Our 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, two different types of cheese, and shredded chicken to make the best green chili chicken casserole in under 30-minutes! Your dinner is about to be a whole lot of flavorful and a WHOLE LOTTA YUM!
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Green Chili Chicken Casserole
I’ve been obsessed with whipping up easy casseroles lately, just last week I made a keto taco casserole, which 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 chicken green chili 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.
Either way, our home has some happy boys who are enjoying healthy foods without feeling like they are missing out. And while a casserole is easily a one-pan dinner, we do tend to serve them with salads or charcuterie plates as an appetizer. You could also serve your chicken green chili casserole over a bed of cauliflower rice.
Why You’ll Love This!
- 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 in your chicken green chili casserole to give your chicken and cheese its robust flavor.
- If you are on a restricted health plan, or simply looking to eat a little healthier, you’ll be happy to know that our chicken and green chili casserole is low-carb, keto-friendly, and gluten-free!
We love our keto chicken casseroles to help make dinner quick and easy, flavorful, and compliant with our healthy lifestyle. Be sure to try our green chicken enchilada bake, keto chicken divan, and low-carb salsa chicken the next time you need a quick, easy, and healthy dinner for your table.
Ingredient Notes
This low-carb and keto chicken green chili casserole will definitely become one you make over and over. Here’s a list of ingredients you’ll need:
- shredded or ground chicken – precooked or rotisserie
- keto taco seasoning – homemade or storebought
- green salsa – the chunkier the better
- diced green chili’s
- cottage cheese – use full-fat, low carb brand
- Colby jack or 3 cheese blend – sliced or shredded from a block
- optional toppings – sour cream, avocado, green onion
Diet Variations
- Our green chili chicken casserole is intended to be compliant with low-carb and keto lifestyles; however, carbs can be hidden in many places. Be sure your taco seasoning is a low-carb version (or make a sugar-free taco seasoning using our 5-minute recipe). Also, watch for added sugars in your salsa. Hidden carbs in dairy will often be found in low-fat varieties and pre-shredded cheese.
Step by Step Instructions
The key to making your chicken green chili casserole in under 30-minutes it to start with pre-cooked chicken, then combine that with the seasoning, salsa, and cottage cheese before you top it with even more cheese and bake it in the oven.
Don’t have pre-cooked chicken? No worries. We have a fantastic recipe for precooked chicken right here.
Prep
Preheat oven to 375. Make sure your oven rack is in the middle of the oven.
Assemble
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.
Spray an 11×7 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
Spoon the prepared chicken mixture into the prepared baking dish.
Top the casserole with the sliced or shredded cheese.
Bake
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.
Enjoy!
Recipe Tips
- The key to your 30-minutes green chili chicken casserole is to start with pre-cooked chicken from the grocery store or 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.
- 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.
Common Questions
Your chicken green chili casserole is a complete meal by itself, but feel free to serve it over cauliflower rice, along with a side salad, or with a charcuterie plate as an appetizer
Story any leftover chili chicken casserole in the fridge in a covered container. You can store leftovers for 4-5 days.
We do not recommend freezing green chili chicken casserole due to the dairy. Dairy does not defrost well.
More Chicken Casserole Recipes
Looking for more chicken casserole recipes?
Come connect with us on Instagram! Be sure to tag us (wholelotta.yum) when you make a recipe. You can also find us on Facebook, and Pinterest.
Chicken 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 spray.
- 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
Embeya says
Woooow…..
I think I will look for these and try your recipe this weekend. Thank you for sharing!
Dang Thai from Embeya!
Taylor says
Made this tonight and topped with jalapeños! Loved it!
WholeLottaYum says
so glad to hear you loved the keto enchilada casserole!
Randi Turner says
We are making this tonight. I was super excited until I loaded everything into my recipe maker and the carb count per serving is way higher. What brands of everything do you use?
