Rancher’s Wife Casserole

Rancher’s Wife Casserole–penne pasta with chicken and a creamy ranch sauce made in the Instant Pot.

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Rancher’s Wife Casserole

For a hearty meal try this easy dump and go recipe for creamy chicken and penne pasta. You’re going to love how much flavor there is thanks to the dry ranch dressing mix. This is sort of like chicken alfredo but it has a stronger (and in my opinion better) flavor to it. I like to use Costco rotisserie chicken that I’ve chopped up but you can also use raw chicken that has been cut into bite size pieces (it will use the same cooking time!).

Ingredients/Substitution Ideas

• Chicken broth–or water and Better than Bouillon chicken base
• Penne pasta–I used whole wheat penne
• Garlic powder
• Ranch dressing dry mix–I use Hidden Valley brand
• Black pepper
• Cream cheese
• Chopped cooked chicken–or 1 pound raw chicken cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• Milk
• Parmesan cheese

Steps

Pour broth into Instant Pot. Sprinkle in the penne. Add in the garlic powder, ranch dressing mix, pepper, cream cheese and the chicken. Don’t stir.

Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 4 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 10 minutes. Then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.

Stir well. If needed add in a splash of milk.

Scoop onto plates and top each serving with a bit of parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

Notes/Tips

• Serve with peas or broccoli. I would have stirred them into the pot but certain members of my family are not okay with that 😉
• If you use another type of pasta you may need to adjust the cooking time. Here is the formula: look at the back of the box of pasta and see how many minutes it says to boil the pasta. If it’s 10 minutes you divide that number by 2 (=5) and then subtract 2 minutes. So you would pressure cook for 3 minutes. I usually use a 5-10 minute natural pressure release for pasta.
• You can leave out the chicken if you’d like.
• Try adding in a few tablespoons of crumbled bacon for even more flavor.
• Try adding in some chopped sundried tomatoes and spinach for color.
• I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 3 or 8 quart pot.
• You can easily double this recipe by doubling the ingredients and keeping the cooking time the same.
• Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
• Other recipes you can make with 4 ounces of cream cheese are Loaded Million Dollar Casserole and Henny Penny Chicken.

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*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.