Chicken fajita bake turns the classic stovetop fajitas into an easy oven baked meal that cooks with no fuss no muss in 40 minutes. Layer the toppings, cheese, and seasoning over chicken breasts for a simple meal any night of the week.
The oven-baked chicken fajitas casserole is low carb, gluten-free, and keto-friendly. To make this recipe paleo and dairy-free, just skip the cheese and sour cream garnish.
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Chicken Fajita Bake
Chicken fajitas are one of the most popular recipes in our home and it’s a dish we make regularly, usually by skillet. However, we wanted to try something different so we turned our family favorite into an oven-baked chicken fajitas casserole.
Sometimes you have to mix the food rotation to keep it fresh, right?
When I created a recipe for chicken fajita bake, both my husband and son were out of town, leaving my daughter to the tasting. She LOVED this recipe so much she ended up eating 3 out of the 4 fajita chicken bake pieces… I’m sure she’d be happy I just disclosed that to the world 😉
This oven fajita chicken bake makes the best keto chicken fajitas too! Just skip the tortillas and serve the low carb meat and vegetables on a plate or with lettuce wraps (making it gluten-free).
Why You’ll Love This Chicken Fajita Recipe
- Chicken fajita casserole is almost effortless. You’re doing 10 minutes of prep then sitting back while it works it’s magic in the oven.
- Because it’s done in the oven, the bold flavors hold their power in a slow bake, versus a skillet which is faster but the high heat loses some sweetness.
- One of the benefits of this recipe is that it’s cost-effective. If you have $15 and an oven, you’re set!
- The flexibility of ingredients makes this compatible with a wide variety of dietary restrictions.
- It’s a unique yet easy variation from the same basic fajita chicken recipes you make over and over again
Looking for more chicken bake recipes? *Raises hand* I am! Here you go! Be sure to check out our Cheesy Baked Salsa Chicken or Green Chili Chicken too.
And if you LOVE peppers as we do, you’ll definitely want to make our popular stuffed peppers without rice and our Philly cheesesteak stuffed peppers. SO. GOOD.
🥘 Ingredients
The ingredients for easy chicken fajita bake are almost identical to stovetop fajitas, the only difference with this recipe (other than serving the toppings over chicken breasts), is that we add shredded cheese.
Traditional chicken fajitas have toppings such as guacamole, pico de Gallo, peppers, and onions. We thought cheese would be a tasty addition to the chicken fajita bake. Sounds gouda, right?
Ingredients List:
- 1.5 lb chicken breasts, cut into 4-6 pieces
- 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar-free taco seasoning or fajita mix
- 3/4 cup cheddar cheese or 3 cheese blend, shredded
- 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 red pepper
- 1 green pepper
- 1 red onion
- Optional garnishes- cilantro, sour cream, avocado, salsa
Supplies:
- 2-3 qt baking dish (approximately 9×13-inch)
A baking dish is a kitchen essential, being it’s incredibly versatile and reliable. The 2-3 quart-sized dish is enough space to have your chicken bake freely, while still being tight enough to hold the flavors together.
🔪 How to Make Baked Chicken Fajitas
The simplicity of the chicken fajita casserole recipe really makes it a staple for any home chef, regardless of cooking skill level. Prep the veggies, slice the chicken, sprinkle the toppings, and stick it in the oven is all there is to it! It makes for a great leftover lunch, cooking for a date, meal prep for the week, or dinner for one.
First, preheat the oven to 375F and put the oven rack in the center position.
Dice the peppers and onion into thin strips and set aside.
For the chicken, you’ll want 4 pieces so the dish has 4 servings. Many grocery store chicken pieces are huge and you may need to cut the chicken breasts in half. For the chicken in our photos, we used two large chicken breasts, cut in half.
Lay the chicken in the bottom of a 2qt+ baking dish. You’ll want to make sure the dish is large enough that the chicken pieces aren’t squished together.
Sprinkle 1 Tbsp of taco or fajita seasoning. I love to make homemade taco seasoning without sugar, here’s a recipe you can use. Or feel free to use your favorite store-bought brand.
Spread the sliced peppers and onion over the top of the seasoned chicken.
Note: cut your peppers as thin as possible. We like to have a little crisp and crunch to our vegetables, and the picture shows how the peppers turn out with the width we slice our vegetables. Try to slice them as thin as 1/8-1/4 inch for softer peppers.
Sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 Tbsp of taco seasoning.
Drizzle with olive oil, we use about 1 1/2 Tbsp.
Sprinkle with 3/4-1 cup of cheddar cheese or Mexican blend cheese.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked to 165F when tested in the center.
