This CHEESY BACON RANCH CHICKEN is topped with a ranch cream cheese mixture, cheddar, crispy fried bacon, and green onions. It doesn’t get tastier than this keto chicken recipe.
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Keto chicken recipes just don’t get better than this! Juicy chicken, plenty of cheese, crispy bacon, and ranch…what’s not to love?
The best part is that even though this dish is totally low carb and keto, my kids beg for it! Don’t you love when things work out like that?
The truth is that I’ve not always been the biggest fan of chicken, but lately I’m just obsessed with it. We eat some version of low carb chicken multiple nights a week these days and it’s almost always a hit with everyone in my family.
This keto chicken recipe is pretty fantastic – super low in carbs, extra fat from the cheese and bacon, and enough protein to keep you full.
Oh, and don’t worry – I didn’t just sprinkle some cheddar on a chicken breast here. I added ranch seasoning to cream cheese, smeared that on some chicken, and THEN added the cheddar.
This is keto. We need fat and flavor. 😉
How to make cheesy bacon ranch chicken:
To start, we’re going to season up some chicken breasts. I used paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder, but you can use any seasoning blend you think sounds good.
Just remember not to add too much salt as the cheesy topping is a bit salty on it’s own, plus we’re adding bacon down the road.
Once your chicken breasts are covered in seasoning, heat up a skillet and swirl in some avocado oil. Olive oil would also work.
Add your chicken breasts and let them brown on each side. This dish will be finished in the oven, so no need to fully cook the chicken. Just get a nice browned outside.
While the chicken is browning, stir together some room temperature cream cheese and ranch seasoning mix.
Hidden Valley is the go-to ranch mix, but it does have a few questionable ingredients if you’re strict keto. You may want to use the dry seasonings/herbs from my recipe for ranch dressing, mix them together, and measure out 1 tablespoon for use in this recipe. Store the rest for use in my low carb crackers! Alternately, this Garden Ranch mix is a good, clean choice.
Smear the ranch cream cheese mixture evenly over the tops of the chicken breasts and then pile on some freshly shredded cheddar cheese.
It seriously looks so good at this stage, right?
Pop all this in a hot oven and let it finish cooking. This should take about 10 minutes, but you’ll want to use a meat thermometer to test for doneness. This is the one I use and recommend.
When the chicken is cooked through, the cheese will be perfectly melted and you’ll be ready to top your cheese smothered chicken with some freshly fried bacon and chopped green onions.
This dish has such a pretty presentation, doesn’t it? Who wouldn’t want to dive right in to that cheesy chicken??
What to serve with this cheese smothered chicken:
Fried Radishes: Believe it or not, when you cook radishes they lose their bite and soften up like a potato!
Keto Coleslaw: Everyone’s favorite coleslaw recipe!
Brussel Sprouts with Bacon: Bacon makes everything better – especially sprouts.
Oven Roasted Veggies: The simplest way to prepare vegetables!
If you enjoyed this low carb chicken recipe, please be sure to follow me on Facebook for more low carb recipes!
Cheddar Bacon & Ranch Smothered Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts about 6 ounces each
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- 6 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 1 tablespoon ranch seasoning powder
- 1 cup grated cheddar
- 4 slices bacon cooked and crumbled
- 2 tablespoons chopped green onion
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Mix together onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika and sprinkle evenly over chicken. Rub to coat chicken in seasoning blend.
- Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed, oven safe skillet over medium heat.
- Add the chicken to the skillet and cook for 4 minutes on each side or until nicely browned.
- As chicken is cooking, stir together the cream cheese and ranch seasoning in a small bowl until well combined.
- Carefully spread the cream cheese mixture over each piece of chicken.
- Top with the shredded cheese.
- Place pan in the oven and bake until chicken is fully cooked, about 10 minutes.
- Top with the crumbled bacon and green onions just before serving.
Mare H. says
I am hoping I will be well enough to make this amazingly recipe.
I am giving you a five star rating on the fact it looks so delicious.
Karly Campbell says
I’m so glad you want to give this a try! I did remove the rating since you haven’t tried it yet and it can skew the results for people who are looking at those ratings, but please come back and leave a rating after you try it! 🙂
Shekela Usher says
Taste great!!
Shekela Usher says
Tried this an it was awesome!!
Karly Campbell says
Glad you enjoyed it!
Patricia Kelm says
Can you use chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts FOR this recipe?
