Instant Pot Creamy Ranch Chicken
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This Instant Pot Creamy Ranch Chicken is comfort food at its finest and will have your family begging for seconds. Incredibly creamy ranch chicken with noodles all cooked in the Instant pot and ready in less than an hour from start to finish. An epic one-pot wonder and totally delicious!
The Best Instant Pot Creamy Ranch Chicken
I don’t even know where or how to start telling you about this creamy ranch chicken, except to say OMG! I think that out of all my Instant Pot recipes I’ve shared with you so far, this has got to be my favorite recipe!
If you love anything ranch, you are going to fall in love with this chicken and noodles recipe because it’s the bomb! It’s seriously creamy, full of ranch flavor, every bite is filled with chicken and noodles and everything ranch. That’s all I’m going to say about it, because this is one of those dishes you just have to experience for yourself, and you’ll see how right I am.
Why You Should Make This Creamy Ranch Chicken
- Incredibly Creamy. Thickened with a block of cream cheese and cream of chicken sauce, this ranch chicken and noodles majorly delivers on the creaminess factor.
- Comfort Food At Its Finest. Help yourself to a bowl of this creamy ranch chicken and noodles and you’ll instantly feel good from the inside out.
- One-Pot Wonder. You all know I love my one pot dishes and this one is right there at the top with the best of them. You basically just dump the ingredients in and the Instant Pot does all the work in just under 60 minutes.
- Chicken – I chose chicken breast for this recipe, boneless and skinless to make for easy shredding. The great thing is that you can use fresh or frozen chicken breasts here. You can substitute with boneless and skinless chicken thighs.
- Egg Noodles – I love using these egg noodles in this dish because they cook up incredibly fast.
- Ranch Seasoning Mix – One of the star ingredients, if not the star ingredient in this dish. Make your own by using my recipe here or use store bought.
- Cream Cheese – You’ll need a block of cream cheese. I like to use Philadelphia because I find it’s the creamiest. You can use light or regular.
- Cream of Chicken – You’ll need a small can of cream of chicken soup, this will also add to the creaminess of the dish. While I don’t usually use cans of soup like this, I’m all about it in this recipe, because it adds lots of great flavor with the least amount of effort required.
- Diced Green Chiles – To add a little kick to our ranch chicken, but if you’re worried about this being spicy, don’t. These chiles are very mild.
- Pressure cook the chicken. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel. Add the chicken, ranch seasoning mix and water to the instant pot. Stir to combine. Close the lid. Seal the valve and set the Instant Pot to Manual/High Pressure for 15 minutes. For fresh chicken, it will take about 10 minutes to come to pressure. Frozen chicken will take around 12 to 15 minutes to come up to pressure. When the time is up, let the Instant Pot release naturally for 5 minutes then quick release remaining pressure.
- Shred the chicken. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board or bowl and shred with two forks.
- Add remaining ingredients to the Instant Pot. Add the cream cheese to the instant pot, you can break it up a bit if you want, or cut it up in pieces. Transfer the chicken back to the instant pot as well and remaining ingredients, including the egg noodles.
- Cook the noodles. Close the lid. Seal the valve and set the Instant Pot to Manual/High Pressure for 3 minutes. Once the Instant Pot cycle is complete, wait until the natural release cycle is complete, should take about 10 minutes. Follow the manufacturer’s guide for quick release, if in a rush. Carefully unlock and remove the lid from the instant pot.
- Stir and serve. Give the noodles a stir and adjust with salt or pepper if necessary. Garnish with fresh parsley if preferred, and serve.
Can I Use Frozen Chicken Breasts?
Yes, absolutely. The cooking time is the same, it will just take longer for your Instant Pot to come to pressure than with already thawed chicken.
How Long Does It Take To Cook Chicken In The Pressure Cooker?
For thawed chicken it really only takes 5 minutes to cook it in your pressure cooker and 10 minutes if it’s frozen. But since I wanted this chicken to be easily shreddable, I cooked it for 15 minutes.
