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.
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Everything on this website looks damn delicious!
Hard to know where to start.
I did make this last night for dinner and husband and I had it again for breakfast!
Couldn’t find ranch dressing/dip stuff today because I will be making it again
and didn’t seem to miss that ingredient
It was still great
I am going to try freezing it.
Thank you very much for sharing
We made this last week and it was awesome! Even for a person as useless as myself in the kitchen. Question: you mention it can be made ahead of time…could I make it Sunday afternoon and leave it until Monday night in the fridge before cooking?
Yes, absolutely!
Made this tonight and OMG it was soooo good!!!! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
I have a question on the sauce. I made this tonight for dinner and since I didn’t have any heavy cream I used whole milk. My problem was that it never thickened. Will it not thicken if heavy cream is replaced with whole milk? Thanks! (oh, I did fix the problem by adding a little flour!)
Yes! For a more thicker consistency, it is best to use heavy cream but milk + flour is also a great substitute!
It was a delicious recipe and am so glad there were leftover for the weekend! Thanks!
Would doubling this be as simple as just doubling all the ingredients, or would the sauce be more fiddly than that? We’re having guests next week, and I’m trying to find something their young kids will be likely to eat readily.
Yes, you can double all ingredients.
If using store bought alfredo, how much should one use?
1 (15-ounce) jar should be more than enough, but as always, please use your best judgment.
This looks great! One question: if you use leftover rotisserie chicken instead, how would you get the ranch seasoning in there? I.e., Would you have to adjust the amounts? When would you add it?
You can add the Ranch Seasoning to the chicken prior to assembling the casserole. You can choose to adjust the amounts as needed, to taste.
This looks awesome! The ingredients (minus the pasta) remind me of a pizza I used to make back in the day when I used to work at a pizza place. It was our top seller. Yum.
Made this last night and my kids loved it! We had just enough leftover for them to pack up in a thermos for lunch at school…perfect comfort food for rainy, cold days! My hubby was bummed there wasn’t any left for him. Will be making it again. Only modification was an additional 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese. Next time I think I’d better double the recipe!
Can this, by chance, be made in a crock pot?
It is very difficult to give exact conversion information to translate a traditional stovetop recipe to be used in a slow cooker without further recipe testing. However, here is an article worth checking out on a possible conversion guide. Hope that helps!
Love everything about this. Especially the bacon!
hi, could this be made ahead and frozen?
Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself – there were no leftovers left to freeze! Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
Yes you can! I make a double batch when I make it. Eat one and freeze the other so I can just pull it out the night before we want it, thaw it in the fridge over night and bake it for dinner!
Sarah, do you adjust the recipe at all for it to be frozen? Do you freeze it before you bake it? Thank you!
I made and froze it so my husband could pop it in the oven when I was out of town and it worked great. I am making a batch now to put in freezer so I can take on vacation in a couple of weeks. I want to spend all of my time on the beach, not inside cooking!
This. Looks. Phenomenal.
Aweful lot of sodium content in one serving I’d use my own Italian seasoning no salted ranch mix..
Way to be a Debbie Downer there, CT. There’s one in every crowd.
Good idea to reduce the sodium. So many people have to watch their sodium intake.
Then cut down or cut out the salt. Duh
Yum! it looks really delicious.
Just made this for dinner tonight! It was a hit. It was easy and so delicious.
Made this tonight. Used chicken breast instead of thighs, and doubled for a 9×13 pan. Definitely a winner!