A green chili casserole with chicken makes the ultimate comfort food dinner recipe when you need something quick and easy, with just 5 ingredients and a cook time of 20 minutes, this chile Verde casserole will become a favorite.
Chili Verde Chicken Casserole
The combination of a savory chili Verde sauce, three kinds of cheese, and shredded chicken make for the best chili Verde casserole you will absolutely love. And if you’re on a restricted health plan, you’ll be pleased to know this is keto friendly, low carb, and gluten free too.
I’ve been obsessed with whipping up easy casseroles lately, just last week I made a keto taco casserole that was amazing! And now this week I used the same process and turned it into a green chili casserole with chicken.
If you’re wondering which one tastes better, I’m going to call it a tie! My son devoured the chili Verde casserole and declared it the winner. I’m always in love with anything that has green chilis and white cheese and could it that combo constantly. My husband preferred the keto taco casserole just “slightly” better but said both recipes were winners.
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An updated photo below as of 9/27/20 making the casserole in a cast-iron skillet.
What’s in Green Chili Casserole
This low carb and keto casserole will definitely become one you make over and over. Here’s a list of ingredients you’ll need:
- shredded or ground chicken, cooked
- taco seasoning (homemade no sugar option)
- green salsa
- can diced green chili’s
- cottage cheese (use full-fat low carb brand)
- Colby jack or 3 cheese blend (shredded or sliced)
- Sour cream (optional)
We love to make our own keto taco seasoning recipe and highly recommend it! It’s no sugar and zero carb too, plus it only takes 5 mins to make.
Chicken Keto Casserole Tips
Whether you’re following a low carb or keto diet or not, you’re going to love this keto chicken casserole. I can almost guarantee you’ll make it often once you see how simple it is. Don’t believe me?? Just check out the reviews!!
- You’ll need to start with pre-cooked chicken from the grocery store or pre-cook your chicken at home. Cooking chicken on the stovetop would be the fastest method, I actually used an instant pot to make shredded chicken from frozen for this recipe.
- Instant pot chicken takes about the same time as roasting chicken to use for shredding (if you’re starting with frozen chicken like I did), but what I love about the instant pot is I can put it in and walk away, plus it doesn’t heat up my kitchen as the stovetop and oven do.
- 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.
- Some followers have reported the casserole being liquidy..be sure to drain the cottage cheese. Chicken that has a finer shred helps to aborb the liquid in the casserole.
- This is terrific served over cauliflower rice.
Do you want to know a secret about shredding 2 pounds of chicken in ONLY 20 seconds?
Use a stand mixer! You, of course, can also use a hand mixer if you don’t have something like a Kitchen-aid. But either type of mixer is a game-changer when it comes to shredding chicken. No more awkward and tiring fork shredding!
One additional note, if you’re making this a keto chicken casserole, make sure to use full-fat cottage cheese and also sugar-free taco seasoning.
Chili Verde Casserole
This chili Verde casserole is so simple to make and is definitely kid-friendly too, it has tons of flavor but isn’t spicy. If you’re a spice lover like my hubby and son, feel free to add a spicier salsa, add in canned jalapenos, or add hot sauce after it comes out of the oven.
Once you have your chicken cooked and shredded, the next step to make this amazing yet so simple keto casserole is to dump all other ingredients in a bowl and mix them together (other than the chicken and the cheese).
This means you’re adding the taco seasoning, green salsa, drained green chilis, and cottage cheese to the bowl. If you were surprised to see cottage cheese on the ingredient list instead of something like sour cream, it’s because cottage cheese holds its shape and adds a sweeter flavor to the dish.
If we’d used sour cream this would’ve turned into something more like a hearty hot-dip, which still sounds great! Cottage cheese is also our substitute for ricotta when we make lasagne.
Stir until combined.
A little note about the salsa, a chunkier salsa works best but a runnier salsa still works great. We’ve now had it both ways with two different kinds of chili Verde salsa and the runnier salsa left a little liquid in the bottom of the casserole dish after it cooled. But truly, it wasn’t a big deal but we just wanted to make you aware.
In theory, you could technically add the chicken at the same time, but I do it separately since it’s important to make sure the sauce blends evenly.
The next step is to add the chicken and combine the ingredients well by hand.
Spray the pan with a nonstick cooking spray and add the chili Verde casserole mix into the baking pan.
The pan size I used is 1.5 quart, which is equivalent to a 7″x11″ baking dish. You could also use a round casserole but then you won’t have as much surface area for your cheese, and who wants that?
Slice 5 ounces of Colby jack or spread 5 ounces of shredded Mexican or 3 blend cheese and lay over the top of the chili Verde casserole mix.
Bake in a preheated 375 oven for 20 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbling. Garnish with green onions, chives, or cilantro, if desired.
Serving this with sour cream, avocados, and more salsa is delicious!! I highly recommend adding a dollop of sour cream to each serving of the low carb casserole.
Sorry, I didn’t get a photo of the casserole with toppings, my family devoured it too quickly and didn’t want to wait any longer! 😉
Dig in and enjoy!
Be sure to post your feedback below in the comments! We’d also love to see your chili Verde casserole photos by adding it to a Pinterest pin.
More Chicken Casseroles:
Green Chili Casserole
An easy green chili casserole filled with 3 cheeses, chili verde sauce and shredded chicken. This recipe is also a gluten free, low carb and keto chicken casserole too.