What’s The Difference Between The Poultry Setting And High Pressure?
It’s really the same thing. The difference is that the default poultry setting is pre-programmed to set the pot to cook at HIGH PRESSURE for 15 MINUTES.
Natural Release Versus Quick Release
This basically refers to the method of depressurizing the Instant Pot after cooking. For natural release you do nothing. Just let the Instant pot gradually come down in pressure on its own.
How To Make Creamy Ranch Chicken In The Slow Cooker
You can easily make this recipe in your slow cooker. Simply add all the ingredients to you slow cooker, excluding the egg noodles, stir everything together and cook on LOW for 4 hours. After 4 hours, take out the chicken, then add it back to the slow cooker along with the egg noodles, and continue cooking for 1 more hour on LOW. Stir everything together and serve.
How To Serve Creamy Ranch Chicken
This creamy ranch chicken is a meal on its own because it comes complete with noodles. However, you can serve it up with with some greens or salads. Here are a few suggestions:
Easy Tossed Salad
Skillet Green Beans
Broccoli Salad
Creamy Cucumber Salad
Expert Tips
- Make sure to always check your manufacturer’s guide for detailed instructions on how to use your instant pot.
- You can use either chicken breasts or chicken thighs in this recipe, as long as they’re boneless and skinless. This will make it easier for you when you shred the chicken.
- Incorporate some veggies into the dish, such as peas, broccoli, green beans, etc.
- Be careful with adding additional salt to the dish, I found it didn’t need any additional salt. Taste before seasoning.
Instant Pot
I love using my Instant Pot, and it’s probably one of my most used appliances in my kitchen. I have the 6-quart Instant Pot which is big enough for all the recipes I’ve shared with you.
Leftovers
This creamy ranch chicken pasta is just as delicious the next day. Store leftovers in an airtight container or freezer bag in the fridge for up to 3 – 4 days.
Freezing
If you want to freeze your leftovers, let the chicken and noodles cool completely then freeze in an airtight container. Your instant pot creamy ranch chicken will stay fresh for up to 3 months in the freezer, if stored properly.
Other Epic Ranch Chicken Recipes To Try
- Baked Ranch Chicken
- Chicken Ranch Pasta Salad
- Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole
- Crack Chicken Penne
- Buffalo Chicken Lasagna
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Instant Pot Creamy Ranch Chicken
Video
Ingredients
- 2 pounds chicken breasts (boneless and skinless, fresh or frozen)
- 1 ounce ranch seasoning mix ((1 oz envelope))
- ½ cup water
- 8 ounce cream cheese
- 4 ounces diced green chiles (mild (1 small can))
- 10¾ ounces cream of chicken soup (condensed, undiluted (1 small can))
- 2 cups chicken broth (low sodium)
- 8 ounces egg noodles
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
- Pressure cook the chicken. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Add the chicken, ranch seasoning mix and water to the instant pot. Stir to combine. Close the lid. Seal the valve and set the Instant Pot to Manual/High Pressure for 15 minutes. For fresh chicken, it will take about 10 minutes to come to pressure. Frozen chicken will take around 12 to 15 minutes to come up to pressure. When the time is up, let the Instant Pot release naturally for 5 minutes then quick release remaining pressure.
- Shred the chicken. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board or bowl and shred with two forks.
- Add remaining ingredients to the Instant Pot. Add the cream cheese to the instant pot, you can break it up a bit if you want, or cut it up in pieces. Transfer the chicken back to the instant pot as well and remaining ingredients, including the egg noodles.
- Cook the noodles. Close the lid. Seal the valve and set the Instant Pot to Manual/High Pressure for 3 minutes. Once the Instant Pot cycle is complete, wait until the natural release cycle is complete, should take about 10 minutes. Follow the manufacturer's guide for quick release, if in a rush. Carefully unlock and remove the lid from the instant pot.
- Stir and serve. Give the noodles a stir and adjust with salt or pepper if necessary. Garnish with fresh parsley if preferred, and serve.
