Semi-Homemade BBQ Ranch Dressing & Dipping Sauce
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Combine your two favorite sauces to make the Best Homemade BBQ Ranch Dressing you’ve ever tasted! This sauce is super flavorful, sweet, savory, and tangy. Plus, it’s practically effortless to throw together and takes no time at all!
Why you’ll love this BBQ Ranch Dressing recipe!
Need a break from the typical ketchup, ranch salad dressing, or honey mustard? My homemade bbq sauce with ranch will make your family and friends come back for just one more dip or drizzle!
Ingredient notes
- Mayonnaise | Mayo gives this dressing a creamy base to hold all the herby, savory, and sweet flavors.
- Sour cream | The sour cream combined with mayonnaise creates a creamy and light base for the sauce, lending a tangy taste.
- Barbecue sauce | Use your favorite bbq sauce like Sweet Baby Ray, or check out my easy barbecue sauce recipe.
- Ranch seasoning mix | Complete the ranch half of this dressing recipe by adding a packet of ranch seasoning filled with delicious herbs and spices.
- Milk and lemon juice | Mix lemon juice and milk to create buttermilk to give authentic ranch flavors. Use apple cider vinegar if you are out of lemon juice, or swap both ingredients for store-bought buttermilk.
- Pepper | Freshly ground black pepper gives the dressing a subtle kick of heat and enhances the sweet and tangy flavors of the BBQ ranch sauce.
How to make homemade BBQ Ranch Sauce
My Barbecue Ranch Dressing is a great recipe to have in your back pocket — it’s short, sweet, and DELISH!
STEP 1 | Mix the base ingredients
Get ready to make the simplest homemade dressing or dipping sauce! First, set out a medium bowl.
Next, add the creamy mayonnaise, sour cream, milk, barbecue sauce, and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Use a wire whisk to mix the tasty ingredients until they are silky smooth and well combined.
STEP 2 | Add the seasonings and stir
Then, sprinkle in the ranch seasoning mix and ground black pepper. Give the dressing a few good stirs to ensure all ingredients are incorporated, and you’re done.
Now, all you need to do is store it in an airtight container and refrigerate the sauce until you are ready to serve.
tips
- As it chills, the dressing will thicken. If you like a thinner consistency, add more milk, a tablespoon at a time.
- Spoon the completed sauce into a regular-sized mason jar for adorable, convenient, and practical storage. Consider adding a printed or handwritten label to finish off the look.
- Garnish a bowl of this dipping sauce with fresh dill or fresh chives, then just add a spoon and let them dip away.
Variations and substitutions
- If you’re not a fan of mayonnaise, skip this ingredient and double the sour cream, or replace it with plain Greek yogurt as a healthier alternative.
- As long as your bottle of BBQ says it’s gluten-free, this is a delicious GF and vegetarian recipe — which helps when serving a large crowd.
Storage tips
- You likely won’t use all the dressing you’ve made in one sitting. So, store the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. It will last for up to seven days. The best part is when the ingredients have the time to chill in the refrigerator for a couple of days, the delicious flavors develop even more!
Frequently asked questions
To make this recipe entirely from scratch, create your own ranch seasoning mix! It’s easier than you may think! In fact, many of the essential herbs and seasonings are likely stocked up in your pantry right now. You’ll need dried parsley and dill, onion and garlic powder, sea salt, and pepper. Then, mix them, and you’re good to go!
Transfer the seasoning mix to a spice jar and store it in your pantry for later use. It’s the perfect go-to seasoning to add to sour cream or mayo when you need a quick ranch-like sauce or want to whip up some homemade ranch dressing.
Sure! If you want to add some heat to your BBQ ranch dressing, sprinkle in a pinch of paprika or cayenne, or use a spicy store-bought barbecue sauce.
More made-from-scratch dressings and sauces!
While you’re at it, try my Buttermilk Blue Cheese Dressing, Homemade Greek Salad Dressing, or this Poppy Seed Dressing — YUM!
Serving suggestions
Make this buttermilk ranch dressing mixed with BBQ for game-day parties, family dinners, or even simple daily meals. This sweet and tangy creamy texture dressing offers endless possibilities!
Try swapping the regular barbecue sauce in my BBQ Chicken Pizza recipe for this unique homemade barbeque ranch sauce. Or, keep it simple and serve it as a dipping sauce for Smoky Chicken Kabobs, Air Fryer Chicken Legs, or — my favorite combination — Copycat Chick-fil-A Nuggets!
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Best Homemade BBQ Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise
- ⅔ cup sour cream
- ½ cup barbecue sauce
- ½ cup milk
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon Ranch seasoning mix
- ¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a medium size bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, milk, barbecue sauce, and lemon juice until smooth.
- Stir in the Ranch seasoning and black pepper. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Notes
- As it chills, the dressing will thicken. If you like a thinner consistency, add more milk, a tablespoon at a time.
- Spoon the completed sauce into a regular-sized mason jar for adorable, convenient, and practical storage. Consider adding a printed or handwritten label to finish off the look.
- Garnish a bowl of this dipping sauce with fresh dill or fresh chives, then just add a spoon and let them dip away.
Nutrition
Life Love and Good Food does not claim to be a registered dietician or nutritionist. Nutritional information shared on this site is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
Beyond the recipe
Ranch is one of our country’s most widely used and popular salad dressings and dipping sauces. And traditional American barbecue sauce is not too far behind. Mix the two loved flavors, and you’ve got yourself a hit!
Did you know ranch dressing was created in the late 1940s? At the time, buttermilk-based dressings were quite popular, especially in southern and western states.
Searching for the perfect blend of seasonings to mix into a classic buttermilk dressing base, a cowboy from Alaska created what we know as ranch dressing today. As you may assume, Hidden Valley Ranch played a big part in making the creamy and herby sauce commonly used.
Now, thousands of recipes and products use the delicious ranch flavor. In fact, an entire restaurant in Missouri uses ranch in each menu item, with a total of 31 house-made variations of classic ranch dressing!
If you’re a massive ranch fanatic like me, visiting Twisted Ranch has made it in the top 10 on your bucket list.
About Sheila Thigpen
Recipe Developer, Food Photographer, Food Writer
Sheila Thigpen is the publisher of Life, Love, and Good Food — a Southern food blog — and the author of Easy Chicken Cookbook and The 5-Ingredient Fresh and Easy Cookbook. After 20+ years in the publishing industry, she retired in 2018 to focus on her own creative endeavors full time. She and her husband live near the beautiful Smoky Mountains and have a precious little granddaughter who has stolen their hearts. As an influencer, Sheila has collaborated with brands like Creamette, Kroger, HERSHEY’S, Hamilton Beach, Garafalo Pasta, OXO, Smithfield, Valley Fig Growers, and more.
