I love rotisserie chickens! There’s a grocery store where I live, and you can get 2 of them for only $10.00. I think that’s a steal. I like using them to make easy recipes like this Chicken Ranch Pasta. The chicken is already cooked, so all I had to do was make the sauce and boil the noodles. Super simple.
I was really tempted to put this pasta in a casserole dish and make it into a mac and cheese casserole, but the sauce was super yummy I didn’t want to wait any longer to eat it. I tried making this first with some left over bacon grease in the pan (I really strained much of it) and a pepper jack cheese, but the sauce ended up being really gross and griny. I made it again with out the bacon grease and it was much better. This pasta dish has two of my favorite ingredients in it that pretty much can make anything better: ranch and bacon! I’d like to try making this again, but a mac and cheese version of it instead. Another recipe winner I found on pinterest.
Servings: 4
Points Plus: 10
Recipe from Just a Pinch
PrintWeight Watchers – Chicken Ranch Pasta
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb whole wheat penne pasta
- 4 slice bacon, diced
- 1/2 Tbsp light butter
- 1 large chicken breast, boneless & skinless, cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 1/2 pkg ranch dressing mix ( 1/2 oz)
- 1 c fat free milk
- 1/2 c fat free shredded cheddar cheese
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions in boiling salted water; drain, return to pot, and keep warm.
- Meanwhile, cook bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Drain all but 1/2 tablespoon of bacon drippings from the pan.
- Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add the butter to the reserved bacon drippings, then add the chicken to the same skillet. Cook until tender, no longer pink, and slightly browned.
- Sprinkle the flour and ranch dressing mix over the chicken, stirring to coat evenly. Stir in the milk, and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened and bubbly. Stir in the cheddar cheese and half of the reserved bacon; cook and stir until the cheese is melted. Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed.
- Serve each plate of pasta with more bacon sprinkled over the top.
Notes
Smart Points: 7
Makes 6 servings
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 6
- Calories: 284
- Sugar: 2
- Saturated Fat: 2
- Fiber: 4
- Protein: 24
Want more chicken recipes? Give these a try….
Weight Watcher’s Unfried Chicken 6 points plus
Orange Chicken Salad 9 PP per serving
Sounds delish! You mention the ranch dressing mix in the instructions but do not list it in the ingredients. How much do you use?
Thanks for mentioning that. I updated the ranch seasoning in the ingredients list.
What is the serving size?
the recipe shows “1 cup of milk” twice. Is that a typo or should 2 cups of milk be used?
i followed recipe exactly. The sauced curdled. I tried again, same thing. Now I’m wondering if the two cups is a typo now.
Sorry it curdled on you! Did you have the heat on too high?
I thought it may be a heat problem. That’s why I tried it the second time. I’m not sure what went wrong. I make homemade Alfredo sauce all the time and it turns out perfect. I did cook in a new pan. It’s the only thing I can think of.
So is the 1 c fat free milk twice a typo?
It’s only supposed to be listed once. Fixed the typo, and thanks for pointing that out!
I have been printing out the recipes I want to try and suddenly I am not seeing the calorie amount. I don’t do Weight Watchers. Did you stop figuring the calories?
Nope, I don’t really care for the new Smart Points plan and it is a pain to keep up with their points system since they change it all the time. I will post calorie info from time to time since calories never change.
Any idea how many smart points this would be without the cheese? I don’t eat cheese and it’s so hard to find recipes without it, but I want to be accurate with my points. Thanks!
How many grams of fat? You have saturated fat, but I’m concerned about actual.
For Weight Watcher recipes they use Saturated Fat to calculate smart points so that is why I only listed the SF amount. Sorry.
What is the serving size? Making this tonight!!
This is a pretty old recipe and I haven’t made it in a while. Not sure what the serving size is but you can figure that out your self by portioning out the recipe into 6 equal servings.
This was really simple and tasted great!
★★★★★