One-Pot Chicken Bacon Ranch Rice
on Feb 02, 2021, Updated Mar 30, 2023
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Hands down the best quick and convent dinner for the family, One-Pot Chicken Bacon Ranch Rice will be your new favorite.
Are you ready to meet your new favorite weeknight dinner recipe? It’s definitely going to be this one-pot chicken bacon ranch rice!! I am so excited to be back in the kitchen making recipes now that our sweet boy Milo is now almost 6 weeks old. It’s been so lovely to soak up the newborn cuddles all day but now I am so happy to get some work done and feel productive… followed by more cuddles of course!
Now that we have 2 kiddos, dinner can be even harder to get together. When I made this recipe, we all ate it up so quickly and knew it was going to be a staple from here on out. It’s great for kiddos because it tastes like a big bowl of ranch dressing, but it has kale and hidden cauliflower packed inside too! I love adding cauliflower to dishes like this because it basically just falls apart and mixes into everything so you can’t even tell it’s there. If you want this recipe to be dairy free, use a paleo ranch dressing! The Whole30 team just came out with a ranch dressing that is sold at Thrive Market and it is delicious and has great clean ingredients. You can also even use homemade ranch dressing if you are feeling ambitious!
How to make this One-Pot Chicken Bacon Ranch Rice
This recipe is wonderful because it comes together in one -pot, best news ever. You will start with cooking the bacon first until crispy. Once that gets cooked down remove the bacon and most of the oil, only leaving about a tbsp to the pan. Add the chicken to the bacon grease and cook down stirring occasionally. This is where the recipe gets very easy, just toss the cooked bacon, rice, water, salt, garlic powder, pepper and bring to a slight boil and then lower heat. Next add the cauliflower and ranch dressing and mix everything together. Now just let it cook for 35 min checking half way and mix. Lastly add the kale and cook for 5 min without the lid. Enjoy!We think bacon can go in anything, here are a few more bacon meals to enjoy:
Chicken Bacon Ranch Potato Salad Creamy Balsamic Bacon Pasta Chicken Bacon Ranch Spaghetti Squash Casserole
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One-Pot Chicken Bacon Ranch Rice
Ingredients
- 8 slices bacon chopped
- 1 lb chopped chicken breasts (raw) chopped
- 1 cup brown rice
- 2 cups water (or chicken stock for extra flavor)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp ground pepper
- 3 cups chopped cauliflower florets
- ½ cup ranch dressing*
- 3 cups chopped kale
Instructions
- Place a pot (like a dutch oven) over medium heat.
- Cook chopped bacon until crispy then remove and set aside. Drain all but 1 tbsp of bacon grease from the pot and return it to the heat.
- Place the chicken in the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.
- Return bacon to pot and add rice, water, salt, garlic powder and pepper.
- Bring to a slight boil, then lower the heat to low.
- Add cauliflower and ranch dressing and mix to combine, then cover.
- Cook for 35 min, checking halfway through to stir.
- Then remove the lid, add kale and cook for another 5 minutes uncovered.
Notes
*Use a paleo ranch to keep it dairy free
This recipe is fantastic! So tasty – and in my opinion, has the perfect amount of ranch flavor but still allows you to taste the chicken, rice and veggies. Of course, you can always add more ranch for those who can’t get enough. All through dinner, my husband and I were saying “I can’t wait for lunch tomorrow!” (when we would eat it again).
Per the rest of the comments, this is an easy recipe to add or sub veggies. I actually had 4 people on social media reach out for the recipe, and ALL plan to give it shot in the next week or 2. Kelsey, thank you for this recipe!
Wow, so glad you are sharing the love!
Such great flavor all in one pot! Highly recommend!
Thanks Erica!
Love this! Going to make this to bring my pp friend! I remember you did that recently as well. Did you cook all the way per directions and just re heated in the oven?
Cook all the way and reheat in the oven!!
This is delicious and easy! I used Primal Kitchen’s vegan ranch dressing because my son is allergic to dairy and eggs, and it still turned out very flavorful.
Wonderful! We love this!
Legit AF! I will admit I did not think this sounded/looked good at all but none of Kelseys recipes have ever failed me so I gave it whirl and omg yum!
So glad you tried it and loved it!
This was DELICIOUS!! I did not use cauliflower or kale because they aren’t favorites of ours and served it with a side of air fried broccoli instead!
My husband asked where I had been hiding this recipe because he enjoyed it so much!
Air Fried broccoli sounds amazing!!
I have made this multiple times and it’s a fave. Excellent for lunch leftovers for days and days.
These leftovers are the bomb!
Flavor is amazing! I don’t know what I do wrong with one pot meals with rich though. I always have to cook way longer than what is shown in the recipe. Any idea of what I may be doing wrong?
I have found all rices seem to have different cook times so just cook it according to the package you use!
This quickly became a family favorite! Easy and delicious!!!
We love a family favorite recipe
I heard this recipe on the Car Pool podcast today. Will be adding it to the meal plan next week. You mentinoed you could use a rotisserie chicken. Would you add the chicken in later if you did this? Or at the same time?
Since you don’t need to cook the chicken just add it when all the rice and things go in!