Ingredients
- 2 lb shredded chicken, cooked
- 3 T taco seasoning
- 3/4 cup chili Verde salsa
- 1 4 oz can of mild green chilis, drained
- 16 oz cottage cheese
- 5 oz sliced or shredded Colby jack or Mexican blend cheese
- Sour cream, optional
- Green onions, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375
- In a medium sized bowl, mix the taco seasoning, salsa, green chilis and cottage cheese
- Mix in the shredded chicken and blend well
- Spray your baking dish with nonstick cooking spreay
- Spoon mixture into an 11x7 baking dish
- Top the casserole with the sliced or shredded cheese
- 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
Notes
We pre-cooked our chicken right before making the casserole, so the chicken was still warm, If you're starting with cold pre-cooked chicken, you may need to cook the casserole a little longer.
Be sure to drain the cottage cheese or it'll make your casserole runny!!
Using regular cottage cheese instead of light is recommended, light cottage cheese will add more liquid to the mixture
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.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 8 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 399Total Fat 20gSaturated Fat 8gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 9gCholesterol 125mgSodium 859mgCarbohydrates 6gFiber 1gSugar 0gProtein 44g
Desiree says
I just realized I only have 8oz of cottage cheese. Is there something I could substitute the other 8 for?
WholeLottaYum says
Honestly, I think that’d be totally fine to use less!
Melissa says
What brand salsa verde do you use? I haven’t found any that works good for keto.
WholeLottaYum says
I love the Trader Joes salsa verde if you have one near by!
Melanie Arrowood says
Could you use green enchilada sauce in place of the verde salsa?
WholeLottaYum says
Yep! You can use green enchilada sauce instead.
April says
I wish you would have mentioned in the recipe to drain the cottage cheese rather than in the notes. I didnt notice that until after cooking. But tasted really good just a little runny. Will make again
NMK says
Same! Mine has so much liquid! I think I might just add more ground chicken!
WholeLottaYum says
I’ll retest it in the next week or two to help troubleshoot why some are getting extra liquid.
Susan says
Making this tonight. My people don’t like cottage cheese-ok to substitute ricotta cheese, as I do with my lasagna?
WholeLottaYum says
Sorry I didn’t see this earlier today! I’ve never tried it with ricotta, but it should be fine. Let me know how it turns out! Jen
Karen J Poulson says
I just made this tonight for my grandkids (they are very picky!) and I’m happy to report there was absolutely NO leftovers! In fact they asked if we can have it again tomorrow! I served it over crushed tortilla chips for them and cali rice for me. Delicious!!
MP says
Do you think you can freeze the leftovers?
WholeLottaYum says
I probably wouldn’t, dairy often takes on a grainy texture when frozen and then defrosted, plus it’ll add more liquid to the dish.
Kelly says
I was skeptical about a recipe using Salsa Verde but since the reviews were so great, I figured what the heck! I’m so happy to report that it was AMAZING!!!! My daughter also loved it. I used the Whataburger Salsa Verde mild. I didn’t use the chili’s though since I don’t like heat. Definitely cooking this one again 😊
WholeLottaYum says
I’m so glad you liked it! I love mild green chilis and salsa verde but anything with the heat I avoid too. This is a mild dish!
Laura says
This is an excellent dish! Seemed a little dry when mixing it so I added the rest of the cottage cheese (24 oz) and the rest of the pint of salsa verde. It ended up saucier then it probably should’ve been but I was in heaven! Very delish. It’s a keeper for sure.
WholeLottaYum says
Thank you! Brands can make a difference with how much liquid they add, especially with the cottage cheese. We love to serve this over cauliflower rice to help catch extra juices.
Jennifer says
Just made this it was delicious and my kids approved, too!
Joanne says
Delicious! Delicious! Delicious! I put mine on top of a bed of cauliflower rice and topped it with red salsa and sliced avocado. Yummy and so easy to make 🙂
Renee says
Made this last night used some Turkey meat I had in freezer was very good even my husband who dislikes keto dishes said we can make again. So will add to the menu list. Thanks little Spicer for me but I just put more sour cream on it. Thanks so easy.
Corrie says
Since i had to cook the chicken anyway, I went ahead and used the stand mixer to blend everything together. It was so much faster this time around!
Kristina says
I love this casserole. I changed it up a little. I added double the green salsa, used chicken taco seasoning and topped with pepper jack cheese. I also added tomatoes on top after. I already sent this to my sister and dad.
Marleen says
Thumbs up from the Netherlands!
Last night I made this cassserole and my partner and our son loved it.
When I asked them what they would like to eat for Easter, they suggested that I make this casserole for Easter Sunday. As it contain chicken, why not? Very suitable for Easter, especially now that I do not have to cook a whole lot now that we cannot celebrate these holidays with family or friends because of the intelligent lockdown over here in the Netherlands due to the Corona virus.
WholeLottaYum says
I love that! Thank you for the feedback on the chicken casserole! We’re having chicken for Easter this year too. We LOVE the Netherlands and can’t wait to get back there again someday. Stay safe and Happy Easter! Jen
Jill Creaney says
Amazing dish! I am NOT a cottage cheese fan but this filling was amazeballs!!! Will definitely we on our keto rotation!
WholeLottaYum says
Right?! I feel the same about cottage cheese, yet in the casserole it’s delish!