Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Recipe

While ranch may have started out as a simple buttermilk-based salad dressing, it seems to have taken on quite a life of its own. People put it on vegetables, pizza, chicken wings, and all manner of other foods. While the dressing itself works well as a condiment, dried ranch seasoning mix makes for an even more versatile cooking ingredient.

In this dish, recipe developer Susan Olayinka of The Flexible Fridge uses ranch seasoning to flavor a creamy pasta salad. The salad gets even more flavor from a generous helping of bacon, and it's nice and hearty thanks to the addition of chicken as well. As Olayinka describes this pasta salad of hers, "It's good [with] a cheesy, creamy taste [and] great texture from the bacon and chicken," adding that "it's really fresh" as well. As this salad requires just a few staple ingredients and minimal prep and cooking time, it makes for a great quick weekday meal.

This recipe requires the use of just six ingredients, many of them items you may already have on hand. For the pasta, Olayinka herself uses fusilli, but she says you can use "all type[s] of pasta shape[s], or gluten-free pasta." For the sake of the dish, though, it's best you stick to the chunkier types of pasta such as shells or farfalle rather than trying it with long noodles like spaghetti or linguine. In addition to the pasta, you'll need a chicken breast, some bacon, a large amount of mayonnaise, some dried ranch seasoning, and some fresh parsley.

The first thing you'll need to do, since it's the most time-consuming step in the process of making this dish, is to boil a large pot of water, then cook your pasta according to the package directions. Don't forget to salt the water using the amount specified on the package.

As the pasta is cooking, you can fry the bacon, as well, then set it on a plate or rack to cool. Now check the pasta — when it's done, drain it and set it aside to cool down for a few moments.

Once the bacon is cooled, chop it into pieces about 1 inch long, then chop the chicken into 1-inch chunks, as well. Mince the parsley if you'll be using the fresh stuff. If you don't have fresh parsley and/or don't want to bother with slicing and dicing, Olayinka says you can "for sure" make a substitution of "1 tablespoon dried" parsley instead. Mix the mayonnaise with the ranch dressing, and what have you got? Creamy, delicious, easy ranch dressing!

At this point, grab yourself a bowl and empty the pot of drained pasta into the bowl. Stir in the chicken, bacon, and parsley, then add the dressing. Mix until all of these ingredients are about as combined as they're going to get, and your pasta is now ready to serve.

As this dish contains two types of meat, it could serve as a main course for a lunch or light dinner, but Olayinka prefers to serve it as a hearty side dish, instead. She says she serves this "with some grilled meat [and] a nice soft fizzy drink."