Homemade Ranch Dressing

Ranch Dressing is the quintessential Okie condiment.  I'm not positive but I think the trend of putting ranch salad dressing on pizza started in Oklahoma.  I remember doing it in high school much to the chagrin of my parents and Pizza Hut waitresses everywhere.  As I've gotten older though my tastes have changed and while you'll still catch me grabbing a bottle of Ranch Dressing when we order a pizza, it's not something I really put on a salad anymore.  Mainly because I like to make things from scratch.  In fact, we make so many things from scratch around here when I do eat something like a store bought cookie all I can taste is preservatives.  So the other night we made lovely salad for dinner.  I brined and baked some chicken breasts, fried and crumbled some bacon, chopped some hard boiled eggs.  We had Romaine lettuce, chopped celery and carrots.  It was quite colorful and refreshing and lovely to look at and then I realized I had no dressing to put on it.  What would have been perfect was Mr. DD's Blue Cheese Dressing but I didn't have any blue cheese on hand and I sure wasn't changing out of my pajama pants to make a trip to the store.  So I came up with a quick little version of Homemade Ranch Dressing that was an absolute hit.  The secret ingredient?  Pickle Juice. Mr. Devilish Dish loves anything with lots of dill and while I did add dried dill to the recipe, I wanted to boost the dill flavor and thin the dressing just a little.  The result was delicious and we ate salad for days.  This is my new favorite go-to dressing and I just might have to order a pizza for old times sake and try it out! 

Oklahoma's favorite condiment: HOMEMADE!

Delicious on salads, veggies, as a dip
and of course on pizza!

Homemade Ranch Dressing

1/2 cup good quality mayonnaise
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup sour cream
1/8 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon dried dill
1/2 teaspoon dried chives
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried minced onion
1 teaspoon dill pickle juice

Combine ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.  Place in the refrigerator and let the flavors meld for at least an hour before serving. Store up to one week in the refrigerator in an air-tight container.