WholeLottaYum says
Hi Randi! Automatic nutrition calculators are notoriously wrong, I always have to enter the ingredients I’m using manually to get it accurate. The counters just assume a generic brand that probably has sugar in the salsa and adds carbs for the cheese. Cottage cheese is another one that varies greatly between brands so I highly recommend reading brand labels at the store. I used Trader Joe’s full-fat cottage cheese that has 5 carbs, the TJ shredded cheese that has 0 carbs and their green salsa which has no sugar and is very low carb too. Packaged taco seasoning does have a tiny bit of sugar and it usually adds one carb, when I have time I prefer to make my own to store in a jar that has 0 carbs. I hope this helps!
Alyson P says
Oh my goodness!! This is soooo good, I just made it tonite for the 2nd time. We love it and love the leftovers!! I was skeptical about the cottage cheese but I wouldn’t change a single thing with this recipe! Thank you for sharing!!
WholeLottaYum says
Yay! I’m so glad you enjoyed the chicken casserole, Alyson! I don’t eat cold cottage cheese yet cooked cottage cheese takes on a totally different taste!
Cindy says
I made this tonight and used ground chicken instead of shredded because I goofed when I made my grocery list. I also seasoned the chicken while it was cooking with a little cumin, onion powder, and garlic powder. Everything else I did per the recipe. It was wonderful!! Definitely will be adding this to our meal rotation!
Olivia says
Is it 1 4oz can or a 14 oz can of green Chilis?
WholeLottaYum says
one 4 oz can! 🙂
Thank christy says
Is the serving size 1 cup? Made this tonight and loved it!!!!!
Autumn Brown says
I tried this recipe today and it had absolutely no flavor! I had to throw it out!
WholeLottaYum says
Hi Autumn, Sorry to hear the recipe didn’t turn out for you. Most likely it was due to forgetting an ingredient or the actual brands that were used in the recipe. The flavor or consistency in brands can vary greatly. Instead of throwing it out, a great idea wouldn’t been to add garnishes like sour cream, hot sauce, salsa, cilantro, avocado, etc.
JoAnne Houck says
Hi there…..your nutrition information says a serving size is “1”, but what are you considering to be a serving? Is it a 1 cup scoop? 3/4? 1-1/2?…..I put my chicken in the crock pot this morning so I can make this tonight!
Sabra demmer says
I wondering if adding some cauliflower rice would be a good idea….
And if I should cook it in the casserole or just serve it over it!
Autumn says
What do you serve this with?
WholeLottaYum says
Hi Autumn! I often serve the keto chicken casserole with something like a green salad or other type of low carb vegetable dish.
Autumn says
Thank you! I’m making this tonight ?
Chris Babcock says
Is it possible to make this in my crockpot-casserole dish instead of the oven?
WholeLottaYum says
Hi Chris, Yes! This should work in a crockpot also. You’ll still want to precook the chicken and in the crockpot you’re basically reheating the dish and melting the cheese. Low for 2-4 hours should be fine, I haven’t tried this in the crockpot yet so I’m not certain of the consistency. By chance it if has more liquid than preferred, you could dish the chicken casserole up with a slotted spoon.
Ann says
I tossed in a jalapeño and used cheddar cheese. Oh yum. Thank you!
Devin says
Any recommendations on a good side
WholeLottaYum says
Hi Devin, my favorite side with the keto chicken casserole would be an easy green salad with low carb veggies. Primal Kitchen makes a keto friendly bbq ranch dressing that’s tasty!
Michelle says
Hello! I’m adding this to my meal plan for the week and am super excited! I try to make everything ahead of time so all I have to do is throw the pan in the oven. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a chunky green salsa, so I’m worried it will be runny. Should I wait to prepare the “sauce” the day of, or will it be fine to make a couple days ahead?
WholeLottaYum says
Hi Michelle! Sorry for the delay, I was helping move my son out of state for college. It should be fine to prepare the keto chicken casserole a couple days in advance. You can drain some of the liquid out of the green salsa, make sure your ground beef is well drained, and you can also drain the cottage cheese. Those of the 3 ingredients that would contribute to extra liquid in the bottom of the pan. Enjoy! Jen
Rose says
Super Yummy! Next time I will use chunky salsa and maybe a different cottage cheese as it had a little too much liquid.
WholeLottaYum says
I’m glad you enjoyed the keto casserole, Rose! Cottage cheese brands can vary quite a bit with liquid content, another option is you can strain the liquid out of the cottage cheese.