Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
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This homemade buttermilk ranch dressing is cool, creamy, and tangy, with plenty of fresh herb and garlic flavor—and it takes just minutes to make.
Gourmet is probably not the word that comes to mind when you think of ranch dressing, but homemade is nothing like the mass-produced bottled stuff on grocery store shelves. This buttermilk ranch recipe is a variation of my classic ranch dressing and one of my go-to salad dressings, with sour cream and mayo for richness, buttermilk and lemon for tang, and plenty of garlic, dill, and fresh chives. Honestly, it’s good enough to eat straight with a spoon! Try it 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, Mayonnaise & Buttermilk: These make up the creamy base of the dressing. The sour cream and mayo give it richness and body, while the buttermilk adds tang and thins it to a pourable consistency. Use good quality mayo, such as Hellmann’s or Duke’s, and store-bought buttermilk rather than a homemade substitute—the flavor and consistency matter more in a dressing than they do in most baked goods.
- Garlic: Fresh garlic gives the dressing its characteristic bite, and its flavor gets stronger as the dressing sits. If you’re sensitive to raw garlic or making the dressing well ahead, you can use a little less.
- Dill & Fresh Chives: Dried dill gives the dressing classic ranch flavor, while fresh chives add freshness and a mild oniony bite.
- Fresh Lemon Juice: Adds acidity and brightness, balancing the richness of the creamy base.
- Tabasco: Optional, but a few dashes sharpen the flavors without making the ranch noticeably spicy.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
How To Make Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
Mix the dressing: Whisk all of the ingredients together until smooth and evenly blended. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed. Keep in mind that the dressing will thicken as it chills and the garlic flavor will become more pronounced as it sits. The dressing keeps well in the refrigerator, so it’s a great one to make ahead; see the recipe card below for storage instructions.
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Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup mayonnaise, best quality such as Hellmann’s or Duke’s
- 2 cloves garlic minced (see note)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1½ teaspoons dried dill
- ¼ cup finely chopped fresh chives
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, from one lemon
- 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.
Notes
Nutrition Information
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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So good, and simple and light! I’ll have to go raid the neighbours chives again. I’d also like to make it with fresh dill. I was going to make your Caesar dressing tonight but decided on this. Also a lot less calories than Caesar dressing!
Absolutely fabulous! I substituted Cabot’s Whole Milk Greek Yogurt for the sour cream because that’s what I had plenty of on hand. It worked great!
We used this for salad and as a dipping sauce for Baked Chicken Wings. We split the dressing 50/50 using half as is and added Gorgonzola crumbles and a splash of Marukan seasoned Japanese vinegar to the other half. Everyone loved it…especially the wings 🙂
Thanks for the terrific recipe.
Jenn, this is really good. My husband loves garlic so I used fresh. For a milder version, I would switch to powder since fresh garlic gets stronger the longer it sits for sure. I did use Kewpie mayo and my lemons are more tart so I cut that back. Thank you for a fab recipe. So similar to how we made ranch at The Chart House years ago.
Delicious. This takes just a few minutes to make with outstanding results. A+
You didn’t tell the measurements of ingredients at least on my notebook
Hi Pat, It sounds like you are just looking at the portion of the page that has the pictures with some instructions above. If you scroll down a bit to under the pictures, you’ll find the full recipe. Alternatively, at the very top of the page, to the right of the recipe name, you’ll see an orange/red button that says Jump to Recipe – if you click on that, it will take you directly to the recipe. Hope that clarifies!
Excellent! I made the recipe exactly as described. Already printed out the recipe for my quick reference recipe binder notebooks. Outstanding and so easy to make! Thank you Jenn!
Lovely but so salty. I’d start with 1/4 tsp and go up gradually to taste
Wonderful wonderful wonderful. I always double the recipe at a minimum and have been known to quadruple it. I eat it with everything and sometimes eat a spoonful by itself. I make my own mayonnaise using Sally Fallon’s recipe in Nourishing Traditions.
This was phenomenal. I doubled the recipe and and added 2 TBSP of lemon juice (1.5x amount) only because it’s pre-portioned and frozen from our Meyer lemon tree. I cut the garlic by 1/2 because last time it was too garlicky for my taste (and I LOVE garlic-but not overpowering in ranch dressing) I also added some dried Italian herbs (only because I couldn’t find my dill at the moment, but later found it and added it). I had guests over and they all wanted the recipe. I really like the freshness and tartness of the extra Meyer lemon juice from our tree, which may have added a tinge of sweetness to the dressing. We used this to dip home grown air fried zucchini strips. It was so delicious we literally ate until we were absolutely stuffed!)
Made as written. Simple and delicious! Thank you.