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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Our chives are up and this dressing is delicious! On fresh greens, it makes a restaurant quality salad. Another perfect recipe. Thank you, Jenn.
Truly simple is always better. Love that I always have everything on hand in this recipe to make homemade dressing that we all love. No more bottled at house. Thanks!
Can you substitute the sour cream with Greek yogurt for a healthier alternative?
Hi Bailee, While I haven’t made it that way, a number of other readers have commented that they’ve used Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream and have been happy with the results. I’d use the same amount (1/2 cup).
I just made a batch today (probably the 10th time I’ve made it since I discovered the recipe last year, lol) and was out of sour cream, so i used Greek yogurt. I didn’t notice any difference at all. Still wonderful!
Delicious. I had some raw milk that was starting to sour so I looked up buttermilk recipes. I had almost everything on the ingredient list so I gave it a shot. I used Greek yogurt instead of mayo and sour cream. Also left out the Tabasco since my garlic was somewhat spicy. Turned out great!
This dressing is now tied for first place with your Ceasar. I would almost say that it is a little bit ahead except that since I made the Caesar so much, I probably really just overdid with eating it. This is at least equally delicious and now, I’m on my third batch in a just over a week. It’s great as dip, as you mentioned and basically you want to just drink it. The flavor mix is just wonderful and definitely try to get the buttermilk in there. It’s cheap and it makes a difference. I have used both chives and when short, a green onion/chive mix. Both seemed good but I will still try to shoot for using the chives. Because my store was out of buttermilk the first time, I did use milk and white vinegar. Still good, obviously, as I made it again, but the real buttermilk really did make it taste even better. I try to make these recipes as written at least once, if possible. While it’s great that you can substitute, it’s not going to taste as it’s intended to. I did, as suggested, decrease the garlic when serving later on. I cut it about a third. Worked out perfectly for me. Love, love it! Thanks so much!
This tasted incredible and probably took less than 5 minutes to put together. My ranch-loving 10-year-old said it was so good, “Even better than Hidden Valley!”, although of course I already knew that! LOL! Thanks for the terrific recipe.
Delicious! My husband is a bit weary of dill (too much of it growing up), but this was the perfect combination! It was also yummy as a dip with veggies the next day for my daughter’s lunch.
This was amazing! Best one i have tried so far. Will definitely be using it again!
Hi Jenn!
A quick one on this one: if I don’t have fresh chives what can I use instead that would not be too far off? I saw one review say the tops of scallions – struggling to get those here as well. Anything else I can use? Or would it be okay if I left them out? I’m also using tarragon as you suggested in place of dill. Thanks!
Sarah, you could use dried chives if you can find them. The dressing is enhanced by the chives, but you can leave them out if necessary.
Hello!
I made the buttermilk ranch dressing today (for Super Bowl Sunday) to dress a Cobb salad. I used the exact measurements and it was the BOMB dot COM.
Thank you ?