to it as CBR: chicken, bacon, ranch.

CBR

Ingredients:

• 3-4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 3 lbs)
• 2 packages of cream cheese (8 oz bricks, not whipped)
• 2 packets of ranch seasoning (1 oz)
• One 6-8 oz bag of real bacon bits (or ½ cup of crisp cooked bacon, chopped into small pieces)
• A dash of black pepper
• A dash of red crushed peppers or habanero powder (optional)

Directions: Soften cream cheese in microwave. Place chicken breasts, softened cream cheese and seasoning packets into slow cooker. Cook for 4 hours on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is fully cooked and shreds easily. Shred chicken breasts with fork. Add in bacon bits and stir. Chicken can be served immediately and kept on low setting. Refrigerate leftovers immediately.