In my world, I can never create enough recipes that use chicken, and when I make dishes the kids all declare as winners, they don’t mind chicken often.
From the first time I made this, it definitely received high ratings, so now I’ve tweaked it to where I can prepare it in only five minutes. Considering the majority of the ingredients are pantry staples in our home, it’s one of those easy and quick “Ten Minute Dinners.”
When I first made it, I went through the very simple steps of dumping each piece of chicken in the dressing, and then drenching it in the breadcrumb mixture, but I quickly realized that takes additional minutes that aren’t necessary. (Although, I often recommend making it like that for the first time.)
Since I am all about washing as few dishes as possible, I now layer the chicken in the pan, pour the dressing on top, and toss the chicken pieces right in the baking dish. Then I sprinkle my crumb mixture right on top. Again, I turn to coat all the pieces right in the pan.
Here’s what I love. Since this is SO good the next day, I fill an 8×10 with as much chicken as I can and just eye ball the ingredients. Yes, that makes many of you nervous, so that is why I recommend using the “Real” recipe the first time and then experiment for future baking. Since I know how much we like my 3 ingredient Cheesey Cracker Chicken recipe, if I don’t have breadcrumbs, I use crackers, and yes, I have even been known to use up a combination of crackers and chips that were on the verge of going stale. (Ok, maybe they were completely stale.) It’s all part of my “No Food Waste” mentality.
I hope you enjoy this as much as we do. This Cheesey Cheddar Ranch Chicken is a keeper in our home.
Recipe: Cheesey Cheddar Ranch Chicken
Summary: With only five minutes of prep, this delicious Cheddar Ranch Chicken is sure to be a crowd pleaser.
Ingredients
- 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs (or mixture of crushed crackers)
- 1/4 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese
- 1/4 grated Parmesan cheese
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (rinse, dry)
- 1/2 cup Ranch Dressing
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix crushed bread crumbs, Cheddar and Parmesan cheese.
- Coat chicken with dressing.
- Dredge chicken in the bread crumb mixture.
- Place chicken on baking sheet or pan.
- Sprinkle a little more cheese on for good measure.
- Bake for 35 minutes.
Preparation time: 5 minute(s)
Cooking time: 35 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 4
I know whats for dinner. I just hope I remembered to plug in the crockpot.
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That looks amazing!
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Pork chops, cheesy potatoes & green beans 🙂 We’ve decided to start making out a monthly dinner calendar so that we know what we are having every night and there is no question of what to have for dinner. Plus it gives us the chance to clean out the fridge/freezer/pantry 🙂
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Oh I love this! I actually made it last night!!!
I put mine in foil packs on the grill – super super easy….and yummy!
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Thanks, I hadn’t made a plan for tonight. 🙁 So now we’re having Cheesy Cheddar ranch chicken, scalloped potatoes and green beans. 😉
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Yum! If we had any Ranch in the house, we’d have this tonight, but my kids go through Ranch like it’s a whole food group.
Just curious–what plugin are you using to format your recipes and make them printable? I like it!
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Jen Reply:
August 23rd, 2012 at 7:13 pm
Gina – it’s actually H3 recipe plug in, but then it was styled all pretty by my designer. So unfortunately, that’s not free. 😉
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can you use frozen chicken? Thanks.
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Jen Reply:
August 24th, 2012 at 7:29 am
For this, I don’t think you could use completely frozen chicken or it would take much longer to cook. I stick frozen chicken in the crock pot all the time, but for this, I would say it needs to be partially dethawed.
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Oh yummy!!!! Thanks for sharing, Jen! Can’t wait to try this 🙂
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Hey Jen… I like to use the thin sliced chicken (not as much waste). How long if you use thin sliced chicken? Can’t wait to try it!
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Jen Reply:
August 24th, 2012 at 12:15 pm
Hmm – To be on the safe side, I would recommend checking after maybe fifteen minutes and then every five minutes.
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That looks great! Thanks for sharing the recipe. I will have to try it this weekend.
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Just made this for supper tonight–thanks, Jen!
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Just made this since it featured my sons favorite foods
Ranch dressing and cheese. We used crushed corn flakes
for our breading.
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Could this be done in the crock pot, and if so, would any of the ingredients change? How long would you recommend cooking?
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I love your comment about the “stale crackers/chips,” that is something I would SO do! Ditto the eyeball recipe. Cracker/Cookie crumbs, all stale bread goes in the freezer until it’s time to use them, sometimes used as a thickner. No the cookie and crackers are not used together. 😉
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I have made a variation of this a few times and it is always great. I have found that if you add a tblsp of flour to the ranch dressing it makes it stick to the chicken a lot better and doesn’t change the flavor at all.
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Jen Reply:
April 29th, 2015 at 10:42 pm
That’s a great idea, Kristen. I do that with lots of other recipes but not with this one and it would be a great addition.
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