This simple Sheet Pan Crispy Ranch Chicken is a breeze to prep and you can make it in bulk to protein prep for the week ahead. This recipe is gluten-free, paleo, keto and Whole 30 friendly! Make with fries, roast veggies or serve with a salad!
Crispy chicken thighs in general are delicious, but have you had crispy ranch chicken thighs? No? Well get ready to get your socks knocked off because this recipe is going to be perfect for batch prepping protein for the week. This recipe features cooking the chicken in the oven, but you can also grill them if you have access to a grill. These are full of flavor and texture that makes eating so much fun!
Growing up I never really enjoyed the flavor of dill or pickles. In the last few years, my taste buds have come around and now I can’t get enough of a crisp pickle and some fresh or dried dill added to so many meals I make. Right now, we are switching gears from winter comfort meals and moving towards those spring and summer meals with the unique light and bright flavors that reminds us that summer is on the horizon. Get ready because you are going to love our Crispy Ranch Chicken with pickles and crispy oven baked fries. Yes, that’s a lot of crispy because we like a lot of texture over here at TY HQ.
First, we start with about 2 pounds of chicken thighs. In the packs that we buy there is usually 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs, so we end up with around 12 in total. We used boneless, skinless, but you can also use bone in skin on if that’s what you have or prefer. That will definitely kick up the crispy factor. You can use chicken breast as well if you have that on hand. We suggest splitting the breast or cutting them into 4 pieces so that you can get the outside a little crispy without drying out. Our inspiration came from ranch chicken sliders from a food truck, and this is our version that is Whole30, Keto, Paleo, Dairy Free and a great meal prep recipe for everyone!
If you are cooking right away preheat your oven to 400 degrees now.
Next up we place the chicken thighs in a large bowl and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Once the chicken thighs are coated, we add in our ranch seasoning. We have our own ranch seasoning mix recipe here if you want to put that together yourself, it takes quite literally less than 5 minutes. But if time is short, you can always use a store-bought ranch seasoning mix. We call for 2-4 tablespoons depending on your preference of seasoning. We used 4 tablespoons for these photos if you are curious. You are going to want to thoroughly coat the chicken thighs, cover, then let them sit to soak up the flavor in the refrigerator if you have 30 minutes to an hour. You can even prep the chicken the night before you are cooking or early in the morning, so the chicken has time to absorb all those delicious flavors.
If you let your chicken marinate in the fridge, when you are getting ready to cook preheat your oven to 400ºF.
This is one of our sheet pan meals but remember how we mentioned that we love to batch cook? It’s one of the best pieces of advice we give to our nutrition clients, too. When you have a plan – you are unstoppable. For this you are going to want to use 2 sheet pans. The reason behind this is that we want there to be enough space between the chicken thighs so that they get crisp. When the chicken is touching, it can create steam which results in the chicken not getting that crispness that we love so much.
Lay all your chicken thighs out on the pan. Cook for 25-35 minutes depending on your oven and level of crispy that you like. We cooked ours for 28 minutes and we really enjoyed the texture of how they turned out.
How to Serve Your Sheet Pan Crispy Ranch Chicken
There are a ton of different options. Pile them high on a platter and through some pickles on top and in between pieces making it easy for people to grab them with tongs, plate individually for people to grab, build a sandwich or wrap, chop for a salad. We built ours as a slider style. We layer a piece of chicken and slice of pickle and a dollop of ranch. Yes, we are all about eating with our hands over here and we love every minute of it!
If you are looking for a fantastic dairy free ranch recipe, check ours out here. It is quick to put together if you have all of the ingredients on hand and don’t worry there are plenty of great options for store bought ranch made with better oils, as well. The ranch seasoning with the ranch sauce and crispy dill pickle literally puts it over the edge for me with this recipe.
This Sheet Pan Crispy Ranch Chicken is fantastic for meal prep because you’ve got a flavorful base to build your meals on for the week. It’s great on a salad, over a bunch of veggies for an epic bowl or even chopped up with a little mayo for a ranch chicken salad.
Having a fully cooked ready to eat protein makes our week so much easier when it comes to getting a meal together. On top of that it is basically 2 main items to clean, your pan and bowl that you mixed your chicken in! You can’t beat that for cleanup.
One of my favorite sides to pair this Crisp Ranch chicken with is our crispy oven fries. Recipe coming soon and we will list the ingredients below. HIGHLY recommend! Spoiler: soaking your potatoes in water is key to getting crispy oven fries.
Store leftovers or extras in an airtight container for 4-5 days in the refrigerator.
Sheet Pan Crispy Ranch Chicken {gluten-free, paleo, keto, whole30}
Ingredients
- 2 pounds chicken thighs, boneless, skinless
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2-4 tablespoons ranch seasoning
Instructions
- Ranch Chicken
- pounds chicken thighs.
- tablespoons olive oil
- -4 tablespoons ranch seasoning
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- In a large bowl, place all chicken and cover with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
- Add in 2-4 tablespoons of ranch seasoning.
- Mix until the chicken is fully covered in the seasoning.
- You can either let the chicken marinate in the fridge for 30-60 minutes or you can put directly into the oven. If you have the time to keep the chicken in the fridge, now is the time to start the French fry prep.
- Place chicken on sheet pan with at least an inch between each piece to prevent steaming and allow the chicken to crisp.
- Cook at 400 degrees for 25-35 minutes until the chicken is fully cooked and it hits your personal preference of crispy.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool.
- If making our French fries put those in the oven so that they are cooking while you are preparing any side dishes, or homemade ranch.
- Serve the chicken thighs with a slice of a local pickle with some ranch and eat it like a slider with a side of crispy oven fries. Enjoy!
