Chicken bacon ranch casserole is the dinner I make at five o’clock when nothing is thawed and the only plan is standing in front of an open fridge. A rotisserie chicken or some leftover chicken means dinner is halfway made before you start.

A glass baking dish filled with a hearty Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole, featuring baked pasta topped with melted cheese, crispy chopped bacon, and sprinkled herbs, placed on a marble surface with a striped towel and dinnerware nearby.

The sauce is the reason I keep making this one. I make it in the same skillet as the bacon, adding a tablespoon of the drippings with the butter so that smoky flavor runs through the entire dish. There is enough sauce to coat a full pound of penne without leaving the casserole dry.

It fills a 9×13-inch dish and makes six generous servings, about 1¾ cups each. That is dinner in one dish, with enough left for lunch the next day.

What You Can Swap And What You Cannot

This crack-style casserole takes changes better than most pasta bakes, and that is part of why it gets made on nights when the shopping did not happen. Almost everything in it can be traded for something already in your kitchen.

Use cooked chicken instead of raw chicken: This is the swap I plan for rather than fall back on. By using rotisserie chicken or leftover cooked chicken, you’ll save yourself about 15 minutes.

Stir the ranch seasoning, salt, and pepper that would have gone on the raw chicken directly into the sauce so none of that flavor gets lost in the swap.

My ultimate chicken casserole starts from cooked chicken the same way, if you would rather have egg noodles than penne.

Use whatever cheese is already open: Cheddar, Monterey Jack and a mozzarella blend all melt into the top. Shred it off a block if you can, because the bagged shreds are coated with starch so the pieces do not stick together in the bag, and that same coating keeps them from melting as smoothly.

A fork lifts a serving of cheesy Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole, with melted cheese stretching, bits of bacon, and parsley garnish on top. The background shows more pasta and blurred salt and pepper shakers.

Bacon crumbles or a pound of bacon: Precooked bacon crumbles save you the longest prep step in the recipe, but there is a tradeoff. You lose the tablespoon of bacon drippings that goes into the skillet with the butter, which is what carries the smoky bacon flavor through the sauce. The casserole will still work, but it will taste a little less bacon-forward.

Buy The Low Sodium Soup And Broth

Reach for the low-sodium cream of chicken soup and the low-sodium broth. Since the bacon and ranch seasoning also have salt, choosing low-sodium for the canned items leaves room for the bacon to taste smoky rather than simply salty.

The sauce itself is the part I would leave alone. The flour, broth, heavy cream, and cream of chicken soup are what let a full pound of penne come out coated rather than dry, and taking any one of them out changes how much sauce you finish with.

When it is too warm to run the oven at all, my chicken bacon ranch pasta salad puts the same flavors on the table cold.

Choose The Packet, Not The Bottle

Ranch dressing mix means the dry seasoning packet, not the bottle of dressing sitting a few feet away in the same aisle. Recipes like this one get asked about it constantly and the two are not interchangeable.

Don’t have it on hand? You can also make your own ranch seasoning mix using my recipe.

How Much This Makes And How To Scale It

A pound of penne cooks up to roughly eight cups before the chicken, bacon, and sauce go anywhere near it. That is why this recipe fills a 9×13-inch dish without doubling a thing.

Many versions of this casserole start with only eight ounces of pasta. If you have made one of those and needed to double it just to fill the pan, that is why. This recipe makes six dinner-size servings of about 1¾ cups each, not six small scoops to serve beside something else.

A plate of creamy penne pasta with chunks of chicken, pieces of bacon, and a sprinkling of chopped parsley on top, reminiscent of a delicious Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole.

If you need more than six servings, make two pans rather than trying to fit a double batch into one. My baked chicken spaghetti fills that second dish if you would rather put two different casseroles on the table than twice as much of one.

If there are fewer than six of you, make the full recipe anyway. The leftovers mean lunch is already handled for the next day.

Do Not Freeze This Casserole

I would not freeze chicken bacon ranch casserole. Flour, heavy cream, and cream of chicken soup give the sauce its texture, but that combination separates after freezing and thawing. What comes back out is not what went in.

If a freezer meal is what you came here for, my chicken tetrazzini is the pasta bake I make when I want something to bank for later.

The refrigerator is a better bet. The casserole keeps for up to three days, although the sauce thickens as it cools. It will be at its creamiest straight from the oven.

For more dinners that start with a box of pasta, browse my pasta and spaghetti recipes.

