Slow Cooker Queso Chicken Tacos – Only 4 ingredients are needed to make these insanely delicious, ridiculously easy tacos. They will knock your socks off! A Sweet Little Bluebird original recipe.
SLOW COOKER QUESO CHICKEN TACOS
Made with only a few ingredients – chicken breasts are slow cooked to fall apart tender perfection in tasty taco seasoning, diced tomatoes and green chilies, then shredded and smothered in velvety queso. Serve in hard or soft shell tacos topped with your favorite taco toppings. The chicken is also great for burritos, wraps and bowls. This recipe is super easy to adapt to your taste and a great way to feed a crowd.
Read rave reviews from people who tried this recipe on Pinterest (photos)!
Read More Reviews
This recipe is slightly adapted from my popular Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken Tacos.
What You Need
Boneless skinless chicken breasts, taco seasoning, chicken broth (optional), Rotel, green chiles (optional), queso, taco shells and your favorite taco toppings.
**Original post, Jan 20, 2019 – Updated April 2, 2020 – If you have limited food supplies, you can omit the green chiles and the chicken broth, the chicken will still be tender, flavorful and delicious. If you do not have Rotel, you can substitute with salsa. This recipe is super easy to adapt!
How To Make
Lightly spray slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray. Place chicken in a single layer and sprinkle taco seasoning evenly on top. In a medium size bowl, add Rotel, green chiles and chicken broth, mix well and pour over chicken. Cook on high for 4-6 hours (adjust cooking time according to how fast/slow your cooker cooks – for some cookers, chicken may be done in 3-4 hours on high).
When ready, drain excess liquid leaving just a smidgen behind (I use a soup ladle), then shred chicken using two forks. Last, spoon queso on top and gently mix with chicken, coating chicken evenly. Cook on low for 20 minutes or until heated through. Serve with your favorite toppings, enjoy!
Ready for tacos…
Chicken tacos are on regular rotation in my home, when I served these tacos last week, my family absolutely loved them, giving dinner two big thumbs up! They kept going back for more, leaving the cooker empty with no leftovers. An empty pot is always a good sign for a winning recipe!
IF YOU LOVE QUESO, BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THESE AWESOME RECIPES
Easy Layered Taco Bake from The Country Cook – “A simple and quick weeknight meal with layers of tortillas, ground beef and salsa con queso!”
Taco Rice with Queso from South Your Mouth – A fantastic one-pan skillet dinner.
PINNABLE IMAGE
Please Note – This is NOT a sponsored post. I have no affiliation with any of products used in this recipe.
Slow Cooker Queso Chicken Tacos
Original Recipe Date – Jan 20, 2019
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 packet (1 ounce) of your favorite taco seasoning or use homemade
- 10 ounce can of Rotel with lime juice and cilantro (you can use Original Rotel too, or use homemade Rotel – Tomatoes and Green Chilies)
- 4 ounce can mild diced green chiles (optional)
- 1/2 cup chicken broth (optional)
- 3/4 cup salsa con queso – use your favorite brand or use homemade
- taco shells, hard or soft
- favorite toppings – lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, onions, jalapenos, sour cream, guacamole, fresh lime, cilantro, hot sauce, queso
**UPDATE April 2, 2020 – If you have limited supplies, you can omit the green chiles and the chicken broth and it will still be fantastic. If you do not have Rotel, you can substitute with salsa. This recipe is easy to adapt!
Simplified with only 4-Ingredients: Chicken Breasts, Taco Seasoning, Rotel or Salsa and Queso.
Directions
- *Adjust cooking time according to how fast or slow your cooker cooks – for some slow cookers, cooking on high, chicken may be ready in 3-4 hours
- Use the chicken for tacos, burritos, bowls and wraps.
- I purchased a jar of queso and used the leftover as a topping and for tortilla chips.
- You can use original Rotel or Rotel hot – this recipe is super easy to adapt to your taste if you like things spicy/hot.
Sarah
I accidentally added the queso with the other liquids. Will this mess everything up?
Mary Neumann
Hi Sarah! The chicken will be fine, the queso will just be very thin because it’s cooking with a lot of liquid. If you have queso left over, add it to your tacos as a topping 🙂 Your chicken should still be delicious!
