Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Pasta with Chicken, Bacon, and Ranch

My husband loves bacon and ranch so when I saw THIS recipe on Pinterest, I knew I should try it.  It was very simple and good and I will be adding it to my list of favorite dinners.  I changed it slightly... I don't use store-bought Ranch because I try to avoid anything containing soy, so I used my own homemade version.  I always use brown rice pasta for my gluten-free daughter.  I also reserved the bacon to cover the top of the casserole to ensure that it got really crispy and because my husband likes any recipe that is covered with bacon on top :)  I actually did not have any cheddar cheese, and I'm sure it would have been delicious, but we just sprinkled some Parmesan on top and it was also delicious.

Ingredients:
10 oz cooked pasta
2 cups cooked chicken
cooked bacon (I used about 3/4 a package and saved the rest for some mashed potatoes the next day)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups cream or milk
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic salt
1/3 cup Ranch dressing ( I mixed together some Ranch seasoning, softened cream cheese, yogurt, and olive oil)
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (we sprinkled parmesan on top since we were out of cheddar and it was quite good!)

Directions: Melt butter in saucepan, add flour and stir to combine. Once roux is ready, add cream and stir constantly until sauce thickens. Remove from heat and stir in garlic salt, onion powder and ranch dressing until well combined.  Mix together in a casserole dish with cooked pasta, chicken, bacon, and cheddar cheese and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

3 comments:

Keri Ronk said...

This sounds yummy! What did you use for the flour?

Meg said...

I use arrowroot flour most of the time for thickening sauces.

Keri Ronk said...

Thanks! Your recipes and meal plans always inspire me!