Jalapenos and buffalo chicken are a marriage of flavors that just had to be done. It’s a flavor explosion that is oozing with rich and delicious cheese, and packed full of spiciness in every bite. Of course – you can’t forget about bacon. Everything tastes better with bacon.
I based this on a quick skillet meal that my girlfriend made me the other night. It was pretty much this, but in a pan – and I knew right then and there I had to make a casserole out of it. Both of us absolutely love buffalo sauce and try to put it on just about everything we can. Spice in general is welcome in this house – and this have a serious kick of delicious and spicy flavors. If you’re not a fan of spice, make sure you de-seed the jalapenos!
P.S. Don’t forget to serve your meal up with a delicious piece of crispy chicken skin!
A word of warning in advance: try not to add too much salt and pepper to the filling mixture until you’ve tasted it with the hot sauce. The hot sauce itself is relatively salty and will usually balance out the dish on its own.
Yields 6 servings of Buffalo Chicken Jalapeno Popper Casserole
The Preparation
- 32 ounces boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 6 ounces bacon
- 3 medium jalapeno pepper, sliced and optionally deseeded
- 12 ounces cream cheese
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup hot sauce
- 4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
- 2 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
The Execution
1. De-bone all chicken thighs and pre-heat oven to 400F. Season chicken thighs well with salt and pepper, then lay on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet wrapped in foil. Bake chicken thighs for 40 minutes at 400F.
2. Once your timer hits 20 minutes, start on the filling. Chop 6 slices of bacon into pieces and put into a pan over medium heat.
3. Once bacon is mostly crisped, add jalapenos into the pan.
4. Once jalapenos are soft and cooked, add cream cheese, mayo, and frank’s red hot to the pan. Mix together and season to taste.
5. Remove chicken from the oven and let cool slightly. Once they are cool enough, remove the skins from the chicken.
6. Lay chicken into a casserole dish, then spread cream cheese mixture over it, then top with cheddar and mozzarella cheese.
7. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 400F. Broil for 3-5 minutes to finish. Optional: Top with extra jalapenos before you broil.
8. Let cool for 5 minutes. Slice and serve up!
This makes a total of 6 servings of Buffalo Chicken Jalapeno Popper Casserole. Each serving comes out to be 738 calories, 62.3g fats, 3.9g net carbs, and 45.1g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 32 ounce boneless, skinless chicken thighs | 1297 | 81 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 153.9 |
| — salt and pepper | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 ounce bacon | 907 | 79.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 45.4 |
| 3 medium jalapeno pepper | 13 | 0.2 | 2.9 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 0.4 |
| 12 ounce cream cheese | 1163 | 115.7 | 14 | 0 | 14 | 20.9 |
| 1/4 cup mayonnaise | 374 | 41.2 | 0.3 | 0 | 0.3 | 0.5 |
| 1/4 cup hot sauce | 6 | 0.2 | 1 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.3 |
| 4 ounce cheddar cheese | 458 | 37.8 | 3.5 | 0 | 3.5 | 25.9 |
| 2 ounce mozzarella cheese | 170 | 12.7 | 1.2 | 0 | 1.2 | 12.6 |
| Totals | 4389 | 368.1 | 22.9 | 1.4 | 21.5 | 259.9 |
| Per Serving (/6) | 731 | 61.3 | 3.8 | 0.2 | 3.6 | 43.3 |
Buffalo Chicken Jalapeno Popper Casserole
Ingredients
- 32 ounce boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- salt and pepper to taste
- 6 ounce bacon
- 3 medium jalapeno pepper sliced and optionally deseeded
- 12 ounce cream cheese
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup hot sauce
- 4 ounce cheddar cheese shredded
- 2 ounce mozzarella cheese shredded
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Debone the chicken thighs and season well with salt and pepper. Place on a cooling rack over a foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes.
- After about 20 minutes, start preparing the filling. Chop the bacon into pieces and add them to a pan over medium heat.
- Once the bacon is mostly crisped, add the jalapeños to the pan and let them cook down.
- Once the jalapeños are soft and cooked, add the cream cheese, mayo, and hot sauce to the pan. Mix to combine and season to taste.
- Remove the chicken from the oven and let cool slightly. Once cooled, remove the skins from the chicken.
- Transfer the thighs to the bottom of a casserole dish. Spread the cream cheese mixture over them and top with the shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheeses.
- Bake for 10–15 minutes. Broil for an additional 3–5 minutes to finish. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 5 minutes before serving.
- Slice, serve, and enjoy!
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I made this last night. The only think I changed was I used Skinless Boneless Chicken Breasts instead of thighs. It was so so delicious. I loved it. The best part was that leftovers today were even better! I had to come back and leave a comment. I tagged your recipe in my Instagram pic! 🙂 https://uploads.disquscdn.c… https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Made these yesterday; I had the leftovers today. holy cow! this was Delicious! am brand new to keto and I really don’t understand the ratios, but I’ll keep trying. family isn’t eating keto, so i layered cooked ziti on the bottom (I didn’t eat any pasta) and tossed extra mozzarella on the top and they just thought it was a regular casserole (with steamed broccoli as a side) lol they hands down Loved it! I can safely make this again & again & everyone’s happy. (p.s. I didn’t have jalapeños so I used a small can of mild chile’s)
In looking at the carb count I am confused. When I add up the carbs in my products I come up with 2.96 Net Carbs per serving. I just want to make sure I am not missing something…
Ingredients and brands have different nutrition so it’s certainly possible to come up with different macros for this.
Really want to try this recipe after reading all the comments and how popular the flavor profile has been. Only issue is I can’t have bacon…any suggestions on substitutions or thoughts on if this meal can still be a decent dinner if i forego the bacon?
Turkey bacon would do the trick, but it will reduce the fat macros a little bit. Lamb bacon is starting to become more popular as well.
I bookmarked this page several months ago, and did not have the chance to try it.
I’ll go back on keto today and the recipe becomes again a top priority 🙂
Ok so I made this and it tasted good…but……I would suggest doing 8-10 chicken thighs. It was too much cheese for just the 6 small thighs. I’ll try it again with the added chicken. Overall a pretty fast and simple recipe that’s great for leftovers.
This was very tasty for my first time making it. I am batch cooking so, I doubled this recipe. My suggestion would be to double only the chicken. There’s so much cream cheese, bacon and other cheese that my 12 servings will probably be more like 24 (I just can’t eat that much cheesy goodness at once)! Thank you for the recipe.
I had this tonight and loved it! I do have one question though:
Is there any benefit of using bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and then removing both the bones and skins over just buying boneless, skinless thighs?
You could just use boneless, skinless thighs. I tend to just get bone-in, skin-on because the crispy skin makes it worth it for me.
I just scarfed this down, and it is now my favorite! I halved the recipe and used chicken breasts instead, since I didnt have thighs, and it was amazing! I was also worried about the bacon grease, but it ended up being so yummy with it. Thank you so much!
Thanks for the feedback, Jeannette! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Recently found your site and working my way through your recipes. This is amazing!!! the whole family loved it. I read a lot of people taking the bacon fat out, we get quite a lot of water content in our bacon so I dabbed the frying pan with kitchen towel after it was cooked, other than that I didn’t change anything.
I’m going to be making this for everyone I know.
Awesome to hear your whole family loved it! I hope anyone else you make it for feels the same 😊
soooooooo good!
Really good recipe! I made for young kids so I reduced the hot sauce quite a bit and eliminated the jalapeños. Still great!