Homemade Ranch Dressing
Make ranch dressing from scratch with this simple recipe! This creamy ranch dressing recipe calls for fresh herbs and tastes amazing.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 15, 2025
I love ranch dressing. There, I said it. As a kid, I adored Hidden Valley, but as an adult, I only get excited about made-from-scratch, real-deal ranch salad dressing. This recipe is exactly that, and it’s so much better than store-bought.
The secret to making the best ranch dressing is to use fresh herbs, real buttermilk, and a creamy sour cream base. You only need a dollop of mayonnaise to carry the flavors.
Earlier this year, as I navigated my first trimester, I found myself craving my favorite comfort foods. Naturally, I made my own ranch dressing and happily drizzled it over my salads, pizzas, and even my quesadillas (why not?). It’s a great dip for fresh vegetables, French fries and crispy potato wedges, too.
This ranch dressing recipe is the result of my extensive experimentation. It tastes gourmet, and it’s certainly not too heavy. I hope you love it as much as I do!
Watch How to Make Ranch Dressing
Ranch Dressing Ingredients
This dressing is super fresh and made entirely from scratch. Here’s what you’ll need:
Sour Cream
Sour cream forms the base of this ranch dressing. It’s creamy, tangy and delicious.
Buttermilk
Buttermilk offers some additional tang and thins out the sour cream and mayonnaise, producing a drizzly texture. The recipe offers a range for the buttermilk, so you can make this dressing thicker or thinner as desired.
For the best flavor in dressings, I recommend using real buttermilk rather than DIY buttermilk substitute, which is better suited for baked goods. In a pinch, though, you can get by with regular milk instead. You’ll likely want to use the full amount of lemon juice to make up for the buttermilk’s sour flavor.
Mayonnaise
This ranch dressing needs just a little bit of mayo to achieve the perfect rich and creamy texture.
Fresh Herbs
Fresh herbs make this classic dressing taste gourmet! Dried spices don’t compare. Use a combination of fresh parsley, cilantro or dill (ideally, use a combination of the two) and chives.
Garlic and Lemon Juice
One clove of fresh garlic sends this dressing over the top. It’s just right, and much better than garlic powder or onion powder. Add a teaspoon or two of lemon juice to ramp up the tang.
Salt and Pepper
Salt enhances the other flavors. Please be generous with the freshly ground black pepper. It’s another key element in classic ranch dressing flavor.
More Homemade Salad Dressings to Try
Here are just a few more salad dressings on Cookie and Kate:
- Creamy Tahini Dressing
- Easy Caesar Dressing
- Easy Green Goddess Dressing
- Greek Salad Dressing
- Sunshine Salad Dressing (Creamy Honey Mustard)
Please let me know how you like this ranch dressing in the comments! I love hearing from you.
Homemade Ranch Dressing
Make ranch dressing from scratch with this simple recipe! This creamy ranch dressing recipe calls for fresh herbs and tastes amazing. Recipe yields about 1 cup dressing.
Ingredients
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¼ to ½ cup buttermilk, depending on your desired consistency
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro or dill, or a combination of the two
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh chives
- 1 garlic clove, pressed or minced
- 1 to 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, to taste
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine the sour cream, ¼ cup buttermilk, mayonnaise, fresh herbs, garlic, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, salt, and about 5 twists of black pepper. Whisk to combine.
- Taste, and add up to ¼ cup more buttermilk if you desire a thinner, more drizzly consistency. Add up to 1 teaspoon more lemon juice if you would like more zing, and/or more pepper to kick it up a notch.
- This dressing tastes great immediately and even better after a 10-minute rest. Use as desired, and store leftovers in an air-tight jar in the refrigerator, covered, for 5 to 7 days.
Notes
Change it up: Like spicy ranch? Add sriracha, to taste, or a finely chopped seeded jalapeño.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Made this with my girlfriend and was disappointed. Not very flavorful at all.
I’m sorry to hear that, Caleb. Did you use fresh herbs?
What if you are using dried herbs?
Hi Lisa, see my 50 Pantry-Friendly Recipes & Substitutions That Work on substituting dried herbs for fresh.
beautiful ranch, thank you!
You’re welcome, Alicen!
Easy ranch
I will tray soon
Thank you
Made this last night for friends and couldn’t be happier. Flawless recipe. My salad had butter lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and avocado and chives on top. Simple and perfect.
Looks delicious. Does plain Greek yogurt work in place of sour cream?
Others have tried it and didn’t mind the results. I hope you enjoy it, H!
THE BEST ranch!!! My daughter just requested it for her birthday!
I’ve used fresh and dried herbs… turns out great either way, but I do think fresh is best!
That’s great to hear, Sara.
This is the best ranch dressing I have ever tasted and the best I have ever made! My go-to dressing is your Sunshine Dressing, however I was craving ranch. I am vegan, it was late in the evening and I didn’t walk to the garden for fresh chives or dill, but it didn’t matter, dried worked great! I made buttermilk with coconut milk and lemon, thickened it with white chia seeds and let it sit overnight. I used a little vegan mayo and omitted the sour cream. I can only imagine how amazing it would have been with sour cream! I have tried so many ranch dressing recipes and this combination of ingredients is PERFECT. Thank you!