Kellie
This is one of our favorite things to eat. Sometimes we eat in corn tortillas as tacos with a side of Spanish rice then the next day we mix the rice and chicken together and put it in flour tortillas for burritos.
Jeanne C
Can the left overs be frozen?
Mary Neumann
Queso does not freeze well, Jeanne.
Kristin
Where would I find the nutritional information for this recipe?
Mary Neumann
Kristin, I don’t provide nutritional information, here is a well written reason why, from a fellow food blogger over at Southern Bite: https://southernbite.com/heres-why-i-dont-post-nutritional-information-with-my-recipes/
Gg
Very confused on the cheese nowhere within the directions does it indicate the cheese so I just added it to the bowl with the rotel etc. And don’t understand the necessity of draining everything…but we’ll see
Mary Neumann
You missed it GG, it’s in the directions:
When ready, drain excess liquids leaving just a smidgen behind (I use a soup ladle), then shred chicken using two forks. Last, spoon queso on top and gently mix with chicken, coating chicken evenly. Cover and cook on low for 20 minutes or until heated through. Serve with tortillas (hard or soft shell) and your favorite taco toppings. Enjoy!”
Ruth
What is quest?
Lori
So good! This recipe is for Slow Cooker/Crockpot, but I do it in the Instant pot. 10-12 min if chicken breasts are under 2″thick, if over, 15min with a 5 min natural release and the quick release. Serving in low carb tortillas
Donna
wondering how this would turn out using a chuck roast or pork loin?
Jesse
Made this last night with frozen chicken thighs (it’s what I had). It was delicious! We drained just about all the liquid and then added a local white queso. Plenty of leftovers for the next few days.
Megan
How long did you cook It in the crockpot for frozen? I have never put frozen chicken in the crockpot, but wondering if I need to do anything different. Thank you!
Kelley
I COULD REALLY USE SOME CROCK POT RECIPES IF ANYONE WOULD LIKE TO SHARE SOME TO ME ID GREATLY APPRECIATE IT.
Erica E
This turned out great! Even my super picky 7-year-old said it was yummy! There was enough chicken for my family of 6 (two adults, 4 kids: ages 13, 10, 7, and 3) to have multiple tacos each, and there are plenty of leftovers.
The juices I took out with the ladle I saved in a glass measuring cup and added some water to reach 2 cups. This, I used in a package of Knorr chicken rice that called for 2 cups of water. I also added a can of black beans (drained) and 3 oz. frozen corn to that rice when there were 4 minutes left of cook time. This made a good side dish to serve with the tacos.
Cindy
Why don’t you put how many servings? I have just read two of your recipes and on both when people left comments asking how many servings they were not answered.
Mary Neumann
Cindy, you will see in the comments I answered this question a few times, “…this can serve 6-8 people depending on how large each serving is and if you do sides. It can go far with sides. I make this for our family of 4.” Servings are tricky, not knowing how large/small portions people like to serve.
Rachel
Have you ever used Frozen chicken breasts before?
Mary Neumann
I have not, Rachel,I would thaw the chicken first. I have found frozen chicken breasts bags tend to have a lot of extra liquid pumped into them, so after the chicken is cooked,before adding the queso,be sure to drain all that extra liquid.
Judy M Wilcox
I have alread cooked and shredded chicken so making it on the stove. Should I adjust the recipe at all doing it this way?
Shay
This is AMAZING!!!
Brandie Benson
Made this for dinner tonight we liked it I’m not a big shredded chicken fan so next time I might use diced chicken and make it on the stove this time I followed the directions here but left out the chicken broth used some butter on top and used pace picante sauce mild and no green chilies I will make it again and I only used a half package of taco seasoning
Lisa Terry
Excellent recipe. Made this for a church dinner and it was hit! I cooked some cornbread with Mexican corn in it to go with this. It was excellent!
Erica
How many tacos does this make?
Mary Neumann
Erica, sorry I missed your question, this can serve 6-8 people depending on how large each serving is and if you do sides. It can go far with sides. I make this for our family of 4.