Southwest Ranch Chicken Salad Cheddar Melt

We were not a ranch household growing up.

My mom was the wheat bread, honey mustard is the most exciting condiment you’re gonna get kind of parent. Mayo, ranch dressings (or any bottled dressing for that matter) and processed delicious frozen foods (um hello, tater tots) were things only found at friends’ houses.

Lucky for me, my best friend’s mom was as opposite of mine as one could be in the food department.

Chicken nuggets dipped in mayo with a baked potato was a completely normal meal in their household and I loved them for it in all my fun food deprived 6 year old glory.

I feel almost anti-American with this statement, (but now you know why) I just never really grew a taste for ranch anything. Whether it was the dressing all the way to the flavored potato chips, ranch was always an “ehh whatever” kind of thing for me.

So when I visited the Sabra Greek yogurt factory back in April and they revealed their brand new (yet to be released) flavor, Farmer’s Ranch, I honestly didn’t expect to be all gaga over it like everyone else was.

Um, I was wrong.

This ranch deprived girl was in pure Greek yogurt dip heaven. I literally could not stop dipping pepper slices in it at the sampling (and pretty much ruined my lunch appetite doing so) and it even gave my beloved diced onion flavor (which I used in these Indian yogurt steak kabobs) a run for its money.

If you loved (or dare I say still love?) those horrible ranch packets you mix with sour cream to make a dip, I beg you to try this instead. 1. you can actually pronounce all the ingredients in Sabra’s Greek yogurt dips. 2. It’s packed with real vegetables, not dehydrated ones. 3. It’s got a heck of a lot fewer calories and fat.

While dipping baby carrots and crackers in it is my usual obsession of choice (I can pretty much house a container in two sittings), I decided it’s also the perfect binder for making chicken salad.

I pretty much always make my lunch salads with Greek yogurt instead of mayo but using the Farmer’s Ranch takes the flavor profile up like 10 notches.

Not to mention, spicing your own chicken with a southwestern vibe puts watery canned chicken to shame. Pile it high on some bread covered with melted cheddar and you’ve got a ranch chicken salad cheddar melt that makes for one heck of a lunch.

Check out these Mediterranean eggplant chips using the Mediterranean herb Greek yogurt dip too and if you can’t find these dips, make your own Greek yogurt ranch dressing instead!

Love this ranch chicken salad cheddar melt?

Try these other chicken salad recipes too: 
Turmeric Chicken Salad
Garlic Yogurt Chicken Salad Sandwich with Sun Dried Tomato Spread
Honey Chicken Salad with Apples and Sage
Sweet Corn, Peach and Honey Mustard Chicken Salad
Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad

*This post is sponsored by Sabra as part of my work with them as a Sabra Tastemaker. All content and opinions are my own.