This creamy ranch chicken recipe is comforting and delicious with juicy pan-seared chicken breasts in a zesty and flavorful cream sauce. Serve it with some mashed potatoes, rice, or egg noodles to soak up all that rich gravy.
Today we’re making some creamy ranch chicken that’s an easy skillet meal with simple ingredients but incredible flavor. Ranch seasoning is the star of the show and elevates the humble chicken breast giving you savory comfort food with a ton of sauce to go around. Spoon it over mashed potatoes, serve it on a bed of white rice, or ladle it generously over a bowl of warm buttered egg noodles.
It’s a simple, must-try recipe if you’re looking for a way to dress up plain chicken. The chicken is seasoned and pan-seared in some butter until crisp and golden. A creamy ranch sauce is made from a combination of chicken broth, milk, ranch, sour cream, onion and garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Serve this at the dinner table for a ranch-flavored meal the whole family will enjoy, like this well-loved bacon ranch pasta salad.
For more chicken recipes with a delicious sauce, try this chicken Lazone, creamy mushroom chicken, honey garlic chicken, or slow cooker chicken and gravy.
How To Make Creamy Ranch Chicken (1 Min Video)
Ingredients in Creamy Ranch Chicken
CREAMY RANCH CHICKEN RECIPE TIPS
- Chicken – Pound the chicken breasts to an even thickness so it cooks evenly. A mounded center usually means the ends will be drier by the time the thicker part finishes cooking. You can use a meat mallet and place the chicken breasts between some plastic wrap, parchment paper, or in a Ziploc bag.
- Two-hand seasoning method – The easiest way to minimize hand washing while seasoning meat is to use the dry and wet hand method. Use your dominant hand to sprinkle seasoning onto the meat and use your other hand to pat in seasonings and flip the chicken.
- Seasoning – Work the salt and pepper into the chicken breasts by massaging them in.
- Butter – I like using Land O Lakes butter. The half sticks are perfect for slicing off into cubes and they come with measurements by the tablespoon or cup written onto the packaging so you can skip measuring spoonfuls of butter.
- Flour – This helps thicken the sauce. After adding it to the melted butter, the mixture will bubble a little while cooking.
- Chicken broth – Use low-sodium chicken broth since there’s already enough sodium from the ranch seasoning packet.
- Sour cream – This adds more flavor and thickens the sauce a little. I used 1/4 cup of sour cream to balance out the flavors so it tastes more like ranch dressing than sour cream. If you prefer a stronger sour cream flavor, feel free to increase this amount to about 1/2 cup. Use full-fat sour cream so it doesn’t curdle in the sauce.
- Ranch dip seasoning mix – I used one (1 oz.) packet of Hidden Valley Ranch dry seasoning. If you’re uncomfortable with the amount of sodium, try using half a packet of ranch seasoning instead. You might also be able to substitute the dry mix with regular ranch dressing from the bottle but I have not personally tested this.
- Leftovers – Leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- Reheat – Reheat this in the microwave or in a pan over low heat. Add a splash of milk if needed to loosen up the sauce when reheating.
Customize It!
- Add more flavor – Top the chicken with some chunky bacon bits before serving or add them into the sauce.
What to Serve with Creamy Ranch Chicken
Serve this creamy chicken with some starch that will absorb all that yummy sauce. The chicken pairs wonderfully with mashed potatoes, rice, or noodles. Add some veggies to balance out the meal like green beans, garlic Parmesan roasted broccoli, lemon pepper asparagus, or some garlic butter mushrooms.
And that’s about it. Enjoy your meal and let me know how you liked it, what substitutions you made and what you paired it with in the comments below!
This post was originally published on November 19, 2017 and updated on September 25, 2022.
MORE CHICKEN BREAST RECIPES TO TRY
- Easy Oven-Baked Chicken
- Garlic Butter Baked Chicken Breast
- Baked Parmesan Crusted Chicken
- Honey Garlic Butter Chicken
- Chicken with Lemon Garlic Cream Sauce
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Creamy Ranch Chicken
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
This creamy ranch chicken recipe is comforting and delicious with juicy pan-seared chicken breasts in a zesty and flavorful cream sauce.
Ingredients
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (5–8 oz. each)
- Salt and pepper
- 3 tablespoons butter, divided
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon flour
- Fresh parsley, to garnish (optional)
SAUCE
- 1 cup low sodium chicken broth
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 (1 oz.) packet Ranch seasoning mix
Instructions
- Pound the chicken breasts to an even 1” thickness using a meat mallet and season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper.
