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Easy Peasy Delicious Ranch Chicken
This is one of the easiest, but most delicious meals I make, next to my veggie meatloaf and my pot roast.
I think this might even be better than the pot roast.
I've covered chicken in Ranch dressing, Italian dressing, French, Catalina, even Bacon Tomato, and all sorts of vinaigrette for different flavors, colors, and uses in meals.
Try out my Tomato Bacon Chicken Tacos or this same ideas with my The Best Ever Avocado Chicken Tacos for an amazing dish with more flavor than you'd expect.
These can be eaten by themselves alongside a nice side of rice and a salad, sliced for tacos, for extra flavor in enchiladas, on top of a nice big salad, or just about any other use you can think of.
It sounds kind of weird, but boy does it taste delicious!
You'll have to give it a try yourself to truly understand. Let's look at how to make it!
Cook Time
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare a square casserole dish by spraying it down with cooking spray thoroughly.
- Thaw your chicken breasts. You can see that I defrost mine in the microwave.
- You can also set them in the refrigerator the night before to thaw, or you could thaw them in room temperature water in the sink. I'm not quite so patient.
- While your chicken is thawing, pour a thin layer of Ranch dressing down into the bottom of the casserole for your thawed chicken to lay on.
- Once thawed, set your chicken breasts into the pan on top of the layer of Ranch you already poured.
- For especially large chicken breasts, or those that are rolled under before freezing, you'll want to lay them out flat when putting them in your casserole.
- I have even pounded them down flatter for previous dinners before putting them in my casserole so they cooked faster. These were relatively small this time, so it wasn't necessary.
- Cover your chicken breasts with a good layer of Ranch and let it pool on the sides.
- Bake for one hour.
- Don't worry about your chicken breasts burning. The Ranch dressing will seal in the juice for you.
- You will notice that your Ranch dressing is going to separate in the oven, leaving mostly a clear liquid in the bottom and "burnt" dressing along the edges of your dish. It all tastes amazing!
- We actually drizzle more of the liquid over our chicken breasts, over our rice, and anything else on our plates. The burned dressing on the edges actually tastes better than everything else in the pan, so you'll want to make sure to get some with your chicken.
- Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 2 medium chicken breasts
- 1 bottle Ranch dressing
Nutritional Information
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Serving size: 1 chicken breast | |
| Calories | 232 |
| Calories from Fat | 18 |
| % Daily Value * | |
| Fat 2 g | 3% |
| Carbohydrates 23 g | 8% |
| Fiber 1 g | 4% |
| Protein 28 g | 56% |
| Cholesterol 69 mg | 23% |
| Sodium 779 mg | 32% |
| * The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA. | |
When you cook your chicken, just know ahead of time that your dressing will separate in the pan.
With the Ranch dressing, there will be hardly no creaminess left over, but tons of a yellow translucent liquid.
All of the creaminess from the dressing has absorbed into the chicken itself.
It still tastes just likes Ranch, but better. We marinate it over the cooked chicken, spread it over our rice, veggies, or whatever else we have on our plate for an incredible taste.
An hour seems like a long time to cook the chicken, but my husband says that the high temperatures seem to sear the chicken and lock in all of the juices.
We you cut them open, you'll see how juicy they really are.
The only burnt part in the casserole will be the dressing around the edges, and that's okay.
In fact, that's some of the best tasting pieces in the entire pan. Don't be afraid to pull them away from the edge and toss them on your rice or chicken.
If you love this one, you'll most certainly want to try out my Italian Chicken.
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© 2014 Victoria Van Ness
