One Pot Ranch Chicken and Rice Recipe
Jul 30, 2017, Updated Jun 22, 2021
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Easy, quick, and delicious One Pot Ranch Chicken and Rice! Ranch flavored chicken cooked in one pot with rice and spinach. A hearty dinner idea the entire family will love.
ONE POT CHICKEN AND RICE
Hey Hi! *waving* to you from my beautiful homeland! Vacation has been great and I never want it to end. ☀️
Have you been following me and my adventures on Instagram Stories?! Well, you should be! 😉 It’s a beautiful place and there’s so much to see. Hop on over there – you’ll find out what I’m talking about.
Did you notice what else we have here today? A one pot ranch chicken dinner with rice! It’s back ON! I love my one pot ideas that kind of just come together after a couple times of tweaking. The ranch thing was accidental, but buoy was I glad it found itself in there.
I should probably stop (obsessively) eating chicken drenched in ranch dressing, but at least the ranch is homemade… right?!
Get my recipe HERE Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
Anyhoooow… this is
Fast? Easy? Adaptable? Simple? Delicious? Yep, this ranch chicken is all of that!
It starts with a homemade, super tangy-delicious buttermilk ranch that you just mix up in a bowl in five seconds flat and smother all over some skinless and boneless chicken thighs.
It is also arborio rice and spinach added to the same pan and soaking up all the juices, and OH MY GOODNESS!!! Things just went to the next level.
40-ish minutes in the pan and we get THIS ⤵
It’s a hard job, all this dinner-eating, but I’m willing to fight the good fight. Let’s carry on, warriors!
ENJOY!
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One Pot Ranch Chicken and Rice
Ingredients
- 8 skinless chicken thighs
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 0.5 cup ranch dressing
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups low fat, low sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup arborio rice
- 4 cups baby spinach
Instructions
- Season chicken with salt and pepper and smother on both sides with ranch dressing.
- Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large nonstick skillet; add chicken thighs and cook for 5 minutes on each side, or until browned.
- Remove chicken from skillet and set aside.
- Add onions to skillet and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes; stir in garlic and continue to cook for 1 minute, or until fragrant.
- Add in chicken stock and season with salt and pepper.
- Stir in rice and arrange chicken over rice.
- Simmer for 20 minutes, or until chicken is done and rice is tender.
- Gently stir in spinach.
- Remove from heat and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
Oh This may seem like a silly question, but I’ve never used this type of rice, but should this simmer uncovered? It looks amazing and can’t wait to make this tonight!
Hi!
Yes, let it simmer uncovered. I hope you’ll like it. 😊
Sounded awesome but we found it somewhat bland. Adding some spices might have helped but it was easy to make. Like it’s all one skillet & simple recipe to follow.
perfect easy dinner, loved it! will make again, just made a half recipe, as only three of us usually eat together, my sister, me and randy.
I am making this for dinner tonight. Thank you for sharing. Anything with ranch, chicken & rice is on.
Hi! I’m planning on trying this for dinner this week, do you know if the the cook time would need to be increased if using brown rice?
Hi! Yes, you will need to increase the cooking time as well as the liquid. Look at the back of the package of the brown rice and see what it says about how much liquid you will need for 1 cup of brown rice – usually it will say 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 cups. It varies because it depends on if the rice is long grain or not. Also, the cooking time – see the package and whatever it says on there for 1 cup of rice, that’s how long it will need, which is somewhere between 35 and 45 minutes. This might overcook the chicken just a bit, so, either use bone-in chicken thighs or brown the chicken for only a couple of minutes per side at the beginning, instead of 5 minutes per side. I hope this helps! Let me know if you enjoyed it. 🙂
thanks!
Are those calorie counts for EACH serving? I’m hoping that it is for the whole pot. Otherwise that is way too many fat grams
HI Barbara, the nutrition label does say per serving. However, you can reduce the caloric intake by using boneless skinless chicken breast.
I don’t often cook with chicken thighs. Can anyone suggest how/whether to adjust the cook time if using chicken breasts?
Hi! You can definitely use chicken breasts, but those do cook a little faster – I would say to cook them for a couple minutes less than what is stated for the thighs.
Thanks for the response!