There’s a specific kind of weeknight where you need dinner to be good, filling, and require exactly one pan. This is that dinner.

Chicken bacon ranch rice cooks entirely in one skillet. The bacon goes first, the chicken browns in the drippings, and the rice simmers in seasoned broth until it’s picked up every bit of flavor left in the pan. Cream and cheddar go in at the end. Forty-five minutes, one pan to wash, and there are rarely leftovers.

The whole thing rests on the chicken, though. Rice absorbs whatever you cook it with, so bland chicken makes bland rice. Fresh, well-trimmed chicken makes the whole skillet taste like something.

Start with Better Chicken

Most chicken in a grocery store cooler has been sitting in a plastic tray for days, sometimes packed in a saline solution that adds weight and washes out flavor. It’ll cook. It just won’t taste like much, and it tends to release a lot of water into the pan, which is the enemy of browning.

Here’s what to look for instead:

• Firm, pink flesh with no gray cast and no liquid pooled in the package
• Trimmed clean, so you’re not paying for fat you’ll cut off and throw away
• Cut fresh, ideally the same day

Chicken Bacon Ranch Rice Skillet

Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 30 minutes Serves: 4 to 6

You’ll Need

• 1½ pounds fresh chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 6 slices bacon, chopped
• 1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 packet ranch seasoning
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper

Let’s Cook

1. Cook the bacon in a large skillet until crisp. Remove it from the pan and set it aside, leaving about one tablespoon of bacon drippings behind.
2. Season the chicken with salt, black pepper, and whatever other seasonings you’d like — a few shakes of Cajun Two-Step is a great addition, and we keep it on the shelf at the shop. Cook the chicken in the skillet until lightly browned.
3. Add the rice, chicken broth and ranch seasoning. Stir well, cover and simmer over low heat for approximately 18 minutes, or until the rice is tender and the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. Check sparingly — you want the steam to do the work of cooking the rice.
4. Stir in the heavy cream, cheddar cheese and cooked bacon. Cover for another two minutes, then serve.

Tips from Behind the Counter

Leave the lid alone. Every time you lift it, steam escapes and the rice cooks unevenly. Set a timer for 18 minutes and trust it.

Long-grain rice only. Instant rice turns to mush at this ratio and brown rice needs closer to 45 minutes and more liquid. If long-grain is what you’ve got, you’re set.

Shred your own cheese. Bagged shredded cheddar is coated in starch to keep it from clumping, and that starch makes for a grainier sauce. A block shredded at home melts smooth.

Don’t skip the fond. Those browned bits stuck to the skillet after the chicken cooks are flavor. The broth will lift them right off when you add it.

If the rice is tender but the pan looks wet, uncover it and let it simmer a minute or two before the cream goes in.

Ways to Change It Up

• Add a handful of fresh spinach with the cream — it wilts down in about a minute and nobody complains about it.
• Swap the cheddar for pepper jack and add a chopped jalapeño with the chicken.
• Use smoked sausage instead of bacon. Sliced Original or Jalapeño & Cheddar smoked sausage browned first works beautifully, and the drippings do the same job.
• Stretch it further with a cup of frozen peas or broccoli florets added in the last five minutes.
• Make your own ranch seasoning with buttermilk powder, dried dill, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder and black pepper if you’d rather skip the packet.

One Stop for Weeknight Dinner in Hattiesburg

This is a short list, and you can pick up every item on it in one trip. Our shop at 1910 Broadway Drive carries fresh-cut chicken, thick-sliced bacon, cheese, seasonings and the grocery staples that round out a weeknight dinner, so you’re not stopping at a butcher and then a grocery store on the way home.

We’ve been family owned and operated in Hattiesburg since 1991. Along with the fresh meat counter, the case is full of homemade cooking that’s already done for you — stuffed potatoes, boudin, gumbo, meatloaf, chicken pot pies — for the nights when even one skillet is one too many.

Hours: Monday–Tuesday and Thursday–Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Closed Wednesday and Sunday. Phone: 601-261-2765 Address: 1910 Broadway Drive, Hattiesburg, MS 39401 — get directions or reach out

Outside the area? Our smoked sausage ships nationwide, and you can find us on the shelf at stores across Mississippi and the Gulf South.