I’m glad you love it, Marie! I appreciate your review.
Oh my goodness! This is so delicious! I just hope I don’t eat it all before dinner tonight. I subbed some ingredients for what I have on hand: homemade mayo, homemade kefir for the buttermilk, and homemade Greek yogurt for the sour cream. Everything else was per your recipe. I did use the dill/cilantro combo you suggested. I can’t wait to see what my dinner guests think. Thank you for a wonderful recipe.
Great to hear you enjoy this dressing, Susan! Thank you for sharing.
Used 1/4 of my homemade kefir instead of buttermilk.
Used my homemade mayo too. Sadly sour cream wasn’t homemade. Went out to the garden and snipped the chives, parsley and dill. Didn’t chop them, just estimated quantity. Threw everything, including a whole garlic clove into a two cup measure. Used my immersion stick and within a minute had this wonderful dressing! I bet it tastes even better the next day! Great recipe! Thanks!!
Oops forgot to rate!
Do you recommend taking a class on how to start a blog? I find it kind of overwhelming to just start without some type of guidance.
Thanks!
Christine
I really love this dressing!! Does it freeze well?
Hi Emily, I wouldn’t recommend to freeze this.
This was so, so good. I paired this with a BBQ chicken salad and had to use what I had on hand to make the dressing. For those wondering about substitutions, these worked perfectly: 2% Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, homemade buttermilk, and dried minced garlic and dried dill (I did use fresh cilantro). The next day I stirred in a tablespoon of homemade BBQ sauce into what was leftover, and that was a different flavor but also amazing. Can’t wait to add this to the rotation! Thank you Kate!
I’m glad you were able to enjoy this ranch dressing, Becky! I appreciate your review.
Happy 4th of July! Just fixed the dip to take to a cookout and it is delicious! All the herbs are from my organic garden. Added the extra lemon juice. Your recipe is so fresh and light and no additives! I will never go back to Hidden Valley again. Thank you!
You’re welcome! Thank you for your review.
What is the nutritional information for this recipe. How many calories for what amount?
Hi Hope! The nutritional information is below the notes section of the recipe.
Great tasting ranch dressing!
Always prefer homemade anything.
Will never ever buy any dressings at the store…too many preservatives.
Glad you loved it, Rosie! I appreciate your review.
Sooooo good. Just as is. Perfect. I didn’t have parsley and substituted the green of a spring onion for the chive but was fabulous!!
I love to hear that, Elissa! Thank you for your review.
The absolute best dressing ever….made me want to eat salad, or maybe just drink it like someone else said! Fresh herbs make a difference.
I’m glad you loved it, Sharon!
I really liked this dressing but recipe needed tweeking slightly. I followed the recipe but it needed more acidity than the 2 tspns of lemon juice. I added an additional tbspn of lemon juice and a tspn of worstershire sauce. This made it absolutely perfect Herby, fresh and tangy. Yum
How about plain Greek yogurt in place of sour cream and mayo?
I believe others have tried it and didn’t mind the results. Let me know if you try it!
Can you use FAGE Greek Yogurt ,full fat instead of sour cream?
Sure, you can try it. I believe others have tried it and didn’t mind the results.
Hi Kate, WOW!!!! This is just the VEST dressing!!! I love using it to dress cole slaw. I made mine with plain Greek yogurt cuz I never have sour cream on hand. So good, thank you!!!
You’re welcome, Cox!
Awesome base, the only thing I add is a tablespoon of my own dried dill as Ranch dressing usually has dill. So good. Thanks
Finally got around to making fresh Ranch, your recipe is spot on and delicious. I primarily use it for fries and burgers but also perfect for anything that needs some Ranch.
I’ve taken this to school and all my teacher friends ask for the recipe. I like to use Greek yogurt, sometimes, in place of sour cream. Great recipe for veggie dip; just use less buttermilk.
Adore your book. Couldn’t live without it! Thank you, Yvonne
I love to hear that! Thank you for your review.
Hi Kate, love this recipe. I used everything made from scratch including the mayo, and sour cream. Mine turned out a bit watery.. what would you recommend to thicken it up a bit?
Thanks!
I’m sorry to hear that. I don’t know about adding thickness now without adjusting the flavor. Sorry!
First time making ranch. I really like it. And so does my husband and that’s saying a lot!!
First time making Ranch Dressing, its not so easily found here in UK. Only have the the bottled kind to compare with whilst visiting the US and liked it. Did everything as per recipe, added more pepper and a little salt seemed to improve taste too – thank you
Can you use dried herbs instead of fresh?
Yes, if you don’t have access to fresh herbs you can use dried herbs. Just reduce the amounts as dried herbs are more concentrated.
This was a terrible recipe, followed the ingredients exact with fresh herbs and it came out so bland and watery, so disappointing- ratios are super off
Hi, I love your ranch dressing and many other of your recipes. My family cannot eat onion and garlic. Do you have substitutes please? Thanks
Hi Belinda, I would simply omit.