Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole
Creamy, cheesy and comforting! Loaded with Ranch chicken, homemade alfredo sauce and bacon. Can be made ahead of time!
Ranch chicken. Rotini pasta. Homemade alfredo sauce. And bacon. All baked to cheesy ooey gooey perfection. One bite of this and you will be hooked – I promise.
Now there are a few steps to this recipe but if you’re short of time, there’s a few shortcuts that can be taken here.
For starters, leftover rotisserie chicken would be a great way to repurpose leftovers. Store-bought alfredo sauce can also be substituted. And if you are counting your calories for the new year, you can make this sans bacon.
But let’s be real here. The bacon is always a must, am I right?
Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole
Creamy, cheesy and comforting! Loaded with Ranch chicken, homemade alfredo sauce and bacon. Can be made ahead of time!
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon, diced
- 2 boneless skinless chicken thighs*, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Ranch Seasoning and Salad Dressing Mix, or more, to taste
- 8 ounces rotini
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
For the alfredo sauce
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup heavy cream, or more, to taste
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9x9 baking dish or coat with nonstick spray.
- To make the alfredo sauce, melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Gradually whisk in heavy cream. Cook, whisking constantly, until incorporated, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in Parmesan until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. If the mixture is too thick, add more heavy cream as needed; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Set aside.
- Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add bacon and cook until brown and crispy, about 6-8 minutes. Drain excess fat; reserving 1 tablespoon in the skillet. Transfer bacon to a paper towel-lined plate.
- In a gallon size Ziploc bag, add chicken, 1 tablespoon olive oil and Ranch Seasoning, shaking to coat thoroughly. Add chicken to the skillet and cook, flipping once, until cooked through, about 2-3 minutes on each side; set aside.
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
- Add pasta to the prepared baking dish and layer with chicken and alfredo sauce; sprinkle with cheeses and bacon. Place into oven and bake until bubbly and heated through, about 15-20 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
Notes
*Boneless, skinless chicken breasts can be substituted.
Did you make this recipe?
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I made this tonight and made a few tweaks to the recipe. I didn’t use marinara, instead I used a jarred vodka sauce. I used left over chicken I had in the freezer so I didn’t have to cook it. I wanted to season the chicken so I added basil pesto and sun dried tomatoes mixing before adding to the top of the pasta. Also, I didn’t have any mozzarella so I used a few really thin slices of baby Swiss I had along with Colby/jack and Parmesan. The dish was delicious and I will definitely make it again. I will use mozzarella though.
I made this for the first time last night and my girlfriend had a fit over it! After about two bites she told me that this is her new favorite meal that I’ve made. She works nights, so she took even more to work and was still complimenting it. 10/10 would recommend!
That’s great! We love that. Thanks, Shelby!
Where do I get ranch seasoning and salad seasoning
It is available in most grocery stores.
This was soooooo Delicious !! I did pack some onions n peppers n broccoli into the mix as I keep trying to get more veggies into my family! Next time I am going to add waaay more! After the garlic butter cream mixture I did add a Boursin round to the sauce. Wow! Is all I can say! Made it very creamy delicious! I did thicken it with a cornstarch slurry. Perfect consistency! This dish is excellent to feed a large crowd! Thank You ever so much for your ideas on what the heck to make for dinner! I look for your recipes all the time and they are of course Damn Delicious!
This was a hit! I made this for my husband and he loved it. He even asked to take it for lunch the next day and he doesn’t eat leftovers.
This recipe sounds divine, I must try it. Thankyou!
How many ounces of cubed rotisserie chicken would I use?
About 12-16 ounces.
If I wanted to make this ahead of time….. Should I bake it then put it in the fridge until later? Or cook everything… Assembe…. Then pop it in the fridge until later when I’m ready to bake it? I’m making the dish for a friend. So will be dropping it off earlier in the day to be eaten later.
You can pop it in the fridge until you are ready to bake it. Hope that helps, Angela!
What temp and how much time should you cook it, if you make it ahead of time?
You can actually just pop it in the fridge until you are ready to bake it (as directed in the recipe). Hope that helps, Beth!
Just made this. Smells amazing!! Can’t wait to try it.
This is an amazing recipe.
I made it incorrectly, using too much chicken and spices with the wrong kind of pasta, and it still turned out glorious. I love this thing.
Haha this is awesome!
Made this tonight. I doubled the amount of bacon and i had to make some extra alfredo sauce. It was very tasty, everyone enjoyed iit.
Extra bacon, extra alfredo – what’s not to love! Thanks Jillian!
I want to make a big batch of this for the first time today.. should I use 1 lb of chicken per batch or how much? Thank you so much!
I made this tonight and it was delicious! I doubled the sauce and it was still a little dry so next time I’ll triple it. I also added more bacon and cheddar. The flavors were delicious!
Made this for dinner tonight. All I can say is this recipe is so soo good. Whole family loved it. I honestly can’t wait to make it again. Thanks for this recipe.
This looked and sounded wonderful until I got to the point of pouring the alfredo sauce over the rotini, etc. It seemed like way too little sauce, but I thought, just try it as written, surely they test these recipes before publishing them! Not. It was extremely dry, the sauce pretty much disappeared during the baking and when serving, there was nothing to hold the rotini together, it was kind of like a hot pasta salad. The alfredo sauce itself is wonderful, I will be using that again, but for this recipe I will double if not triple the amount of alfredo sauce proportionate to the rest. The flavor combination is great, it just needs a lot more sauce.
One thing I do, to save on having to cook the bacon, is that I buy a bag or the real bacon crumbles that is sold in the salad toppings isle, might not give the bacon grease for the pan, but it’s another corner cutting option. I have 5 kids (from 12years to 4months old) and I’m a girl scout leader so time is precious and sparse at this point in my life.
Definitely going to make this for the family…going to split the sauce in half and put theirs on pasta and mine on spaghetti squash! Excited to see how that tastes!
That sounds amazing! Let me know how it turns out!
I lubed up the chicken breast, and added the ranch seasoning, also used some Chipotle spice. Put that in the fridge for a few hours marinade it in all its goodness,. Fired up the grill and cooked the chicken. Did everything else by direction, but doubled the bacon and Alfredo sause. Served with french garlic bread. Everyone thinks im e man!!
can i use ranch salads’ n dips because i can’t find the ranch salad dressing and seasoning mix?
It is actually best to use the Ranch Seasoning and Salad Dressing Mix!
thank you
If I am just using leftover chicken or turkey, could I just add the ranch dressing mix to the sauce somehow and still get a similar result in taste instead of coating raw chicken in mix?
If using leftover chicken or turkey, I recommend skipping the Ranch dressing mix altogether.
Fantastic, I made it as per recipe. I did 1 change and I doubled the batch as we had company. I put fresh steamed brocoli piece in it. added flavor-fiber and color and served it with garlic bread and a side salad, It was a hit and was asked to share the recipe. Thank you for the recipe. Easy to make as well.