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When you want to make your own salad dressing at home but you want MORE than just ranch dressing, try my Bacon Ranch Dressing! It’s better than ANYTHING you can get in the store. And it makes every salad BETTER.
All the classic flavors of ranch salad dressing such as dill, parsley, onion powder, garlic powder, kicked up a notch with a dash of bacon and a little secret ingredient that takes it right over the top!
I SORT of made a version of this dressing a long time ago when I created bacon salad dressing to go ON my Club Sandwich Salad. And it was amazing then. But then I rarely made ANY bacon salad dressing since then. UNTIL I started trying to make ONE big salad for dinner each week.
I NEEDED a dressing everyone would appreciate, and this Bacon Ranch Dressing Recipe was definitely a TOP CONTENDER. Another salad dressing we ALL love is the Jalapeño Ranch Salad Dressing, full of flavor and not too spicy!
This dressing uses ALL dried herbs
A special bonus about this dressing?? NO FRESH HERBS, sure you can USE them but it leans completely on dry pantry herbs and seasonings for flavor. No fresh herbs to rot away in the fridge before you use them.
You CAN use them if you have them, simply DOUBLE the amount called for in the recipe. So instead of a 1/2 teaspoon of dried dill weed, you would use 1 teaspoon of fresh dill weed.
It DOES call for a dash of fresh lemon juice if you don’t have that use some white OR apple cider vinegar. You just need some sort of acid to kick up the heavy flavor a bit.
How to Use Bacon Ranch Dressing
I don’t even think I need to mention how to use this BUT I will. You can use it on ANY salad recipe, except MAYBE the Reuben Salad, I truly think it needs a Thousand Island Dressing there. Drizzle on ANYTHING and EVERYTHING.
You can also make it as thick or thin as you like and use it as a dip. Because WOW dipping Jalapeño Poppers in this dressing taste a little bit like heaven. Or try these Bacon Wrapped Crackers. Oh yeah!!
Bacon Ranch Salad Dressing
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup sour cream or greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon dill weed dried
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- pinch black pepper
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 2-3 drops smoke flavoring
- 1/4 cup bacon bits
- 1/2 cup milk OR buttermilk, use more or less to your preference
Instructions
- mix the mayo and sour cream
- add the dried herbs, salt, and pepper, stir to combine
- add the lemon juice and smoke flavor
- add milk or buttermilk to your preferred consistency
- taste add more salt, pepper, or smoke flavor
- refrigerate for at least 2 hours to combine the flavors
- when ready to serve check for consistency and thin a little more as needed
- do not over thin the dressing, it's impossible to thicken it back up without adding more mayonnaise