A close-up of a forkful of creamy penne pasta with pieces of bacon, chicken, and parsley highlights the delicious flavors of a Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole. In the background, a blurred dish of pasta and pepper shaker add to the inviting scene.

Recipe Testing Notes

This is not the same casserole I published in 2020. Over the years, testing by independent recipe testers, Pam, Karen, and Teresia, led me to remove the sun-dried tomatoes, reduce the salt, and cut back the added fat. With input from Angela in July 2026, I clarified some of the instructions, corrected the yield, and put the steps in a clearer order.

All Recipes

40+ Casserole Recipes for Family Dinners

Bacon Chicken Ranch Casserole

5 from 4 votes

Chicken bacon ranch casserole made with a skillet sauce and a full pound of penne. Six dinner-size servings in one 9×13-inch dish.

Prep Time 45

Cook Time 25

Total Time 1 10

Servings

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Ingredients

1 pound penne pasta (Barilla brand used)
1 pound bacon, cut into ¾-inch pieces (about 12 slices of bacon)
2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces (3 to 4 pieces)
3 tablespoons dry ranch seasoning mix, from a 1-ounce packet (divided into 2 tablespoons to season the chicken and 1 tablespoon to season the sauce)
½ teaspoon salt, plus additional for cooking the pasta
¼ teaspoon black pepper
5 tablespoons unsalted butter (divided into 1 tablespoon to cook the chicken and 4 tablespoons to make the sauce)
⅔ cup sweet yellow onion, diced
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon dried basil
½ cup all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken broth, low-sodium
1 cup heavy cream
11.5 ounces cream of chicken soup
½ cup parmesan cheese, freshly shredded
8 ounces blocked mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 to 2 teaspoons fresh parsley, chopped (for garnish)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375°F.
In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the penne pasta according to package directions to one minute shy of al dente. The pasta will continue to cook and soften in the sauce as the casserole bakes in the oven. Drain the pasta and set aside. While the pasta is cooking, cook the bacon and prepare the remaining ingredients.
In a large (12-inch) skillet over medium-low heat, cook the bacon pieces for 22-25 minutes or until all the fat has rendered and the bacon is crispy. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate (reserving ¼ cup of the crispy bacon for the top of the casserole) to drain off all the excess grease. Remove all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease from the skillet.
In a large bowl, toss the chicken pieces with 2 tablespoons dry ranch seasoning mix, salt, and black pepper until evenly coated with the seasonings.
Increase the heat to medium-high, add 1 tablespoon butter to the skillet with the 1 tablespoon of bacon grease. Once the butter has melted, add the seasoned chicken pieces in a single layer and cook for 8-10 minutes or until no pink remains. Transfer the cooked chicken to a clean plate. Drain off any excess moisture from the skillet before continuing.
Reduce the heat to medium, add the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter and allow it to melt. Add the onions, garlic, Italian seasoning, and dried basil. Cook for 2-3 minutes or just until the onions are soft and translucent.
Sprinkle the all-purpose flour over the softened onions and stir to combine until all the flour has been absorbed into the butter and no dry pockets remain.
Slowly whisk in the chicken broth and heavy cream until no lumps of flour remain.
Add the cream of chicken soup and remaining 1 tablespoon dry ranch seasoning whisking until smooth.
Cook for 4-6 minutes, or until the sauce starts to bubble and thicken enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Turn off the heat to the skillet and stir in the shredded parmesan cheese until fully melted.
Add the drained pasta, cooked chicken, and all but ¼ cup of the crispy bacon to the sauce. Gently stir to combine all the ingredients until well combined and all the pasta is coated in the sauce.
Transfer to a 9×13 baking dish, top with the shredded mozzarella cheese and ¼ cup crispy bacon.
Bake uncovered for 25 minutes or just until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly around the edges.
Allow the chicken bacon ranch casserole to rest for 2-3 minutes before garnishing with fresh chopped parsley and serving.

Notes

You will get a better melt from freshly shredded cheese. Pre-shredded cheese contains anti-caking agents that can keep it from melting as smoothly as freshly shredded cheese.
Using rotisserie chicken in the recipe is a great way to save time when preparing and cooking this casserole. You will need to note that since you will not be seasoning and then cooking the boneless skinless chicken breasts in the skillet, you will just need to add the 2 tablespoons of dry ranch seasoning mix, salt, and black pepper to the sauce mixture along with the cream of chicken soup and third tablespoon of dry ranch seasoning. This will ensure you still have all the flavor but without the extra time and effort of preparing and cooking the chicken.