Our viral chicken green chili casserole with cottage cheese and green salsa is the ultimate comfort food recipe. It's high protein, easy, and comes together in less than 30 minutes using pre-cooked shredded chicken. 58g protein per serving!
Why you'll love our cottage cheese chicken casserole recipe!
- Our green chili casserole with chicken needs just 5 ingredients
- Trying to get more protein? Our chicken and cottage cheese casserole packs 44 g of protein in each serving!
- Taco seasoning, green salsa, and diced green chilis combine to give the casserole its Tex-Mex flavor.
- 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 with cottage cheese to add variety to your life, which is very similar except it's made with ground beef and a red salsa. You'll want to check out all of our cottage cheese recipes since it's such a versatile ingredient.
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
What you'll need
- shredded or ground chicken - precooked or rotisserie
- 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), low fat will work too if you drain the liquid.
- 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 chicken 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!
Jenni's 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 with cottage cheese be lightened up?
Our chicken casserole recipe with cottage cheese was originally written back in 2018 for our low carb audience. The original recipe uses full fat cottage cheese and cheese slices. Yes, we were putting cottage cheese in recipes before it was even a trend 😉
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
Cottage Cheese Green Chili Chicken Casserole (Keto, Low Carb)
Equipment
- 1 casserole dish or 9x9 pan
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, 4% 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 chicken cottage cheese 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
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.