Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
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This buttermilk ranch dressing is cool, creamy, and garlicky. Serve it over a green salad or use it as a dip for crudités or chips.
Gourmet is probably not the word that comes to mind when you think of buttermilk ranch dressing, but homemade is nothing like the mass-produced bottled stuff on the grocery store shelves. This buttermilk variation of my standard ranch dressing recipe is one of my go-to salad dressings. It’s cool, creamy, tangy, garlicky, and, honestly, good enough to eat straight with a spoon. Try the dressing over a crisp green salad or as a dip for crudités, potato chips, or baked chicken wings.
“Delicious. This takes just a few minutes to make with outstanding results. A+”
What You’ll Need To Make Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
- Sour Cream: Provides creaminess and tanginess to the dressing.
- Buttermilk: Adds a subtle tang and helps thin out the dressing to a pourable consistency.
- Mayonnaise: Contributes richness and helps bind the ingredients together.
- Garlic: Infuses the dressing with a bold, savory flavor.
- Salt and Pepper: Enhance the overall taste of the dressing.
- Dill: Adds a hint of herbal flavor and freshness.
- Fresh Chives: Offer a mild onion flavor and a pop of color.
- Fresh Lemon Juice: Provides brightness and balances the richness of the other ingredients.
- Tabasco Sauce: Adds an optional touch of heat and extra flavor for those who enjoy a bit of spice.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
To make it, simply combine all of the ingredients in a bowl.
And whisk to blend.
That’s all there is to it. Enjoy!
Frequently Asked Questions
Definitely! It will keep well in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days. Keep in mind that the garlic flavor gets stronger the longer it sits, so you may want to cut back if you’re planning on making it in advance. Also, the dressing will thicken up to more of a dip consistency as it chills. If you’d like it to be pourable, let it sit on the kitchen counter for 30 minutes before using.
Sure, you can omit the mayo and increase the sour cream to 3/4 cup. Because the additional sour cream will add more tangy flavor, reduce the lemon juice to 1 teaspoon.
While I’m a big fan of making your own buttermilk for baked goods, when something relies more heavily on the buttermilk flavor and consistency, I suggest using store-bought.
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Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
This buttermilk ranch dressing is cool, creamy, and garlicky. Serve it over a green salad or use it as a dip for crudités or chips.
Ingredients
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup mayonnaise, best quality such as Hellmann's or Duke's
- 2 garlic cloves, minced (see note)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1½ teaspoons dried dill
- ¼ cup finely chopped fresh chives
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- Few dashes Tabasco sauce, optional
Instructions
- Combine all of the ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk well. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Chill until ready to serve.
- Note: The dressing will keep well in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. The garlic flavor gets stronger the longer it sits, so you might want to cut back if you're planning on making it in advance. The dressing will thicken up to more of a dip consistency as it chills.
Nutrition Information
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- Serving size: 2 tablespoons
- Calories: 69
- Fat: 7g
- Saturated fat: 1g
- Carbohydrates: 1g
- Sugar: 1g
- Fiber: 0g
- Protein: 1g
- Sodium: 113mg
- Cholesterol: 9mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Gluten-Free Adaptable Note
To the best of my knowledge, all of the ingredients used in this recipe are gluten-free or widely available in gluten-free versions. There is hidden gluten in many foods; if you're following a gluten-free diet or cooking for someone with gluten allergies, always read the labels of your ingredients to verify that they are gluten-free.
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Substituted 1/4 cup fresh green Chile for dill and added 2 cloves extra garlic. Used 2tbl dried chives. Made a wonderful dressing. Will make this often and probably in larger batch.
This is the absolute best homemade ranch recipe. I’ve tried dozens and this is my go to now, even with using powdered garlic and dried chives (when I have them). Bravo 👏👏👏
Hello Jenn,
This recipe was a success! I offered a teaspoon to a friend one afternoon, after the dressing had chilled for some time. Their comment, “oh that’s good,” to which I promised them a take-home portion. As things worked out, they did not get their portion as time didn’t permit. When I saw them the later, they wondered if their portion was available. No, as I had eaten it all, and yes, they missed a round two creation as well.
The ingredients that I used made the dressing created a thicker dip type consistency as is often served with crudities. I am looking forward to attempting variations of the wedge salad and green goddess recipes, especially.
My question is how can I use either dry milk or dry buttermilk to enhance the flavor? I don’t understand what these ingredients could accomplish. Can you help and advise?
Thanks, Keith
Hi Keith, so glad to hear you enjoyed the dressing! I wouldn’t actually recommend using either dry milk or dry, buttermilk in this recipe – I’m not sure how using them would impact the finished product.
We really wanted to love this, but we did not like it. We are a family that eats only ranch. We tried it with several different types of food and nobody cared for it, I am sorry to report. It all ended up in the trash. It tasted too much like a pickle and it was too much lemon juice.
It could have been the dried dill. I personally use fresh dill and it makes all the difference-very tasty substitution. Highly recommend.
Agreed, my husband tasted and said no way. Maybe ok if it had some crushed cucumber in it, but definitely not ranch for us either.
Made this a few times in the past. Didn’t change a thing as it’s perfect as is. Wonderful with steak and arugula salad. Yum!!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Once we made this, there was no turning back. This is the best ranch dressing ever. We use it on salads and as a crudite dip. The only modification I made was to increase the mayonnaise to 1/2 cup and reduce the sour cream to 1/4 cup, as we prefer it on the creamier side. When I was out of chives, I substituted slice green onions (green part only). This worked, too. It had a slightly stronger onion flavor, but was still delicious.
Very tasty buttermilk dressing! My only subs were to use fat free Greek yogurt for the sour cream, and fresh dill instead of dried. Wonderful, zesty flavors!
Jenn,
How much fresh dill would you substitute for the dried?
Hi Kerrie, I would us a heaping tablespoon.
This recipe is what started me following “once upon a chef” years ago. I’ve made 30+ recipes from the site, own both cook books, and have never made a recipe from here that wasn’t absolutely delicious! This dressing literally improves anything you put it on. It has a 100% rating that anytime I bring the dressing anywhere, I will be guaranteed to share the recipe and your site with people. This is also sooo soooo good for dunking pizza crust into it.
Homemade dressings are easy to make and delicious. This one will be a repeat. Only took a few minutes to make, longest part was walking out to the garden to pick chives.