Green Chicken Chili Casserole Recipe

Published: May 3, 2020 · Modified: Sep 18, 2024 by WholeLottaYum · This post may contain affiliate links · Find our Privacy Policy here

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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.

chicken chile casserole in a white baking dish with a spoon dished out of it

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

green chili chicken ingredients on a marble cutting board

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.

combining the green chili casserole with chicken ingredients in a mixing bowl

Step 3. Spoon the prepared chicken mixture into the prepared baking dish.

Step 4. Top the casserole with the sliced or shredded cheese.

spooning the green chili casserole with chicken into a baking dish and adding cheese slices

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!

a wooden spoon of chicken casserole and a cheese pull

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!

green chili casserole on a white plate topped with sour cream

More Chicken Casserole Recipes

If you loved our recipe, please leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review and leave us a comment too! Connect with us on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube!

easy green chili chicken pin for pinterest

Recipe

Keto Green Chili Recipe (Chicken)

WholeLottaYum

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.

4.51 from 646 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 7

Cook Time 20

Total Time 27

Course Chicken

Cuisine Mexican

Servings servings

Calories 399 kcal

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

Serving: 1gCalories: 399kcalCarbohydrates: 6gProtein: 44gFat: 20gSaturated Fat: 8gPolyunsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 125mgSodium: 859mgFiber: 1g