This is my story about the birth of the Chicken Ranch Potato Bake. Last week, I came across a SUPER great deal on a 20lb bag of potatoes. 99 cents!!! Yesssssss, you read that right. (Where I live, that’s a screaming deal!). So, of course, my cheap ass had to pick up a bag (cough*ormaybetwo*cough) – so now, guess who has a boatload of potatoes that need to be used!?!?!
So my lovelies, out of desperation, this is one of the many recipes I came up with. I’m sure there will be plenty more to follow! The most excellent thing about this recipe though, is that it has everything that comfort food lovers fantasize about. It has bacon, cheese, ranch, sour cream and basically everything that is right about life. Plus… it’s simple. And I gotta love simple.
SIMPLE TO MAKE CHICKEN RANCH POTATO BAKE RECIPE
Just start by washing the potatoes, dry them slightly, and dice them up. No need for peeling or perfectionism… just get them big enough to fit in your mouth and cook in a decent amount of time. Throw them in a bowl.
IF you have left over chicken (or even turkey), cut that in to bite-size pieces as well. If you don’t have any leftover chicken, then the packaged chicken strips (no breading) that you can buy at the store will do just as well. If you have a rotisserie chicken with some meat left on it – use that! OH, and make sure you save the bones from the bird so you can make soup/broth in the future, like I did here! (Gotta save those pennies right??)
Throw the chicken in with the potatoes, some onion, and some cooked bacon. You can microwave a few strips to cook them through and then add them to the dish.. or, if you have REAL bacon bits hanging around, those will do for the sub-in. However, don’t use fake bacon bits. For the love of all things pure and good and chemical free, just don’t. When the words imitation and bacon are put together, just run away.
The ranch used here is the actual dressing – not the powder. It helps make the dish creamy and kinda saucy – along with the sour cream. This dish is not for the diet club, that’s for sure, however, it’s IS a one pan dish sort of thing, so what it lacks in slimming characteristics, it makes up in convenience, wholesomeness and TASTE. There’ll be no crying in our plates because the food sucks on this dish!
So it’s as easy as mixing all the ingredients together, transferring them onto a baking dish, and throw them in the oven! You can double this recipe to feed more people – just use a bigger baking dish of course, and maybe increase the baking time a bit. You’ll be able to tell when things are ready – try piercing a chunk of spud with a fork. If it goes in easily, you’re ready to serve! See? SUPER easy!
In all honesty, this dish is so good, I think I’ll be making it again in the next two weeks. My mom stopped by the day I made it and I gave her some to try. She thought it was fantastic – and if my MOM thinks it’s fantastic, you KNOW it is.
Let me know what you thought of this Chicken Ranch Potato Bake recipe, or if you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below. I really want to hear from you!
Chicken Ranch Potato Bake
Ingredients
- 2 lbs potatoes diced
- 2 c chicken cooked, diced/shredded
- ½ c ranch dressing
- ½ c sour cream
- ¼ c onion
- 1 c cheddar shredded
- 5 slices crumbled bacon
- 1 tsp garlic minced
- 1 tbsp dill dried
- as desired pepper
- as desired scallions diced
Instructions
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preheat oven to 350
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In a bowl, combine the all the ingredients except for only use HALF the bacon, and HALF the shredded cheddar.
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Bake for 40 – 45 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through and soft.
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In the last 5 minutes of baking, sprinkle the remaining bacon and cheddar over the top and bake until the cheese is melted.
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Let cook for approximately 5 minutes and then serve!
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Enjoy!
Emily says
I cut my potato pieces up pretty small and they took well over an hour to cook. Almost 2 hours! What kind of potatoes did you use?
TheSaltyPot says
Wholy mackeral Emily! Two hours? I usually default to russets because they’re a starchier type potato and it’s usually what I have on hand. Maybe it was your oven temp? That’s so weird!
Ginny says
What size baking dish and how many serving is this?
TheSaltyPot says
Hi Ginny!
It will serve 2 – 3 ppl as a main dish, and 4 – 5 as a side dish. I used a 9″ pie dish. 🙂
Jancee says
Do you think i could use frozen hashbrowns instead of diced potatoes?
TheSaltyPot says
Hey Jancee! You know, that’s a good question. I think you could, but I’d just really watch the bake time. Regular potatoes take a lot longer to cook through, and hashbrowns are already cooked, or parcooked. The fact they’re frozen would extend the cooking time, but if you were going to try it, I think I’d bake the dish for about 25 – 30 minutes and then check it. Please let me know if you try it and how it worked out because if it worked for you, then I might do another post using your suggestions!!