Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta -

Here’s the Recipe

Serves 4-6

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Total time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

2 large chicken breasts (or 4 cutlets) cut into bite sized pieces

9 slices of thick cut bacon (thin is fine as well, your preference) cut in bite size pieces

3 tablespoons of flour

1 packet of Ranch dressing seasoning mix

2 cups milk (whole, 2%, fat free, whatever you have in the fridge)

2 cups cheddar cheese (freshly grated or fresh out of the bag)

1 box short cut pasta (I like using bow ties, penne, or rotini but any short cut pasta will work)

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Directions:

Boil a pot of water and cook the pasta according to the directions on the box (I do this as I am cooking everything else). Reserve half a cup of the pasta water. Drain the pasta and set aside.
Meanwhile, chop the bacon into bite size pieces and fry. While the bacon is frying, cut the chicken into half to 1 inch pieces and season with salt and pepper.
Once bacon is done frying, drain it on a paper towel. Turn down the heat (keep all of the bacon grease in there!) and add in the chicken.
Once the chicken is almost cooked through, add in the Ranch seasoning packet and flour. Stir and cook for about 1 minute so the raw flour taste is gone.
Add the milk and stir. Simmer for 5-7 minutes or until the milk has thickened.
Add back in the bacon and sprinkle in about 3/4 cup of cheddar cheese and stir. Turn off the heat.
Add in the pasta and stir together. If the sauce is too thick, add in the reserved pasta water to thin it out.
Once all mixed together, top it with the remaining cheddar cheese and cover the pasta for about 5-7 minutes or until the cheese on top is fully melted.
Once melted, it is ready to eat. Enjoy!

Notes:

To freeze: You will need a disposable tin for this. Prepare the tin by spraying with non-stick cooking spray and set aside. Complete steps 1-7 and then pour the pasta into the tin and spread evenly. Then complete with step 8 and freeze. To cook: thaw it completely and bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until it is completely warmed through. Serve and enjoy!

Inspiration:

My husband LOVES anything chicken bacon ranch. It’s one of his favorite sandwiches. I wanted to turn it into a pasta dish for 2 reasons: 1) makes enough to feed 4-6 people, 2) Pasta is just in my blood :). I found a weight watchers recipe for it as a guide years ago, but I have made so many tweaks and edits that it really has become my own. My recipe is definitely not weight watchers approved because I leave in all of bacon grease, use whole milk or 2%, and basically double the amount of cheese. The best part about this is being able to snack on the fried bacon while you cook the rest of the dish! Even better, you can really pull this together with mostly pantry items – I always have all of the ingredients on hand. And always sub what you need to.