This Slow Cooker Creamy Mexican Chicken makes a quick, easy dinner or freezer recipe. Made with simple ingredients but full of flavor, it’s great on its own or served over rice, farro or cauliflower rice.
Hi friends!
This Slow Cooker Creamy Mexican Chicken recipe is for those of you requesting more crockpot recipes. It is SO easy to throw together the night before or the morning you want to make it. Or you could easily make it a freezer meal by tossing everything but the cream cheese in a ziploc bag and sticking it in the freezer until you need it.
This dinner gets most of its flavor from the spices so feel free to really amp them up! Taste test and add more at the end if you want. You can make it mild or spicy by choosing the spice level of your salsa, peppers and chilis. If you’re a cilantro lover, mix a bunch of fresh cilantro in at the end. If you hate cilantro, leave it out! Want it creamy AND cheesy? Add a few handfuls of cheese after it’s done cooking. Or leave it out. Serve it over rice or farro, or cauliflower rice…or just by itself with some chips for scooping.
See where I’m going here? It’s super flexible and you can’t really mess it up! The best kind of recipe in my opinion.
Here’s how you make it:
PrintSlow Cooker Creamy Mexican Chicken

This Slow Cooker Creamy Mexican Chicken makes a quick, easy dinner or freezer recipe. Made with simple ingredients but full of flavor, it’s great on its own or served over rice, farro or cauliflower rice.
Ingredients
1 cup salsa
1.5 pounds chicken (breasts or thighs)
1.5 cups black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 cup corn kernels (frozen, canned or fresh)
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 cup diced onion
1 jalapeno or serrano pepper, minced (optional)
1 Tbsp cumin
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
1 (4.5 oz) can diced green chilis, optional
8 oz cream cheese
Optional mix-ins: shredded cheese, avocado, fresh cilantro
Rice, farro or cauliflower rice for serving, optional
Instructions
- Pour salsa onto bottom of slow cooker.
- Add remaining ingredients (except cream cheese) and stir to combine.
- Place cream cheese on top.
- Cook on low 4-6 hours.
- Shred chicken and stir to mix in cream cheese (If you want it a little extra creamy you can use a ladle to remove a little of the liquid before stirring in the cream cheese)
- Top with avocado, cheese, cilantro, additional salsa etc if desired.
- Serve over rice, farro or cauliflower rice if you want to!
Notes
To freeze, combine all ingredients except cream cheese in a ziploc bag and freeze. When ready to make, thaw in the fridge overnight, dump in slow cooker, top with cream cheese and cook as directed.
You could probably make this in the instant pot although I haven’t tried it myself. You’d just need to add 1/2 cup or so of chicken broth and probably remove a little bit of liquid before shredding and stirring to mix in the cream cheese.
So there you have it! So easy and so delicious!
Like this recipe? Find more slow cooker recipes here!
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
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Love these kinds of recipes! Could I substitute neufchatel cheese with the same results? Thanks!
yep! should be just fine!
I made this today and it was a hit with me, hubby and 1 of our kiddos! We put them on fajita size tortillas with some rice and it was delicious 🙂
Slow cooker for the win!!! I like how this is super flexible and easy!
My husband isn’t what you would call a foodie, so when he makes a point to say “this is really good” I know he LOVES it!
I made it tonight and when I taste tested it I knew I would get that reaction…and I did!
My 17 month old, who is completely hit or miss with food, even his favorites;scooped some good spoonfuls for himself so I think we have a new dish in the dinner rotation!
I co-sign with the part about using spices to “amp” it up—I will add a bit more than what the recipe calls for next time for a little more spice.
So delicious!!
★★★★★
so so glad to hear it!
I made this in the instant pot and it was awesome! Added 1/2 cup of water and cooked on high pressure for 12 minutes QR. Had leftovers over sweet potato and it was fantastic!
★★★★★
Delicious. I used the low fat cream cheese and used a pressure cooker with 1/2 cup chicken broth. Instead of draining some of the broth I added some shredded low fat mexican cheese.
★★★★★
do your recipes have nutritional information? I have to watch my salt..
i don’t, sorry!