💡 Recipe Tips
- You’ll want each piece of chicken to be about 6 oz and you may need to cut the chicken breasts in half to get this size. Chicken does not come in a consistent size at the grocery store, unfortunately. Focus on the weight of the chicken package versus the number of pieces.
- You can use any combo of peppers, whether it be green, red, orange, or yellow. When you use at least 2 colors the dish looks pretty and presentable for guests.
- We love to use sweet yellow onions instead of red onions, however, red adds a bold color contrast. Feel free to use any type of onion you prefer.
🙋🏻 Common Questions
Is This Healthy?
Keto/Low Carb-Each serving of the fajita chicken bake recipe has 6.6 net carbs, plus it’s such a great low carb meal because it not only has lean protein and healthy fats, but it includes lots of low carb vegetables.
You can also increase the cheese or olive oil, or add avocado on top if you want to increase your fat.
Be sure to check the carbs in the sour cream. The low-fat brands and often lower-priced brands might have fillers that increase the carbs.
Gluten-free– The only thing to be aware of in this recipe is the taco seasoning. If you buy the packaged taco seasonings, it may contain gluten.
There’s a no-sugar store-bought variety of the seasoning linked in the bottom of the recipe card if you need one.
Paleo/Dairy-free– Cheese and sour cream are no friends of yours. BUT, you can choose a paleo cheddar cheese and add avocado instead for similar textures.
Can I Freeze This?
Most definitely! Now that my husband and I are empty-nesters, we love our leftovers. Freezing fajita chicken bake makes it easy to pull some out for lunch or you can even double or triple this batch (using more than one dish) to batch cook the recipe for future meals.
Freezing the already cooked chicken fajita casserole will add more liquid to the dish, but it’ll still taste super good. Feel free to add a fresh sprinkle of cheese before baking to freshen up the tasty cheesy chicken fajita bake.
What to Serve with Chicken Fajita Casserole?
To be honest, fajita chicken bake is one of those recipes it’s a meal all on its own. With lean protein, lots of vegetables, healthy fat, and even dairy, it might not need a side dish.
But if you want something more on your table, here’s a handful of ideas:
- A simple green salad
- Mexican street corn salad (it uses frozen corn!)
- Steamed broccoli Recipe
- Rice or riced cauliflower
- Cold Broccoli Salad
Other Mexican Recipes You’ll Love
- Green Chili Chicken Casserole
- Low Carb Taco Pie
- Crockpot Taco Soup
- Mexican Street Corn on the Cob
- One-Pot Chicken Fajita Pasta
Please leave a review if you make our fajita chicken casserole recipe! We love feedback from readers, plus it helps others too.
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And pin the recipe for later on Pinterest so you can easily get back to it!
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Fajita Chicken Bake
Fajita chicken bake is an easy alternative to stovetop fajitas. Layer your vegetables, seasoning, and cheese on top of the chicken breasts and bake!
Ingredients
- 1.5+ lb chicken breasts
- 1 1/2 Tbsp taco seasoning (no-sugar recipe here)
- 3/4 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 red pepper
- 1 green pepper
- 1 red onion
- Optional garnishes- cilantro, sour cream, avocado, salsa
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F and put the oven rack in the center position.
- Thinly slice the peppers and onion into thin strips and set aside.
- For the chicken, you’ll want 4 pieces so the dish can serve 4 servings. In our photos, we used two large chicken breasts, cut in half.
- Lay the chicken in the bottom of a 2qt-3qt baking dish. You’ll want to make sure the dish is large enough that the chicken pieces aren't squished together.
- Sprinkle with 1 Tbsp the taco or fajita seasoning.
- Spread the sliced peppers and onion over the top of the seasoned chicken.
- Sprinkle with the other 1/2 Tbsp of taco seasoning
- Drizzle with olive oil
- Sprinkle with the 3/4-1 cup cheddar cheese or Mexican blend cheese
- Bake on 375F for 35-40 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked to 165 when tested in the center.
Recommended Products
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J.A. HENCKELS INTERNATIONAL 31161-201 CLASSIC Chef's Knife, 8 Inch, Black - Pyrex SYNCHKG055786 Basics 2 Quart Glass Oblong Baking Dish, Clear 11.1 in. x 7.1 in. x 1.7
- Fody Foods Vegan Taco Seasoning | Flavorful Blend | Low FODMAP Certified | Gut Friendly No Onion No Garlic | IBS Friendly Kitchen Staple | Gluten Free Lactose Free Non GMO | 4.02 Ounce
Nutrition Information
Yield 4Amount Per Serving Calories 475Total Fat 17gCarbohydrates 10gNet Carbohydrates 6.6gFiber 3.4gProtein 60g
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