Equipment
Notes
- Make sure to always check your manufacturer’s guide for detailed instructions on how to use your instant pot.
- You can use either chicken breasts or chicken thighs in this recipe, as long as they’re boneless and skinless. This will make it easier for you when you shred the chicken.
- Incorporate some veggies into the dish, such as peas, broccoli, green beans, etc.
- Be careful with adding additional salt to the dish, I found it didn’t need any additional salt. Taste before seasoning.
- This creamy ranch chicken pasta is just as delicious the next day. Store leftovers in an airtight container or freezer bag in the fridge for up to 3 – 4 days.
- If you want to freeze your leftovers, let the chicken and noodles cool completely then freeze in an airtight container. Your instant pot creamy ranch chicken will stay fresh for up to 3 months in the freezer, if stored properly.
Nutrition Information
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Dish was amazing! First time making it. I made the mistake of grabbing cream of mushroom soup instead of cream of chicken. Still turned out great. Thank you Jo!!
Glad to hear you enjoyed the dish! Sometimes, unexpected substitutions like cream of mushroom soup can result in delightful flavors.
Do you cook the noodles first or do they cook when you put in after chicken is done?
No, it all cooks in the instant pot together, see steps 3 and 4 in the recipe card.
My picky daughter loved it and ate the leftovers the next day. She requested it again a week later and I’m currently making it right now. I left out the green chilies on her behalf. I want to try it one time with chilies.
That’s what I call a parenting win! Leaving out the green chilies is a smart move for the little ones, but oh, when you try it with the chilies, it’s a game-changer. Enjoy making it again, and may it turn into a family staple!
Are you sure that’s enough water to add with the chicken? I was getting a burn food notice on my instant pot until I added some more water.
I’m sorry to hear that you ran into that issue! Different models of Instant Pots can be more or less sensitive, and it’s possible that yours required a bit more liquid to function properly. I’ve found the specified amount to be sufficient in my testing, but I’ll make a note in the recipe that some may need to add more water if their pot is giving a burn notice.
Awesome recipes! Def gonna make it again! Thanks for sharing I don’t know what is do without folks like urself that love sharing your food wonders! Again thank you so much!!
My pleasure, happy you enjoyed it!
This recipe was a hit out of the park!!! I’m a new cook and new insta pot owner, so this recipe was perfect for me to try. Easy to follow and turned out great. Delicious!!! Thanks!
I make this at least once a month. I love the recipe. We like to change it up and add different vegetables. Once I made it with peas and carrots, another time with red pepper and broccoli. Thumbs up!
We’ve made this probably 5 or 6 times and we love it. It’s become an almost weekly dish for us.
Jo, do you think this would be good with rice? If so, any idea on how to make it work with the instant pot? Thanks so much for a great recipe! Easily 5 stars!
Yes, you can try the casserole I have with rice, here’s the recipe: https://www.jocooks.com/recipes/chicken-bacon-ranch-casserole/
Delicious! I also experienced too much liquid initially, but as leftovers it was perfect.
Hi, this had a great flavor and the kids loved it, but ours came out more watery than expected. Are you supposed to keep all the liquid from the part of cooking the chicken, or do you discard that liquid? Thanks!
Yes, you’re supposed to keep it to flavor the noodles. It could be the type of noodles you used?
We loved this we added some frozen mixed veggies and instead of cream cheese, threw in Boursin!
Love it!
This is probably my 20th time I made it.
Hi Jo! This looks delicious! If I do not have egg noodles, can I use penne pasta instead? Thank you!
Yes, you can!
Thank you! My husband and I really enjoyed this. This will be great for a party!
We added leftover green beans to the gravy after we ate the chicken and noodles. Yummy!
Happy to hear you liked it!
Can this recipe be doubled in a 6 quart Instant Pot? I believe the cooking time doesn’t usually change when doing this because it takes longer to come up to pressure but please correct me, if I am mistaken. I have made several of your one pot Instant Pot meals and they were all delicious- thank you!
Yes, you’re correct. Just make sure the contents don’t go above the max line on the insert bowl.