- In a skillet over medium-high heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter and add olive oil. Sear the chicken on each side until golden brown, about 4-5 minutes per side. Remove to a plate and set aside.
- Reduce heat to low and add the remaining butter. Stir in flour and cook for about one minute.
- Pour in chicken broth and scrape up the browned bits stuck to the pan.
- Add milk, sour cream, onion powder, garlic powder, Italian seasoning and ranch seasoning mix. Stir to combine until the sour cream and ranch seasoning has fully dissolved into the sauce.
- Add chicken and plate juices back to the pan and spoon the sauce over the chicken. Simmer in the sauce until the chicken is heated through and the sauce has reduced slightly.
- Dish and serve hot topped with fresh parsley (optional).
- Enjoy!
Notes
- I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts on the smaller side (about 5-8 oz. each). If you have large chicken breasts, cut 2 breasts in half lengthwise to get 4 chicken cutlets.
- Use full-fat sour cream so it doesn’t curdle in the sauce.
- Add more flavor – Top the chicken with some chunky bacon bits before serving or add them into the sauce.
- Scroll up to RECIPE TIPS for more useful tips, suggestions and ingredient substitutions.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
Comments & Reviews
I made this last week, it was 😋🤤!! My boys didn’t even wanna try it, def more for me. I’m making this for myself for supper tonight!
I can get behind that ‘more for me’ mindset 😀 Looks like you found a new staple and I hope you enjoyed it just as much the second time around!
Delicious and fairly simple to make. I served it with roasted potatoes and asparagus and spooned the sauce over everything. Super tasty! It did take a little while for the sauce to thicken but everything came together beautifully.
Great sides! I’m sure some of that gravy went well over the roasted potatoes.
Made this for dinner last night and it was a real hit! Delicious, easy and relatively quick.
Glad it was a hit! I’m always happy to hear how easy the recipes are for others.
This was a big hit in our house.
I used almond flour and heavy cream instead of white flour and milk to reduce the carbs.
Thanks for sharing your substitutions! I hope this will help others.
Made this recipe tonight. It was absolutely delicious. Have put this recipe in my favorites.
Enjoy the chicken the next time you make it! Thanks for commenting, Doris 🙂
So about how long do you simmer the chicken in the sauce?
Not too long since you don’t want to overcook the chicken. 2-3 minutes should be enough time to get the chicken warmed through again in the sauce.
Have you tried making this in bigger batches and freezing portions?!
No, but you can definitely double the portions. I have not tested freezing it but it should be okay. The only problem I foresee is the sour cream texture changing a little.
We eat it with noodles and broccoli florets
Thanks for sharing, Vickie!
Delicious and very easy! Definitely will make it again!
Glad to hear it 🙂 I love hearing everyone say how easy this is – approachable recipes are what I’m aiming for!
How much flour?
1 tablespoon of flour. It is on the ingredient list!
I needed a last-minute dinner and decided to try this. So yummy! Next time I’ll make some rice to go with it.
Rice sounds great! I think we paired ours with mashed potatoes and poured some of the ranch gravy over it too. Thank you for sharing, JB!
This recipe is amazing!!! So easy and my family absolutely loved it!!!
Glad it was a hit! Thank you for letting me know 🙂
Hubby is eating this over brown rice as I speak. I got a big thumbs up. Only change I would make is not to salt the chicken.
Served with a side of peas & carrots. I used 2 breast cause that’s all I had. Cut them into bite size pieces and that was plenty. Same amount of sauce.
Thank you very much for a quick, easy and tasty recipe.
Thank you for giving the recipe a go – you can absolutely skip seasoning the chicken to cut down the sodium since the ranch seasoning packet has some too. I’m glad to hear you both enjoyed it!
Keeper recipe! Easy and delicious!!
Love to hear that, Melanie 😀 Thank you for sharing and commenting!
Girl it’s the great bomb recipe. Good working very well job done. Excellent cooking. Thank you.
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you liked it so much 🙂
I’m making my way through your chicken recipes! XD
Tasty! I didn’t add salt, but that worked out well because the ranch wound up being very salty. I don’t know what the average sodium content for ranch dressing is, but salt sensitive people should keep that in mind, I suppose.
On to the next dish!
I can see that! It’s been fun seeing your name pop up in my emails 🙂 Thanks for weighing in on the salt, that’s why I usually always say ‘salt and pepper to taste’ cause its such a matter of personal preference!