Smothered Crack Dip Chicken Tenders – one of our family’s all-time favorite meals. Super simple and everyone loves it! Chicken tenderloins topped with sour cream, ranch dressing mix, cheddar cheese, bacon, and french fried onions. Ready in under 30 minutes! Serve over rice, potatoes, or pasta. Everyone fights for the leftovers!
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Pin This RecipeSour Cream and Bacon Smothered Chicken
These Smothered Crack Dip Chicken Tenders are a new favorite at our house. You MUST add them to your menu ASAP. This is crazy good! Chicken smothered in sour cream, ranch, bacon, cheese, and fried onions. We ate this for dinner and fought over the leftovers! LOL! This dish is super easy to make. I had it ready to bake before my oven was preheated. I used chicken tenders and this was on the table in 30 minutes! Perfect for hectic weeknights!
What does CRACK mean?
If a recipe has “crack” in the title it means that the recipe has cheddar, bacon, and ranch in the ingredients. It all started with my Crack Dip way back in 2007. I made the dip for a Titans football game. Everyone went crazy over it. We couldn’t stop eating it and said it was like crack. The name stuck.
According to the dictionary, the definition of crack is “of superior excellence or ability”. We think the flavor combination of cheddar, bacon, and ranch fits this definition! This recipe is most definitely of superior excellence!
How to Make Smothered Crack Dip Chicken Tenders
This chicken is effortless to make. Place chicken tenderloins in a baking dish. Combine sour cream, Ranch dressing mix, cheddar cheese, and bacon. Spread the sour cream mixture all over the chicken. Bake the chicken for 20 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven. Top the chicken with more shredded cheddar cheese, bacon, and french fried onions. Bake until the cheese has melted and the chicken is cooked.
- Can substitute store-bought sour cream Ranch dip for the sour cream and ranch dressing mix.
- Here is our recipe for Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix: https://www.plainchicken.com/homemade-ranch-dressing-mix/
- For a lower calorie dish you can substitute plain Greek yogurt and turkey bacon.
- You can use any boneless chicken that you prefer – tenderloins, breasts, or thighs. You will need to adjust the cooking time if you use breasts or thighs.
- Tenderloins will cook the fastest.
- You can also cut chicken breasts into strips and they will cook about the same time as tenderloins.
- Are Smothered Crack Dip Chicken Tenders gluten-free? For a gluten-free dish, omit the french fried onions.
- Are Smothered Crack Dip Chicken Tenders low-carb and keto-friendly? For a low-carb dish, omit the french fried onions or substitute pork rinds.
What to Serve with Cheddar Bacon Chicken
We like to serve the chicken tenders over rice with some lima beans. This chicken is also great over mashed potatoes or noodles. Whatever you serve it with, make sure to spoon some of the sauce/gravy from the baking dish over the chicken. You don’t want to let that go to waste. SO good!
Here are a few of our favorite recipes from the blog that go great with this easy baked chicken:
Homemade Chicken Rice-A-Roni
Homemade Chicken Rice-A-Roni Recipe – you’ll never use the boxed stuff again! Rice, spaghetti, chicken bouillon, Italian seasoning, parsley, garlic…
Caesar Green Beans
Caesar Green Beans Recipe – quick and easy side dish – only 3 ingredients! Cook green beans and then sauté…
Roasted Asparagus with Parmesan
Roasted Asparagus with Parmesan (Divine Asparagus) – only 5 ingredients! Asparagus stalks, mayonnaise, parmesan cheese, garlic powder, and paprika. Ready…
Butter Swim Biscuits – Butter Dips
Butter Swim Biscuits Recipe – only 6 simple ingredients! You probably have them in your pantry right now! No yeast…
Smothered Crack Dip Chicken Tenders
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs chicken tenders
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1½ cups sour cream
- 1½ Tbsp ranch dressing mix
- 1½ cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
- ⅓ cup cooked chopped bacon, divided
- ½ cup french fried onions
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 375ºF. Spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- Lay the chicken close together in the baking dish. Sprinkle with garlic salt and black pepper.
- Combine sour cream, ranch dressing mix, 1 cup of cheddar cheese, and ¼ cup bacon. Spread sour cream mixture over chicken.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
- Top the chicken with remaining cheese, bacon and fried onions. Bake an additional 5-10 minutes.
Notes:
- Can substitute store-bought sour cream Ranch dip for the sour cream and ranch dressing mix.
- Here is our recipe for Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix: https://www.plainchicken.com/homemade-ranch-dressing-mix/
- For a lower-calorie dish you can substitute plain Greek yogurt and turkey bacon.
- You can use any boneless chicken that you prefer – tenderloins, breasts, or thighs. You will need to adjust the cooking time if you use breasts or thighs.
- Tenderloins will cook the fastest.
- You can also cut chicken breasts into strips and they will cook about the same time as tenderloins.
- Are Smothered Crack Dip Chicken Tenders gluten-free? For a gluten-free dish, omit the french fried onions.
- Are Smothered Crack Dip Chicken Tenders low-carb and keto-friendly? For a low-carb dish, omit the french fried onions or substitute pork rinds.
Steph
Remember this recipe.
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Pin This Recipe
If I don't care about heart attacks, is it okay to use sour cream in place of greek yogurt?
I used full-fat sour cream, and yum. I want to try it with the greek yogurt though- I think it would give the chicken a better kick.
I wonder how it would be if you were to mix up the yogurt, bacon, cheese and ranch dressing mix, then dip the tenders in the mixture and roll in the crushed corn flakes and bake? Either way, I am going to try the recipe! The ingredients sound great together!!
They all look good to me – especially the final three.
This looks fantastic!! I think I need to add this to my dinner menu for the week!
Love the bacon in this and the cornflake crust!
Sounds easy and delish and I will def make it! I really love your recipes, but I have to say I'm not pleased with the giant Kraft ad that surrounds your blog now. It has lost it's coziness and browseability (is that a word?). Thanks for great recipes!