Our viral chicken green chili casserole is the ultimate comfort food recipe when you need something quick and easy for your family dinner!
We are combining savory green salsa, cottage cheese, and pre-cooked shredded chicken to make the best green chili chicken casserole in under 30 minutes!
This Green Chili Keto Chicken Casserole is the best!
I just made this today as I was looking for an easy, inexpensive meal and WOWZA is this ever delicious! ~ Alexandra
I double this for a family get together. It was a hit! ~ Jorgie
Made this for the work week today and added riced cauliflower to stretch it and it was amazing. ~ Linda
- Our green chili casserole with chicken needs just 5 ingredients and only 30-minutes of your time making it one of the easiest weeknight casseroles!
- Taco seasoning, green salsa, and diced green chilis combine to give the casserole its Tex-Mex flavor.
- If you are on a specific health plan, or maybe just cutting back on carbs, you'll be happy to know that our chicken and green chili casserole is low-carb, keto-friendly, high protein, and gluten-free!
Be sure to try our low carb taco casserole to add variety to your life, which is very similar except it's made with ground beef and a red salsa.
What you'll need
- shredded or ground chicken - precooked or rotisserie
- keto taco seasoning - homemade or storebought, use a sugar-free brand if possible.
- green salsa - the chunkier the better, made without sugar. LaVictoria has a great chunky brand.
- diced green chili’s - we used mild, but feel free to use spicy chilis
- cottage cheese - use a full-fat, low carb brand (4% milk fat)
- Colby jack or 3 cheese blend - sliced or shredded from a block, pre-shredded doesn't melt as well and has hidden carbs
- optional toppings - sour cream, avocado, green onion
How to make Green Chili Casserole
Step 1. Prep. Preheat your oven to 375 F. Spray an 11x7 baking dish or casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray.
Step 2. In a medium-sized bowl, add the taco seasoning, salsa, green chilis, and cottage cheese (drained). Mix in the precooked and shredded chicken and stir until it's all mixed and combined evenly.
Step 3. Spoon the prepared chicken mixture into the prepared baking dish.
Step 4. Top the casserole with the sliced or shredded cheese.
Step 5. Bake for 20-minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbling.
Garnish with green onions, if desired. Serve with sour cream and salsa, optional. This is delicious served over cauliflower rice! Enjoy!
Depending on the cottage cheese you're using, the salsa brand, or how chunky your chicken is shredded...some readers have said this casserole is on the runny side.
For best results, drain the cottage cheese. A medium shredded chicken works best, if the pieces are too large the sauce doesn't blend well and sinks to the bottom. Regardless, it's amazing!
Recipe tips
- The key to this being a 30 minute recipe is starting with precooked chicken. If you need to cook it beforehand, boiling chicken on the stovetop would be the fastest method, we used an instant pot to make shredded chicken from frozen for this recipe.
- You'll want 2 lbs of raw chicken for the recipe if you're cooking the chicken first. If you're using rotisserie chicken, it'll lose about 25% of its weight and you'll want to use 1.5 lb of pre-cooked chicken.
- Be sure to drain the cottage cheese before cooking with it to prevent your chicken green chili casserole from being overly liquidy.
- Using a chunkier salsa instead of a runnier salsa is also recommended. A salsa with more liquid may leave a little liquid in the bottom of the casserole after cooking.
- If you prefer your cheese crisp, broil after baking for 1-2 minutes.
Can this casserole be lightened up?
Our chicken casserole recipe was originally written back in 2018 for our low carb audience. The original recipe uses full fat cottage cheese and cheese slices.
To reduce the fat in the recipe, you can use low fat cottage cheese and just do a light sprinkle of cheese over the top.
Many readers have also added in cauliflower rice to increase the bulk and sneak in extra veggies!
More Chicken Casserole Recipes
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Recipe
Keto Green Chili Recipe (Chicken)
Ingredients
- 6 cups cooked and shredded chicken breasts ** See NOTE below
- 3 T taco seasoning
- ¾ cup chili Verde salsa chunky if possible, like La Victoria brand
- 1 4 oz can of mild green chilis drained
- 2 cups cottage cheese drain if it seems on the runnier side
- 5 oz sliced or shredded Colby jack cheese you'll need to cut some of the slices down to fit in the pan
- Garnishes - chopped green onions and/or Sour cream optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 F.
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix the taco seasoning, chili Verde salsa, green chilis, and cottage cheese. Add the shredded chicken and combine it all together.
- Spoon the mixture into the baking dish and top it with the Colby Jack cheese slices.
- Bake the casserole for 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbling.
