Homemade Ranch Dressing
Fall in love with this simple recipe to make creamy ranch dressing from scratch! Made with readily available ingredients like dried herbs, it tastes amazing and yields about 1 cup of dressing for easy portion adjustments.
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I love ranch dressing! Especially homemade ranch dressing! As a Wisconsinnite, Ranch is a staple, neh, a required condiment at out tables! We eat it as a dressing, on Chicken, with pizza, Cheese Curds, you name it! There’s something extra special and delicious about having homemade vs a store bought one. And even this one, with fry herbs will make everyone feel special as they enjoy their meal.
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Ranch Dressing Ingredients
This dressing is super easy and made entirely from scratch. I used dried herbs instead of fresh ones because I wanted this recipe to be more accessible. make it a bit easier to find things (especially in a pinch). Here’s what you’ll need:
Sour Cream
Sour cream forms the base. It’s creamy, tangy, and deliciously perfect!
Heavy Cream
The heavy cream thins out the sour cream and mayonnaise slightly to yield a thick than usual texture, but you’re still able to drizzle. Prefer it thinner? This recipe offers a range for the heavy cream, so you can make a thinner or thicker dressing as desired. In a Pinch you can also use milk, You will see the details in the recipe notes. Why not Buttermilk? Read on to see why.
Rice Wine Vinegar
Once impossible to find, this now readily available addition adds a tang that I prefer OVER using buttermilk. It can’t be replaced and I promise you’ll see why.
Mayonnaise
The mayonnaise helps to achieve the perfect rich and creamy texture you want from a creamy ranch dressing. I do not recommend replacing it with an oil for this recipe.
Herbs
The Herbs are what make this dressing Ranch. Of course, fresh herbs can be used (you will notice in the notes of the recipe I offer the fresh herb amounts). However, I wanted this to be an accessible recipe easy for anyone and everyone. So I wanted this recipe to be a combination of readily available items.
Garlic and Onion Powder
Firstly, to stick with readily available, I chose garlic and onion powder. I also chose this over fresh because I wanted this to be a “smooth” creamy dressing (obviously the herbs make it a bit less creamy). Why both? because Garlic and Onion go hand in hand. In fact quite often, I use equal parts onion to garlic when I cook, they just complement each other so well.
Lemon Juice and Worcestershire sauce
Adding the lemon juice gives that fresh citrus to ramp up the tang and round it out. The Worcestershire sauce gives it depth and umami.
Salt and white Pepper
Salt enhances the other flavors. The white pepper is a change-up from the classic black pepper element in classic ranch dressing flavor. I love white pepper. It has a bit more heat to heat, a brighter and more earthy flavor to it. Bonus! It just blends into the dressing so well.
Substitutions/suggestions
- Heavy Cream: the milk in your fridge can be used instead, but use about half the amount to start (2 tablespoons). Add about 1 tablespoons at a time until you get the consistency you want.
- Dried Dill: 1 ½ teaspoons fresh dill
- Dried Parsely: 1 ½ teaspoons fresh parsley
- Dried Chives: 1 ½ teaspoons fresh chives
Cooking with Kids
DISCLOSURE: These tips are generalized, and meant to be suggestive. Everything I’m sharing I do with my kids, and they are all different even within my own five. So please take these as suggestions or ideas and if you think your child needs more or less help, then go with what you and your child are comfortable with. Ultimately, you know your kids, do what YOU think is best.
Storage Details
This Ranch dressing can be kept in a jar or other food-safe container for 5 to 7 days. I do not recommend freezing it.
Did you try it, have questions?
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You don’t have to use this recipe on just salad! try it with: Fried Cheese Curd Recipe or The Best Grilled Chicken Wings
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Homemade Ranch Dressing
Try this homemade ranch dressing recipe for a taste that’s beyond compare! Made with sour cream and dried herbs for an easy and readily available recipe any time you want. It’s the perfect condiment for any meal. This recipe yields one cup of dressing to help with easy increasing and not leave you with too much dressing at once.
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 1 cup 1x
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream depending on your desired consistency (See Notes 1 for details and Notes 2 for substitutions)
- 1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed (See notes 3 for fresh amounts)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley (See notes 4 for fresh amounts)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried chives (See notes 5 for fresh amounts)
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 to 3 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (adjust to taste)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl, combine all ingredients together with a whisk.
- Taste. Here is where you would add up to 2 more teaspoons of lemon juice if you would like more zing, and/or more pepper to kick it up a notch, or if you think it is “missing something” try a little more salt.
- This dressing tastes great immediately, and even better after resting for about 10 minutes. Any leftovers can be kept in a jar or other food-safe container for 5 to 7 days. I do not recommend freezing it.
Equipment
Mora Ceramics Small Mixing Bowls Set of 2 – 2.5 & 1.6 Qt – Vanilla White
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OXO Good Grips 11-Inch Balloon Whisk
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- Start with ¼ cup of heavy cream, then add add up to ¼ cup more heavy cream if you desire a thinner, more drizzly consistency. I recommend doing it a tablespoon at a time to ensure it doesn’t get too thin.
- You can use milk instead, but start with 2 tablespoons vs ¼ cup.
- 1 ½ teaspoons fresh dill
- 1 ½ teaspoons fresh parsley
- 1 ½ teaspoons fresh chives
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Mixing Time: 5 minutes
- Category: dressing
- Method: one bowl
- Cuisine: American
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