Garlic Bacon and Ranch Chicken

I love to make this chicken dish, so I thought I would share the recipe.  It has garlic, bacon, ranch dressing, and cream cheese. What's not to love?  It is a perfect comfort meal.  It is one of my husbands very favorite meals, and the kids love it to.  I make it in my dutch oven (usually on days that I work), so I throw the ingredients together in the morning (with the frozen chicken), put it in the oven, and go to bed.  When I get up, the house smells intoxicating, and dinner is basically ready.  Did I mention I love making this chicken dish?

I found it on a website a long time ago, and made some variations.  If I ever figure out where the original recipe came from, I will post it so they get the credit.  But for now, I'll just share my rendition.  (This is perfect for our family of six to eat dinner, and I have leftovers to take for lunch.  You may want to cut the recipe in half if your army isn't quite so large.)

Garlic Bacon and Ranch Chicken

4-5 raw chicken breasts

1 lb. bacon, uncooked and chopped

1 heaping Tbl. minced garlic

2 pkg. dry ranch dressing mix

2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup

1 cup sour cream

6 oz. cream cheese (softened)

1 1/2 cups water

Directions:

Place chicken breasts in bottom of dutch oven (or crock pot).  Combine bacon, garlic, ranch dressing mix, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, cream cheese, and water in a large bowl.  Mix well. (Cream cheese may still be lumpy, but it will melt together as it cooks).  Pour mixture over chicken, move chicken around slightly to coat pieces on the bottom.  

For the crock pot: Cook on high for 3-4 hours, or until chicken is tender and cooked through.  It may take slightly longer if the chicken is frozen.  

For the dutch oven: Cook in the oven on 225*.  Check it at 3 hours.  It may take up to 4 hours, depending on how frozen the chicken is and your oven.

With frozen chicken, and not preheating the oven, mine is usually done in just under 4 hours.

After about 2 hours of cooking, you can stir it to mix in the cream cheese, and make sure all of the chicken is evenly coated, but you don't have to.  Stirring it together when it is finished cooking works great as well.  

Usually, I use light sour cream and light cream cheese, and you can't even tell the difference.

I serve this over white rice (I make about 3 cups of dry rice).  Yum!