Karly Campbell says
That should work fine. 🙂
Kristen says
How long did you cook the chicken thighs for?
Adam says
This is a very good dish. I made it exactly as recipe says, except I added a couple of splashes of hot sauce to the cream cheese when I stirred in the ranch seasoning, just to cut the richness of the cream cheese a little bit. The cooking time was pretty much exactly as the recipe says, and I used my cast iron skillet. I had roasted veggies as a side item with it. Will definitely add this to my saved recipes for future reference.
Meg says
It looked too simple, but it was just right! Amazing recipe, thank you so much for sharing!! It’s in our dinner rotation now, we absolutely loved it!!!
Karly Campbell says
Yay! Glad it was a hit for you. 🙂
Levi Morrow says
The other night my dad and me we’re cooking dinner and we wanted to try something new and we found about the keto and it is great
Sarah says
I forgot the to add the stars!
Misty Luthcke says
My husband has been on Keto, found this recipe and he loves it! About to make it again at his request.
Karly Campbell says
So glad it’s a hit!
JudyB says
I made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious. Didn’t taste salty at all to me. Loved the mix of seasonings and anything with cheese and bacon works for me. I eat a lot of chicken and always look for new ways to fix it. I love it is Keto but would definitely serve it to people who don’t follow Keto. It was easy to do too. This is a keeper. I’ll be checking out the rest of your recipes.
Karly Campbell says
Thanks, Judy!
Emily says
This was soooooo salty. It was inedible.
Karly Campbell says
Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy this one. Did you accidentally use garlic salt instead of powder?
Kim says
Im meal planning today. How do you think i dhould prep this for later in the week?
Karly Campbell says
I don’t do a lot of meal prep, but this should reheat just fine in the microwave. I’d just follow the instructions as written.
Paul says
My wife’s signature dish, thank you for the inspiration.
Amber Castleman says
I love ranch chicken.. this was amazing! I’ve been on a Keto diet for a while and was really getting tired of the same old thing. You’ve made dinner something to look forward to again! Thanks for the recipe!
Gwen says
This is so Delicious
Lenora Moses says
Can you please explain how you arrived at 2 grams of carbs? I show 1 serving to be 6 grams for the Keto Cheesy Bacon Chicken Breast’s. There is no fiber or sugar alcohols.
Thank you!
Karly Campbell says
Hi Lenora! This recipe shows 4 grams of carbs per serving. The nutrition information will vary based on the exact ingredients you use and which calculate you’re using. My recipe card calculates automatically for me.
Erin says
Oh my goodness! My family loved this! Kids were begging for seconds, hubby practically licked tht pan clean! Hubby suggested to make thin casserole form and add broccoli. Amazing!!! Definitely going in my recipe binder
Karly Campbell says
Haha! Love to hear it was such a hit! Great idea with the broccoli and casserole! 🙂
Tori says
Delicious!!!!! thank you for sharing!
Beth Solis says
This was fabulous! My husband loved it too! I halved the recipe and made it just for two people with two boneless chicken breasts. Instead of the shredded cheddar cheese, I had sliced sharp cheddar so I used 2 slices and cut them to fit over the chicken breasts to cover them well. It worked great!
I had some ranch powder mix left so I took some cauliflower florets, put them in a ziploc bag with some olive oil to Todd, then added a couple Tablespoons of ranch powder to season. I put this on a greased cookie sheet and baked it in the oven while the chicken was cooking until tender. It was a yummy side along with green beans and some cherry tomatoes!
Karly Campbell says
Sounds like a perfect dinner! 🙂
Carrie says
Absolutely delicious!!! I followed the recipe exactly and the chicken was phenomenal! I had large chicken breasts, so after browning I baked them for 12 minutes then added the cream cheese and cheddar and baked for another ten minutes. Perfect and delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
Brad Hagen says
Looks and sounds amazing! Can I use ranch dressing? And, if so, how much?
Karly Campbell says
I’ve only tried this as written. I don’t think you can really mess it up though, so I think you could definitely add some ranch dressing.
JASON MARTIN says
Looks amazing! Kinda like a loaded baked potato on chicken! Just wish it would let me print it like other recipes here. Something in the coding will not let me print, copy, or even screenshot this recipe. Some of your recipes have print tabs, sadly this one does not.
Karly Campbell says
Hi Jason! Glad you like the recipe! There is a print button – it’s in the recipe card right under the small photo. 🙂