Let’s be honest, here, is there really any other dressing flavor besides Ranch?
OK, so technically, yes. You’ve got your vinaigrettes and your Italian and Blue (or Bleu?) Cheese and your Thousand Island. But when it comes right down to it, what’s the one dressing most people always turn to? Yep, tangy, buttermilky, herbalicious Ranch! I am personally a huge fan of the stuff myself, but everyone knows that Ranch isn’t only for salads, right? Veggie dipping, pizza drizzling, hot wing cooling, sandwich wrapping. So why not a hidden valley ranch dressing recipe for chicken? As many of you might know I have MASTERED the homemade clone of the Hidden Valley Ranch dressing recipe using a super secret ingredient. It’s sooo delicious and has no msg! You can use this homemade version or the store bought kind to make amazing breaded meal creations, just like my delicious and super easy one pan Ranch Chicken and Potatoes!
How easy is it? Easy enough that even the kiddos can help! They’ll love helping you dip the chicken in the eggy, crumby mess!
First of all, you need to melt some yummy butter in a 9×13 roasting pan in the oven. It saves time when you’re ready to pan up the chicken, I promise. I recommend lining the pan with aluminum foil, because less mess is always a good thing!
Combine your ranch mix, breadcrumbs, and cheese in a bowl, and keep it handy. Bring over your melty butter pan, and resist the gnawing urge to dip some bread in it.
Whisk together an egg and some lemon juice, and dip each chicken breast in, coating both sides. Then, dip each one again, only this time, in your ranch-parm-breadcrumb mixture. Set the breasts in the pan, like so…
…making sure you coat each side with the melted butter. It gives the finished product such a rich, delicious flavor. Add your cubed potatoes to the pan, turning to coat them in the remaining butter, and then sprinkle them generously with whatever is left of your ranch crumb mixture.
Oh boy. This hidden valley ranch dressing recipe stuff is good, friends. My family LOVES to see this on the table.
Bake it all uncovered for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees, and voila! If you’re feeling fancy, lay a slice of deli Provolone cheese on each piece of chicken in the last 5 minutes of baking. Because heaven knows that cheesy ranch chicken always needs extra cheese!
If you’re using a lot of homegrown ingredients (eggs, homemade ranch, cheese, breadcrumbs, etc.), you can make this recipe for almost nothing! Chicken breast is on sale all over the place at the beginning of the year, and you use so little of the other ingredients, each serving will undoubtedly cost you less than a dinner out of the house. Hooray for frugal, delicious, family meals! And YES, this meal can also be frozen in advance!
Easy Ranch Chicken & Potatoes
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 2 tbsp Homemade Hidden Valley Ranch mix or 1 store bought packet
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
- 1 egg
- 1 dash lemon juice
- 4 slices provolone cheese
- 1/4 cup butter
- 4 potatoes cubed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Place butter in a 13x9 pan and place it in the oven to melt.
- In a shallow bowl, whisk together egg and lemon juice.
- In a separate bowl, combine ranch mix, breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese, mixing until evenly distributed.
- Dip both sides of chicken in egg, then in breadcrumb mixture.
- When butter is melted, remove pan from the oven. Flip each breast so both sides get covered in butter, then place chicken in pan, leaving room on one side for potatoes.
- Cube 4 potatoes and add them to the pan, turning them so they are coated in butter. Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture over them.
- Bake for 45 minutes, or until center of chicken is no longer pink. To fancy it up, add a slice of provolone cheese during the last 5 minutes until melted around it.
- Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
What are the thawing/cooking instructions if fixing this Ranch Chicken & Patatoes recipe from frozen? TIA!
If you are cooking this from frozen I would suggest you pull it out the night before and put it in your fridge so it can thaw for the day. By dinnertime the next day cook it using the same instructions as the recipe. If you don’t pull it out until the morning of add more cooking time to the recipe. It does take more thought to take it out of the freezer the day before but it is worth it when dinner rolls around!
This was a simply delicious supper…it’s going to the first recipe I grab to impress the family….simple,zesty, and flavorful…and the potatoes and extra bonus..You don’t waste the crumbs after breading the chicken… I used a separate pan added more butter to the bottom toss in the potatoes and yummy…Thank you
Heidi, I have washed and reused ziplock bags for well over 30 years. It just didn’t make sense to use once and throw away, especially when on such a tight budget. The kids HATED it, but they did it anyway. Just make sure to use HOT water and soap. My youngest is 32 now and long gone from the nest, but I still wash them. I just can’t see wasting the money. Yes, it’s a pain to do, but it makes me feel better to save the money. And I can hardly wait to try this recipe. It sounds and looks wonderful!
I know it’s not “green”, but I like to use the gallon size ziploc bags to coat chicken. Put the wet stuff in one and the dry in another and you can just drop the chicken in the bag and shake. It makes so much less mess.
Oh, that slice of chicken looks perfect. I can’t wait to try this! 🙂
I made this for my family tonight. Absolutely delicious! All four of my kids AND my hubby loved it. That is huge and almost never happens. This is definitely going into my weekly rotation. So easy, budget friendly and yummy!