I began making this recipe almost 20 years ago. At the time, I’d marinate the chicken in grocery-store-bought Italian dressing. Since I now avoid the vegetable/seed oils that are the base of nearly every standard salad dressing, I make my own marinade from scratch.
Don’t worry, the homemade marinade only has 3 ingredients and takes about 20 seconds to make!
This recipe is extremely modifiable. Remove the bacon, replace EVOO with avocado oil, swap in a different style cheese, I’ve even added cinnamon to give it an unusual zing that people often enjoy.
Chicken Fantastico
Chicken, bacon, cheese, ranch. How could you go wrong?
Equipment
- 1 Stainless steel or cast iron pan
- 1 Baking dish Roughly 9x13in or similar
Ingredients
- 1.25 lb Chicken breast local and/or organic, if you can find it
- 3 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil or EVOO-based vinaigrette and skip the next ingredient
- 1/2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar skip if using the EVOO-based vinaigrette above
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning or the equivalent amount of basil + oregano + sage
- 1/2 tsp Salt or more, to taste
- 2 strips Bacon baked until crispy, then crumbled
- 1 tbsp Butter optional
- 4 oz Ranch dressing vegetable/seed-oil-free! (or make your own)
- 3 oz Cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Cut the chicken breast into 1 inch cubes
- Mix the Italian herbs and salt with the EVOO & Balsamic vinegar
- Toss the chicken in the vinaigrette until coated
- Let sit 15 minutes
- While the chicken marinates, bake the bacon, flipping once halfway through
- Remove bacon from oven and set aside to dry
- Cook the chicken with the marinade until cooked through (be careful not to overcook – your chicken is going into the oven soon). Note: if the chicken needs more oil, now's the time to add your 1 tbsp butter.
- Pour the cooked chicken into the baking dish, and pour the ranch dressing over the chicken. Stir to combine
- Sprinkle bacon crumbles over the top of the chicken/ranch mixture
- Shred the cheddar cheese over the top of the dish
- Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes. Remove from oven earlier if the cheese begins to brown.
- Let cool and serve!