One Skillet Broccoli and Rice Ranch Chicken Recipe – An easy weeknight skillet dinner that is ready in under 30 minutes with ranch-mix seasoned chicken, broccoli and rice.
Hey Hey, pretty faces! HAPPY FRIDAY! It’s the day after Christmas for me and I am SO done with baking. Like, SO DONE. We have one more super awesome tradition left – spinning the pastry on the 14th of January – and then I’m really done.
But but but… because of all that work, I’ve been killing it in the one-skillet, 30-minute-arena lately, most notably with variety. And sometimes, lack thereof. I mean, there’s only so many things you can do with darn chicken breasts, you know? Exactly. I knew you’d understand.
But first. Can I tell you about how my kids were totally bummed out all day yesterday because they were expecting presents, but didn’t get any?
Okay. So! My little ones get presents on New Year’s Day. I thought I shared that with you before, but just in case, let me repeat. We think of it as starting the new year with a few new things, and that is just so we don’t confuse the real meaning of Christmas. Therefore, on Christmas we do not exchange gifts.
However, in my girls’ pretty little heads, they thought since all their other friends got Christmas presents on December 25th, that come January 7th, they too would get Christmas presents, in addition to their New Year’s presents.
Once they realized there weren’t going to be any presents yesterday, they completely LOST.IT. My 3 year old walked up to me, bawling her eyes out, and screamed, “THIS IS THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE!!! WHERE ARE MY PRESENTS?!?!? JESUS IS MAD AT YOU!”.
…and all I could do was laugh. I couldn’t help it. “Worst day of my LIFE” was the best part. All of 3 years old.
Kids.
But about dinner… 😀
I first shared my Ranch-Chicken Fajita Bowls way back when and OMAHGAH. What a wonderful dinner to come home to! I cannot even express how much I love that stuff. And because I love it that much, I try to change it up as often as I can.
This version, however, is a little different because I added a bunch of Ranch Seasoning Mix instead of Ranch dressing, and rice’s best friend ➡ broccoli. Kept the ingredients to a minimum, and made it all in one skillet. The results? NOTHING short of amazing. Like so wonderful, it reminded me of Denny’s. At 2 a.m. When I was 19. It’s because of the Ranch.
All the Ranch.
Hail Ranch.
I LOVE Ranch!
Now that I got that off my chest… This Broccoli and Rice Ranch Chicken Recipe is, in a word, PACKED with that good ol’ ranch taste. As it should be. I also threw in some broccoli, bell peppers, as well as bacon bits, which is totally optional, but why not? It’s just a half-handful. Adds a bit of that smoky flavor to the dish and the extra crunch to the munch!
I wish we could eat this together.
ENJOY!
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One Skillet Broccoli and Rice Ranch Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts , cut into 1-inch cubes (about 4 chicken breasts)
- 1 ounce Ranch Seasoning Mix , divided
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 red bell pepper , cored, seeded and diced (cut them up smaller for faster cooking)
- 3 cups frozen broccoli florets
- 1 ½ cups instant rice (you can also use instant brown rice)
- 1 ½ cups chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons bacon bits , optional
- freshly chopped parsley or cilantro
Instructions
- Place half of the seasoning mix in a bowl and toss the chicken pieces until well coated.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Add the chicken to the skillet and cook, stirring frequently, for about 3 to 4 minutes, or until browned and cooked through.
- Add the onion, garlic, and bell pepper; continue to cook for 3 minutes, or until veggies are tender, stirring frequently.
- In the meantime, combine chicken broth and the remaining seasoning mix in a bowl; whisk to combine.
- Add broccoli and rice to the skillet.
- Pour the chicken broth mixture into the skillet; stir and bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes or until the chicken broth has been absorbed.
- Stir in the bacon bits.
- Remove from heat.
- Garnish with parsley or cilantro.
- Serve.
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.
TOOLS USED IN THIS RECIPE:
SIMILAR RECIPES:
Silly question put the uncooked rice in the skillet?
Hi! This is with instant rice, like 5-minute rice. You can also use instant brown rice. But yes, don’t precook it, and just add it to the skillet with the broccoli.
This was a delicious and easy dish! My 2 sons and my husband ate it up! Thank you for the recipie!
Haha! The things that kids say. I love your method of preserving Christmas and doing gifts on New Years! And I’m loving this one skillet meal! Easy and no extra dishes!! Definite winner!
Broccoli and rice is the best, and only you could photograph it so beautifully. <3
Gotta love it when kids declare “worst day ever” (as mine do often – haha!) This skillet looks delicious!
Love the present idea for NY! And love how the kids acted lol. This skillet needs to be on my dinner menu soon.
I have a feeling that my family would love this dinner recipe! (And I am going to love it because I’ll only have one pan to clean afterwards, lol.) 😉
Love keeping it simple with a all in one meal covering your meats and veggies, eat.
What a great skillet meal! I just love chicken and rice. One of my all time favorites!
This looks so good! Thanks for sharing, I’ll have to try this soon!
Great one dish meal. I like broccoli and rice and broccoli and pasta … heck it’s great with most things. If only they didn’t want the earth for a couple of skinny stalks, I would have bought some an hour ago. Settled for a 4 pack of sweet peppers. 🙂