Hidden Valley Ranch Copycat Recipe Nothing Else Comes Close
There are plenty of copycat recipes floating around the internet, and while most taste ok, few have that special SOMETHING that makes Hidden Valley Ranch so special and unique. Years ago, a friend who worked in their accounting office, told me the secret ingredient that makes it so special. In fact, there are two ingredients you rarely see in the online recipes. One is in some of the recipes (but not all, heck not even the majority). My version contains both of these secret ingredients.
Ingredients
2 cups dried buttermilk powder
4 tablespoon dried parsley for blending
4 teaspoon dried dill weed for blending
4 teaspoon onion powder
4 teaspoon dried onion flakes (or dried chopped onion)
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoon garlic powder
8 tablespoons portabella dried mushroom powder
4 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
In a blender or food processor, add the parsley, dill weed and onion flakes. Process till powdered.
Add the remaining ingredients and process till blended.
Pour into your storage container with an air tight lid.
NOTE: Make 100% for sure your lid is air tight. I left my extra mushroom powder in the original container it came it and during the invasion of the killer pantry moths, that was one of the first things they went after. Now I keep the extra mushrooms and my ranch mix in canning jars.
One Mix, One Thousand Uses
Here's some of the ways I use the mix. I am sure you can come up with many more. It is one of those things where you can pretty much rest assured, nothing it too wild to try. Somewhere in the world, chances are good someone has already tried it before you did.
1 -To make Ranch dip, 2 tablespoons in 8 oz of sour cream is all it take. If you are using dehydrated sour cream and want to give it that thickness regular sour cream has, mix in 1/2 tsp unflavored gelatin and refrigerate till thickened.
2 - 4 tbls mixed in 4 oz buttermilk and 1 c mayonnaise equals a whole store bought bottle of the chemical filled variety.
3 - Use as a seasoning on popcorn or sprinkle both Parmesan cheese & ranch mix on popcorn for a REAL treat.
4 - Place 2 (or whatever is needed for your family) chicken breasts in the bottom of your crock pot. Add just a 1/4 cup or so of water to keep things moist. Sprinkle the chicken with ranch mix. Add the lid and cook on low for 5 hours if breasts are defrosted, 8 hours if frozen. Your family will LOVE you. I do this one and then wrap each breast individually and refreeze for a quick meal. Microwave on low, with a little water in the bottom of the bowl for moisture, till hot all the way through.
5 - Southern Fried Ranch crackers. Melt 1 tbsp butter in a non-stick pan. Add saltine crackers to cover the bottom of the pan. Fry on med - low heat until crackers are nicely browned. Flip, adding a little more butter if needed. Sprinkle the tops with ranch mix. Remove to plate when bottom is nicely browned and eat. Delicious!
6 - For a tangy ranch salad, add your favorite Italian dressing to your salad, then sprinkle liberally with ranch mix.
7 - Update your plain old garlic bread by sprinkling with ranch mix instead of plain old garlic. I also like it by using my regular garlic PLUS the ranch mix.
8 - Use it as a seasoning for homemade potato chips or baked potatoes.
9 - When making chicken or beef stroganoff, when adding sour cream at the end, add a liberal helping of ranch mix for a new taste delight.
Can you think of other ways of using Ranch mix? Please share!
When my kids were still home I should have invested in Ranch on the stock market, I would have made a killing Now I rarely use it but still this is a good recipe to have on hand.
We are opposites on this one then. My son won't touch it. I am the fanatic, lol. Before this recipe, I must have tried half the ranch recipes on blogs around the world. They are not bad at all, but there was always just that "special something" missing. I've been thinking about playing around with various dried mushrooms, grind them to powder and see if other varieties would work. Never know when the zombies will invade and you might not be able to get portabello's, lol.
That's amazing. I grew up on Hidden Valley Ranch... and could crave a homemade version like this in summer :)
I think you will love it. I keep a batch of it made up at all times and use it for all sorts of things.
Thank you! We eat keto and ranch is one of the naturally low carb dressings but the store bought ranch is all soy oil based, we don't want to eat that! I will be making some of this this week!
GREAT! That was good timing. I am studying Keto now, working on cleaning out my pantry and restocking. Hope to start Keto in the next week to 10 days.
This post is somewhat differentiate a man from a woman, mostly men only knows what and how to eat ( that's me! ;) ) but women knows how to make what to eat deliciously. I'm lost with all the ingredients and procedures but I certainly do know that dressing is somewhat yummy. ;)