Cheesy Ranch Chicken Recipe
Nothing is better than this Baked Ranch Chicken Recipe featuring chicken breasts smothered in ranch seasoning, cheddar cheese, and mayo! The dish bakes to tender, juicy perfection in the oven in just half an hour with five ingredients. It’s truly the BEST weeknight dinner recipe!
Serve it up with easy sides to complete the meal. It pairs perfectly with my favorite Instant Pot mashed potatoes and air fryer asparagus or easy green beans. You can also make a salad with some ranch dressing!
Love the flavors of ranch? Try it to make these crockpot potatoes, ranch pretzels, and this crockpot chicken recipe!
Table of contents
Why You Will Love Cheesy Ranch Chicken
- Kid-friendly and great for picky eaters! This is one of those dinner recipes I turn to when I’m tired and don’t want to cook. It really helps that it’s not just an easy recipe, but that I also don’t have to barter with any little ones to eat it!
- Budget-friendly dinner. This chicken recipe is made with just 5 simple and inexpensive ingredients. The most expensive ingredient in this recipe is the chicken itself, which isn’t super likely to break the bank.
- Truly mouthwatering flavor. Too often, baked chicken can come out bland and lifeless if you don’t season it or cover it in a sauce. In this recipe, the mixture of cheddar cheese, ranch seasoning mix, minced garlic, and mayo that smothers this chicken makes it anything but bland!
Ingredients
These 5 ingredients are all you need to bake the perfect chicken dinner!
- Chicken: Use boneless, skinless chicken breasts to make this chicken recipe easy to prepare.
- Mayonnaise: Mixes with the cheese, ranch, and garlic to create a creamy flavorful sauce for cooking the chicken and giving it tons of flavor and keeping the chicken ultra juicy.
- Garlic: Since we’re using only five ingredients in this dish, fresh garlic truly matters. It delivers way better flavor than using garlic powder.
- Cheese: Shredded cheddar cheese adds the best flavor to this dish though you can of course try it with other meltable cheeses.
- Ranch: This premixed seasoning blend gives your chicken all the great flavor it needs to elevate it from an average chicken dish to something truly special.
How To Make Baked Ranch Chicken
Follow these simple, hassle-free steps and you’ll have a picky-eater-approved chicken dinner on your table in just 30 minutes.
- Make the Cheesy Ranch Mixture. Combine the mayo, garlic, shredded cheese, and ranch seasoning together in a bowl and mix well.
- Place the Chicken Breasts. In a single layer on the bottom of your sprayed baking dish.
- Add. The mayo mixture on top of the chicken.
- Spread It Out. So that it covers all the chicken evenly in the baking dish.
- Bake. In the oven until it’s completely cooked through and golden brown on top.
Tips & Variations
- Check the temperature of your chicken. Always play it safe when it comes to chicken! Stick a meat thermometer in the thickest part of one of the chicken breasts. If it reads at least 165°F, it’s fully cooked and safe to eat.
- Use regular mayo. For the best consistency, use full-fat mayo, not low-fat.
- Don’t overcook this dish. You’ll risk burning the tops of the cheesy mixture and drying out the chicken meat.
- Use fresh garlic. It tastes way better than pre-minced garlic and delivers a much better flavor.
What To Serve With Chicken
Here are some of our favorite side dishes for chicken:
And don’t forget dessert:
- Funfetti Cake (using a cake mix but it tastes homemade)
- Peach Cobbler
- Rice Krispie Treats
- Sugar Cookies
Recipe FAQ
This chicken recipe cooks up best when cooked uncovered. I find that this allows the top of the casserole to brown up nicely giving it more color and making the cheese and mayonnaise mixture form a nice crisp crust on top of the chicken.
To be safe you should always check chicken with a thermometer. The chicken is fully cooked when its internal temperature is 165° F.
Sure thing! Choose skinless and boneless just like you would for the chicken breasts. The thighs may cook more quickly than the breasts depending on their size so be sure to check for doneness with your thermometer a bit earlier and then continue cooking as needed.
Storing
- Store. Leftovers in the fridge for up to four days or in the freezer for up to one month.
- Reheat. Return the leftover Ranch chicken to a baking dish and heat uncovered in the oven for about 10-15 minutes or until heated through. You can also reheat in the microwave if you prefer. If frozen, be sure to thaw it out before reheating.
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Baked Ranch Chicken
Ingredients
- 8 chicken breasts
- 1 ½ cup mayo
- 3 Tablespoons minced garlic
- 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 3 packets ranch seasoning mix
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Spray a 9X13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- Place chicken breasts in a single layer on the bottom of the baking dish.
- In a medium bowl, mix mayo, garlic, shredded cheese and ranch seasoning together.
- Spread mayo mixture on top of each chicken breast.
- Place uncovered into the oven and cook for 30 minutes or until completely cooked through (165°F internal temp.) and golden brown on top. If you have thicker or bigger chicken breasts it might take 45-60 minutes until the chicken is done.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
- Check the temperature of your chicken. Always play it safe when it comes to chicken! Stick a meat thermometer in the thickest part of one of the chicken breasts. If it reads at least 165°F, it’s fully cooked and safe to eat.
- Use regular mayo. For the best consistency, use full-fat mayo, not low-fat.
- Don’t overcook this dish. You’ll risk burning the tops of the cheesy mixture and drying out the chicken meat.
- Use fresh garlic. It tastes way better than pre-minced garlic and delivers a much better flavor.
- Store. Leftovers in the fridge for up to four days or in the freezer for up to one month.
- Reheat. Return the leftover Ranch chicken to a baking dish and heat uncovered in the oven for about 10-15 minutes or until heated through. You can also reheat in the microwave if you prefer. If frozen, be sure to thaw it out before reheating.
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I loved this recipe so much!!
My kids will love this for dinner! Thanks for the easy recipe!
Thank you so much for sharing this amazing recipe! Will surely have this again! It’s really easy to make and it tasted so delicious! Highly recommended!