Grilled Rosemary Ranch Chicken

Here in the Midwest, we are having an unusually warm end to our winter season.  It has been over 80 degrees out for the past four or five days now.  While I love the different seasons and I don't generally mind snow, I must say - I have really enjoyed the summer weather.  The flowers are sprouting, trees are flowering, grass is growing, robins are plentiful, and the grill has reappeared from the garage.  I love to grill.  I can marinate some meat for a couple of days, throw vegetable packets together in foil, and have dinner grilled in no time, with very little clean up!  Now that is my kind of weeknight cooking!

I do not keep ranch salad dressing in the house usually.  With that being said, I do keep my ranch salad dressing seasoning (see my post about homemade mixes) in the cupboard.  Instead of using ranch dressing in this, I used 1 cup of buttermilk and 3-4 tablespoons of ranch seasoning mix.  (I like a lot of seasonings in my marinades.)

This marinade resulted in the juiciest, most flavorful chicken ever.  I love this marinade so much that while I just used this recipe last week, I already have more of it made and marinating pork chops as we speak for dinner tomorrow night!

Try it for yourself and let us know how you like it!

Happy Grilling!

Olivia

I allowed this chicken to marinade for about 48 hours or so.  You certainly do not have to, but I like to throw it together on a Saturday or Sunday for dinner Monday or Tuesday night when I get home from work!

Rosemary Ranch Chicken

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup ranch dressing

3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon dried rosemary  (I used fresh.)

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon white vinegar  (I used apple cider vinegar.)

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste

1 tablespoon white sugar, or to taste

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves -

In a medium bowl, stir together the olive oil, ranch dressing, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary, salt, lemon juice, white vinegar, pepper, and sugar. Let stand for 5 minutes. Pound chicken breast to 1/4" thickness. Place chicken in the gallon size Ziplock bag, and stir to coat with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours (all day). Preheat the grill for medium-high heat. Grill chicken for 8 to 12 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, and the juices run clear.

All grilled up and ready to eat...  MMMMMMMM!

Spice Combinations

Since Mom happened to mention in her post yesterday that I've never met a spice combination I didn't like, I thought I would share with you two spice mixes you can easily make at home.  Ranch dressing mix and onion soup mix - Why would you want to make these at home?  One could argue that it might be cheaper in volume over time, but I prefer to do it because I know exactly what is going in my spices and food!  I know exactly how much salt goes into these mixes and the quality of the products used.  Plus, to be honest, it is fun to have jars of spice mixes that I put together myself.  :)

Now, as to where I get the volume of bulk herbs/spices needed to create these mixes - We are fortunate to live about half an hour away from an Amish grocery store and about 45 minutes away from another Amish community with a bulk store.  I love to go "long distance grocery shopping" as my husband calls it.  I enjoy going and stocking up on the products I know I can use for a good while in many different dishes.  If you are a gardener, you could always dry many of your own herbs to use in spice mixes.  The main advice I would give is - Do not buy the spices in the small little containers from the normal grocery store.  These would most likely be far too pricey to have the amount of herbs/spices you need to make these mixes.

When I made these two spice mixes today, I doubled each recipe to fill up the canning jars I used.

As always, please feel free to leave me comments or questions on the blog, or if you aren't able to leave comments on here, please look up our facebook page - "Chicken Soup for the Bowl" and "like" us so you get updates of when we post on the blog! :)
-Olivia

Onion Soup Mix:

2/3 cup dried, minced onion

3 teaspoons parsley flakes

2 teaspoons onion powder

2 teaspoons turmeric

1 teaspoon celery salt

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

Mix all ingredients in a jar, then give the jar a good shake.  I’d recommend shaking the jar to mix the ingredients well before each use. 

Use 4 tablespoons in a recipe in place of 1 packet of onion soup mix.  Store this in a dry, cool place. 

Onion soup mix ingredients piled in before being mixed up -

Onion soup mix finished and ready to use (on right) along with some of the bulk ingredients I used to create it-

Ranch Dressing Mix:

5 tablespoons dried minced onions

7 teaspoons parsley flakes

4 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Mix together and store in an air tight container.

For dressing: Mix 2 tablespoons dry mix with 1 cup mayonnaise and 1 cup buttermilk or sour cream.

For dip:  Mix 2 tablespoons dry mix with 2 cups sour cream.

Mix up a few hours before serving, so the flavors all blend.

Just shake for ranch dressing mix-

Ranch dressing mix all ready to be used (on the right) and some bulk items I used to create the mix-