This meal reminds us of a salad we like to have from our favorite fast food restaurant. This is also what we use to dip chicken nuggets in. Use a little milk to thin the dressing if it is too thick.
| Prep Time: | 5 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 5 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 2 cups |
Ingredients
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- ⅓ bunch fresh cilantro, or to taste
- 1 fresh tomatillo, husk removed, or more to taste
- ½ lime, juiced
- ½ jalapeno pepper, stemmed and seeded, or more to taste
- 1 (1 ounce) package dry ranch dressing mix (such as Hidden Valley Ranch®)
- 1 clove garlic, peeled
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or more to taste
Instructions
- Blend buttermilk, mayonnaise, cilantro, tomatillo, lime juice, jalapeno pepper, ranch dressing mix, garlic, and black pepper together in a blender until smooth. Refrigerate until flavors blend, at least 1 hour.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 178 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 4 g |
| Cholesterol | 9 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 1 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 348 mg |
| Sugars | 2 g |
| Fat | 18 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Didn’t have buttermilk on hand so used 1/2 cup Greek plain yogurt and 1/2 cup milk. Also, 1 slight tablespoon of dried crushed jalapeños (Penzey’s brand) was a good substitution use a little less for less heat). I keep them on hand because I often do not have fresh jalapeño peppers. Even with these slight variations, this has become my go-to salad dressing.
I’ve made this twice now, exactly as written, and I can’t keep it for more than a couple of days because everyone in the house puts the dressing on everything. It is so delicious! Thank you for posting this and sharing.
This is an excellent recipe as written and I’ve rated it 5 stars accordingly. A tasty adaptation that I enjoy is adding a couple more small tomatillos and a small can of chopped green chiles.
This recipe was so easy to make. The taste is delicious! My family loved it! It’s creamy with hints of cilantro, lime, and the zing from the ranch dressing mix. I omitted the tomatillos and jalapeños.
I’ve never had this before, and especially never made it. Was looking for a different kind of sauce to put on my street tacos. THIS WAS DEFINITELY IT!!!! I added a cup of sour cream to this recipe and withheld the tamillo. IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!! Plus it was a great tortilla chip dip too.
This is outstanding! Can add 1/2 avocado but it’s great as written.
LOVED this dressing!! Made a type of Baja Salad then topped with this dressing and it was amazing! We took it to a New Years Eve party and everyone raved about it. Will be making this again and sharing, thank you!
Did it just like the recipe said, except I didn’t have time to let it refrigerate for an hour. We used it on top of a simple meatless taco salad. It was delicious, and it stayed fresh in the fridge for at least a week (by which time we’d finished it).
Followed recipe as is, mine however turned out too watery but was tasty. Not sure what caused it to be so watery.
This was amazing and my kids loved it too
Great dressing! I added half an avocado to make it more creamy. That made it perfection!
Absolutely relish! I added 1/2 of an avocado and it was perfection!!!
I have made tho twice now and we love. This one recipe that I will use a lot.
I was looking for a recipe like the ranch dressing at Don Pablos and this was delicious. It was the first time using tomatillos and I will definitely be making this again.
No changes were made. Tastes just like I imagined. Also, if you’re looking for the Pollo Tropical creamy cilantro dressing, this tastes just like it
This is the closest copycat recipe I have found to Cafe Rio’s house dressing. My family practically drinks it. Don’t over-blend it.
I loved everything about this and will make it over and over again. The possibilities are endless as to what it would go good with. Buttermilk is not something I keep on hand but it is so simple to make your own. Fill a measuring cup just shy of a cup of milk and then add a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar and let it sit for 10-15 minutes and there you have your cup of “buttermilk”. This was great on salad and perfect as a dipping sauce too. 5 stars all the way!