This easy Baked Ranch Chicken with Broccoli and Bacon is a one-pan meal made in a casserole dish. Minimal clean-up. Perfect for busy weeknight dinners, as meal prep, or to freeze. Only 6 ingredients. 30-40 minutes to make. Low-carb, high protein recipe.
Sometimes all you need is a simple recipe for dinner. This ranch chicken bake is exactly this kind of basic recipe. There is nothing complicated about this ranch chicken. All you have to do is add all the ingredients in a casserole dish and bake. This dish is very similar to my super popular broccoli bacon cheddar chicken bake and a KETO-friendly bacon cream cheese chicken bake.
Use boneless and skinless chicken meat, such as chicken breasts or chicken thighs. Without breadcrumbs, with nothing extra. What you get is a delicious oven baked ranch chicken that not only tastes good but also looks good!
Cooking Tips
- I recommend to blanch the broccoli before adding it on top of chicken (blanching means adding broccoli to boiling water just for a couple of minutes, removing it and draining it well). Blanching the broccoli makes it moist and brighter in color.
- Use skinless, boneless chicken breasts. Use thin chicken breasts. Or, if you have large chicken breasts, slice each chicken breast in half horizontally. You can also use skinless, boneless chicken thighs.
- You can use either store-bought Ranch dressing or make your own.
- No need to add salt. Bacon, Ranch dressing, and the Cheddar cheese add enough saltiness to the dish.
What to serve with Baked Ranch Chicken
- Oven-roasted vegetables, such as roasted asparagus, broccoli, green beans, sliced bell peppers, red onions.
- Potatoes. Serve mashed potatoes or oven-baked potatoes roasted with herbs and garlic in olive oil.
- Rice. Make Jasmine rice or brown rice. For more flavor, serve wild rice or flavored rice.
- Cauliflower “mashed potatoes”. Mash cooked cauliflower, add minced garlic and butter, and serve just like regular potatoes.
- Pasta, such as spaghetti or angel hair pasta.
What to do if you don’t have Ranch Dressing
- Make your own ranch dressing from scratch. Combine 1/2 cup of mayonnaise with 1/2 cup of sour cream. Add 1 clove of minced garlic, 1/2 teaspoon each of (chopped fresh or dried) dill, parsley, chives, onion powder. Season with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Mix to combine.
- Make ranch dressing using dry ranch dressing mix. Combine 1/2 cup of mayonnaise with 1/2 cup of sour cream. Gradually add dry ranch dressing mix (to taste) to the mixture, and stir to combine.
How to make baked Ranch chicken KETO friendly
- Do not use breadcrumbs or crushed crackers as topping over your chicken bake.
- Make your own homemade Ranch dressing that does not include sugar. Combine 1/2 cup of full-fat mayonnaise with 1/2 cup of full-fat sour cream. Add 1 clove of minced garlic, 1/2 teaspoon each of (chopped fresh or dried) dill, parsley, chives, onion powder. Season with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Mix to combine.
How do you bake chicken with Ranch seasoning
1) Preheat oven to 375 F.
2) Add skinless, boneless chicken breasts (or chicken thighs) to the casserole dish.
3) Top with chopped raw broccoli and chopped cooked bacon.
4) Spread Ranch dressing over the chicken.
5) Top with shredded Cheddar and Mozzarella cheese.
6) Bake in the preheated oven at 375 F for about 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
Use the juices from the oven-baked ranch chicken to pour over mashed potatoes or cooked rice or veggies.
This easy Baked Ranch Chicken with Broccoli and Bacon is a one-pan meal made in a casserole dish. There are only 6 ingredients, and the recipe takes 30-40 minutes to make. Low-carb, high protein recipe.
- 4 chicken breasts (use 4 thin chicken breasts, or use 2 large chicken breasts, sliced in half, horizontally)
- 2 cups broccoli florets , blanched, chopped
- 6 strips bacon , cooked, chopped
- 1/2 cup Ranch dressing
- 1 cup Cheddar cheese , shredded
- 1/3 cup Mozzarella cheese , shredded
-
Preheat the oven to 375 F.
-
Add chicken breasts to the casserole dish. I used the the oval casserole dish measured 13 inches x 9 inches x 4 inches deep.
-
Note about chicken: use 4 thin chicken breasts, or use 2 large thick chicken breasts, sliced in half horizontally each to make 4 thin chicken breasts.
-
Top with chopped and blanched broccoli florets.
-
Top with chopped cooked bacon.
-
Spread Ranch dressing on top.
-
Top with shredded Cheddar and Mozzarella cheese.
-
Bake, uncovered, for about 20-30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. The cooking time will depend on the thickness of your chicken breasts.
Thanks you Julia! I made your recipe, Improvising a little along the way. I used left over steamed broccoli from last nights meal. I had two diff kinds of Ranch so I mixed them together to make a cup. I used real store bought bacon bits and topped off with a good dash of paprika. I Sliced two chick breast in half. More tender for sure. Adding a side of last nights sautéed baked potato in olive oil and herbs with a salad! Perfect meal. I will def make it again.
We do not have ranch dressing in this part of the world. What makes a good substitute for that please? Looking forward to try out your recipe!! Thank you!!
I love the concept but the chicken was really bland. If I make it again I will pre-season the chicken with salt, pepper, garlic powder – maybe some other seasoning.
Miranda, I like the idea of seasoning the chicken with seasonings of your choice. Makes the chicken that much more flavorful!
I seasoned the chicken first and did the rest like yours. It was the best chicken I have ever made. Thank you for the awesome recipe. I put it over some buttered linguini.
I made this tonight and it was so good. Someone had mentioned putting the ranch on first and I did that. I also seasoned the chicken prior to putting anything on it with garlic salt and fresh ground pepper. My chicken breasts were a little thicker so I cooked it for 35 mins. I’m in heaven. Thank you for the recipe!
Renee, you are very welcome! So glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you so much for sharing such wonderful feedback! 🙂
Aloha from Hawaiʻi, Julia,
Last night (11/19/2020) I asked DH if he needed anything from the store. He responded with, “…dinner.” So, I jumped on Pinterest to look up ʻlast minute dinnersʻ and came across your Baked Ranch Chicken with Broccoli and Bacon. And, I made it tonight (11/20/2020) for dinner. It was PERFECT!! (Points, for me, a non-chef) The only things I did different was put the ranch dressing on the chicken before the broccoli and bacon; added chopped red, yellow and orange bell peppers and just used self-shredded block cheddar cheese. And, probably cooked it for an hour (in a toaster oven) until the cheese on the sides of the pan turned brown and crispy. Yum! I loved it so much, I couldn’t stop commenting how good it was!! My 3 year old loved it! And, DH loved it, too…and heʻs a chef of 15 years 🙂 Will definitely make this again, will definitely recommend. Mahalo nui loa (thank you very much) for sharing.
Mālama pono (Take care)
Charleyn, thank you so much for such a positive comment! I love Hawaii and have been there several times, to Maui and Kauai. Want to go again pretty soon. So glad you tried this recipe and enjoyed it! Love that you added chopped bell peppers – I love adding those to my chicken bakes, as well. Take a look at these chicken bake recipes – you might like them if you like bell peppers:
Cajun Chicken with Bell Peppers
Fajita Chicken Bake
I followed the recipe as stated and it came out watery. Although it smells good its very runny and not very appetizing.