- Garnish with green onions and serve with sour cream and salsa on the side. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Having pre-cooked chicken in the freezer is a life saver for assembling easy dinners like this one! If you need to cook your chicken, you'll need 6 cups of cooked and shredded chicken, which is about 2 lbs of raw boneless skinless chicken breasts or 1.5 lb cooked chicken meat). You can boil fresh chicken breasts, boil chicken tenders, or pressure cook frozen chicken tenders.
- In recipe testing, the chicken was cooked before making the casserole and it was still warm. If you're starting with cold pre-cooked chicken, you may need to cook the casserole a little longer.
- Some readers have reported that the casserole was delicious but on the runny side. The shredded chicken is the key to how the casserole consistency turns out and medium shred for the chicken works best. If the shredded chicken pieces are too chunky, the sauce sinks to the bottom of the casserole and it becomes runny. Although, If you shred the chicken too fine, it seems more like a dip. Either way, it'll still taste amazing and this is a reader-favorite recipe and you can adjust your shred the second time you make it! You can either shred your chicken with a mixer or shred it with 2 forks.
- You can also use ground chicken instead of shredded chicken like we did with our beef taco casserole, but this recipe with ground chicken hasn't been tested.
- Using regular cottage cheese (small curd 4% milk fat) instead of light is recommended, light cottage cheese will add more liquid to the mixture, plus regular. cottage cheese is great for a low carb keto friendly casserole.
- Using a chunkier salsa instead of a runnier salsa is also recommended, the one we use is La Victoria brand.
Nutrition
Brittni says
Hey! Can’t wait to make this casserole. Was wondering if it calls for 3 packs of taco season? What is 3 T?
WholeLottaYum says
3 Tablespoons! That's about 1 packet. I hope you love it! 🙂 Jen
Jessica says
What is the serving size? All it says is one, one what? thanks!
WholeLottaYum says
I'd say there are 6 servings for the whole casserole.
Patrick says
made this last night, it was so good! I used fresh green chiles I had roasted earlier this year(and froze) instead of from the can (nice and spicy!). I used 4 chicken breasts, pan fried and shredded. I used La Victoria medium chunky green salsa and 4% cottage cheese. I strained them both, but there wasn't alot of liquid to strain. I put a layer of cheese in the middle and another on top. It wasn't runny at all! it was one of the tastiest keto meals I've ever made!!
Autumn says
Made this and it is so good! Only changes I made were I added two cans of green chilies, and instead of green salsa I added a can of no salt added rotel (drained rotel). Sprinkled some cheese in the mixture as well as on top and tossed it with the chicken then baked as directed! Super yummy. I was nervous about the cottage cheese but it works!
Rylea says
Went ahead and made this for my lunches last week and it was wonderful. I like a little kick so I used medium chiles and salsa instead of mild, and it was perfect for me. I ate it over cauli rice, so any "runniness" soaked into the veggies and tasted wonderful. Will make again!
Trisha says
I have not made this yet, but will. After reading the comments about it being a little runny, perhaps a couple of beaten eggs will help with the problem. It shouldn't change the flavor just help tighten it up.
WholeLottaYum says
Let us know how it turns out if you add eggs! Thanks, Jen
Paula says
how does one drain cottage cheese?
WholeLottaYum says
Hi Paula, with a fine mesh strainer. If you don't have one you could try using cheesecloth or perhaps double layers of paper towels by putting the cottage cheese in the middle and squeezing out the excess moisture.
Pam says
OMG!! This is so delicious. I failed to read the note that said to drain the cottage cheese so it was just a tad bit runny. We solved that problem by crunching up some tortilla chips then putting the casserole on top. It added a very delicious flavor and also some texture.
Jane says
I made this today. It was very tasty! I’ll be making it again too!
Alexandra says
I just made this today as I was looking for an easy, inexpensive THM S meal and WOWZA is this ever delicious!
Thank you so much for sharing. I will definitely make this again!
Jorjie says
I double this for a family get together. It was a hit!
I wasn’t able to find a whole milk cottage cheese so used a whole milk ricotta cheese. Was not runny at all.
I would definitely make this again!
WholeLottaYum says
I'm glad the whole milk ricotta worked well! Thank you for your feedback!
Linda Worrell says
Made this for the work week today and added riced cauliflower to stretch it and it was amazing. Hubby loved it so much that we discussed adding jalapeños in the mix for next time. The flavors were so good. This will be in my low carb rotations from now on. Hubby and I have lost 38 lbs so far with such great low carb recipes. Thanks again.
SC says
What can you substitute for the cottage cheese?
WholeLottaYum says
Other readers have used whole milk ricotta as a good substitute, or you can mix in softened cream cheese. I haven't yet personally tested either of these ideas.