Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad

With tender chicken, smoky bacon, summer veggies, and cheddar cheese mixed with pasta and a creamy ranch dressing, this chicken bacon ranch pasta salad is always a hit.

It’s even better when made with Grilled Chicken Breast and Homemade Ranch Dressing.

We love pasta salads, especially during the summer, especially when they are loaded with ingredients such as tender chicken, salty bacon, and sharp cheddar cheese.

This chicken bacon ranch pasta salad ticks all the boxes, and with its creamy ranch dressing and added veggies such as colorful bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and green onions, the salad is the perfect summer side dish.

This hearty macaroni salad comes together quickly, and it’s super easy to adjust and customize depending on what you have on hand.

You can use any bell peppers you like, and if you want more vegetables, you can add diced cucumber or fresh peas. If you’d like a spicy chicken bacon ranch salad, you can add diced jalapenos or serrano peppers, or choose a spicy ranch dressing.

While we usually make this with elbow macaroni, you can easily substitute it with bow tie pasta, shells, fusilli, or penne.

We choose to make our ranch dressing using a powdered mix and a blend of sour cream, mayonnaise, and buttermilk. We find that it’s thicker and creamier than most bottled ranch dressings and tends to have a bit more flavor, holding up better with the rest of the ingredients. But if you have a favorite bottled ranch dressing, you can use that instead.

This makes a large salad, and while leftovers will keep for about four days, like all pasta salads, it does tend to absorb the dressing and dry out a bit as it sits in the fridge. To fix this, simply reserve some of the prepared dressing and use it to refresh the leftovers when you serve them. They will be just as good as day one.

Ingredients & Substitutions

Pasta – We like using standard elbow macaroni for this recipe, but you can use almost any type of pasta you like; bow tie, shells, penne, and fusilli all work well. Generally, we use regular semolina pasta, but you can use whole wheat pasta, or if you want to increase the protein in the recipe, any number of the protein pastas available on the market will work. If you are gluten sensitive, you can also use gluten-free pasta without any trouble.

Chicken – Our preferred choice for this recipe is chicken breast. Especially Simple Grilled Chicken Breast, the flavors of the char from the grill work really well in this recipe. But you can use shredded chicken if that is what you prefer. Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken works well for this recipe, or you can keep things super simple with a store-bought cooked chicken.

Bacon – You’ll want about 6 slices of cooked bacon for this salad, or more if you like. Hickory or apple-smoked bacon tastes delicious with the other flavors in this recipe, but you can use any variety. While we generally prefer thick-cut bacon, regular thin slices work well too. If you don’t have time to cook your own, you can buy the precooked bacon or even use packaged bacon crumbles.

Cheese – When making pasta salad, sharp cheddar cheese is our go-to. The firmer texture and bold flavor go well with the creamy dressing. If you aren’t a fan of sharp cheddar or simply don’t have it on hand, you can use mild, medium, or even marble. Other cheese that works well are Swiss or Monterey Jack.

Cherry Tomatoes – The fruity flavor of cherry tomatoes adds a nice, refreshing element to the salad. You can use cherry or grape tomatoes, in any of the rainbow of colors they are available in. If you don’t have cherry tomatoes, you can dice larger ones instead, though to avoid making the salad too soggy, it’s recommended to remove the seeds.

Bell Peppers – Red, yellow, or orange peppers will work equally well in this recipe, so just buy what you prefer, or whatever is on sale. If you don’t like peppers, you can leave them out.

Green Onion – Green onions are a great addition to this salad, or if you have fresh chives, you can use them as well. Green onions add flavor, without overpowering the rest of the ingredients, and we don’t recommend replacing these with other varieties, such as red or yellow onions. If you don’t like onions, it’s fine to leave them out.

Ranch Dressing – For this recipe, we prefer making the dressing instead of using a bottled ranch dressing, as we can make it thicker and creamier, which helps hold the salad together and gives it more flavor. Generally, we use sour cream, mayonnaise, and buttermilk along with the ranch dressing mix. If you like, the sour cream can be replaced with plain Greek yogurt. The buttermilk can be replaced with regular milk. You can use store-bought ranch dressing mix, but Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix is easy to make and tastes even better than packaged.

Assembling Chicken Ranch Pasta Salad

Begin by cooking the pasta and chopping and slicing the remaining ingredients.

Prepare the dressing by combining the mayonnaise, sour cream, buttermilk, and ranch dressing mix in a small bowl or measuring cup and whisking until well mixed.

Food Safety and Storage

Leftover pasta salad can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 3 days.

When this salad is refrigerated, you will find that the dressing absorbs into the salad ingredients and becomes less creamy. It’s still tasty and can be eaten this way, or if you know you will have leftovers, I recommend making extra dressing. 

When it comes time to enjoy the leftovers, toss with some fresh dressing to make it creamy again.

More Delicous Salads

Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:

Street Corn Pasta Salad (Elote Pasta Salad)

Chicken Pasta Caesar Salad

Bacon Parmesan Pasta Salad

Corn & Black Bean Salsa