Keto and casseroles seem to go hand in hand when you think about the type of high-fat foods that are being included. All of the cheeses you’re able to use create an ooey, gooey texture that everyone can enjoy. Whether you’re a working mom, a college student, or you just want an easy meal – this casserole will get the job done!
This is my Southwestern-esque take on Shepherd’s Pie. It’s got a great heat coming through from the chili seasoning, a good balance of acidity and sweetness from the tomatoes, and plenty of cheese to boot. The cauliflower on top just adds a layer of fluffy goodness that lightens up what might be considered a heavy dish.
One tip to make things go a little quicker is to pre-cook the cauliflower when you start browning the chicken. It will still be warm enough to melt the cheese into the cauliflower, and will save on 5-6 minutes of down time while you’re cooking. This way, you can have everything ready in just about 30 minutes.
Yields 6 servings of Nacho Chicken Casserole
The Preparation
- 28 ounces boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 3 tablespoons parmesan cheese
- 4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1 cup canned tomatoes with green chiles, such as Ro-Tel
- 16 ounces frozen cauliflower
- 1 medium jalapeno pepper
The Execution
1. Pre-heat oven to 375F. Using kitchen shears, chop chicken into bite-size chunks. Season chicken with salt, pepper, and chili seasoning.
2. Over medium-high heat, cook chicken in olive oil until browned on all sides.
3. Add cream cheese, sour cream and 3/4 of the cheddar cheese to the chicken, then stir together until melted and mixed. Add tomatoes and green chili and mix well.
4. In a casserole dish, add chicken mixture from the pan.
5. Microwave frozen cauliflower until cooked through. Use an immersion blender to blend with remaining cheddar cheese and parmesan into a mashed potato-like consistency. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Cut a jalapeno into chunks. Spread cauliflower mixture over the top of the casserole, then sprinkle jalapeno pepper over the top. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until some color is on the top and the jalapenos are cooked.
7. Slice and serve. Some fresh chopped cilantro tastes great over the top! If you want another chicken casserole without the nacho-style spice blend, the keto chicken casserole uses boneless chicken thighs in a pesto and cream cheese sauce with cherry tomatoes, baked at 400F.
This makes a total of 6 servings of Nacho Chicken Casserole. Each serving comes out to be 428 calories, 32.3g fats, 5g net carbs, and 31.1g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 28 ounce boneless, skinless chicken thighs | 1135 | 70.9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 134.6 |
| — salt and pepper | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 1/2 teaspoon chili powder | 11 | 0.6 | 2 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| 2 tablespoon olive oil | 239 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 ounce cream cheese | 388 | 38.6 | 4.7 | 0 | 4.7 | 7 |
| 1/4 cup sour cream | 114 | 11.1 | 2.7 | 0 | 2.7 | 1.4 |
| 3 tablespoon parmesan cheese | 81 | 5.4 | 0.8 | 0 | 0.8 | 7.2 |
| 4 ounce cheddar cheese | 458 | 37.8 | 3.5 | 0 | 3.5 | 25.9 |
| 1 cup canned tomatoes with green chiles | 36 | 0.2 | 8.7 | 0 | 8.7 | 1.7 |
| 16 ounce frozen cauliflower | 104 | 2 | 18.6 | 10.4 | 8.2 | 8.4 |
| 1 medium jalapeno pepper | 4 | 0.1 | 1 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.1 |
| Totals | 2571 | 193.6 | 41.9 | 12.3 | 29.7 | 186.8 |
| Per Serving (/6) | 428 | 32.3 | 7 | 2 | 4.9 | 31.1 |
Nacho Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
- 28 ounce boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 ½ teaspoon chili powder
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 ounce cream cheese
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 3 tablespoon parmesan cheese
- 4 ounce cheddar cheese shredded
- 1 cup canned tomatoes with green chiles such as Ro-Tel
- 16 ounce frozen cauliflower
- 1 medium jalapeno pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F. Using kitchen shears, cut the chicken into bite-sized chunks. Season with salt, pepper, and chili powder.
- Cook the chicken in the olive oil over medium-high heat until browned on all sides.
- Add the cream cheese, sour cream, parmesan, and three-quarters of the cheddar cheese to the chicken, stirring until melted and mixed. Add the canned tomatoes and mix well.
- Transfer the chicken mixture to a casserole dish.
- Microwave the frozen cauliflower until cooked through. Use an immersion blender to blend with the remaining cheddar cheese and parmesan to a mashed potato-like consistency. Season with salt and pepper.
- Dice the jalapeño. Spread the cauliflower mixture over the casserole and sprinkle the jalapeño on top. Bake for 15–20 minutes or until browned and the jalapeños are cooked. Remove from the oven and let cool.
- Serve and enjoy!
This was super yummy. I finally figured out “remaining cheese” in step five meant both the last oz of cheddar and the Parmesan.
A few tweaks that saved me a trip to the store: I measured out 16oz of cauliflower from a fresh head and boiled that and it worked great. Also used two 13oz cans of chicken in place of fresh. For green chilies, I used a can of diced green chilies and mixed with two Roma tomatoes to get one cup.
I mashed the cauli, cheese and Parmesan by hand with a fork and it also worked great.
Thanks again for another great recipe. This will go into our regular rotation.
Thanks for this!
Son and I loved it. Seemed a bit loose/runny for my taste (I’m not a big casserole fan, but those I like tend to have a bit of a binder. For next time, I’m going to reduce to 3 oz cream cheese and slightly less sour cream… although I think the most likely culprit is really the tomatoes with green chilis. I might drain them (squeeze out a bit of the water) before adding.
Also, a suggestion– change “Use an immersion blender to blend with remaining cheese” to “Use an immersion blender to blend with the remaining cheddar cheese and parmasan…” (Assumimg that’s what you meant). You should normally refer to each ingedient in your recipe, especially when reserving certain ingredients for later use. I totally forgot parm was in the recipe until the
thing was half-baked and I glanced back over the ingedient list. Adding to the top that late didn’t help with any browning. Overall a 4 out of 5 for ANY dish, without even considering it’s a diet-modified type of recipe. oh…. also, i used a food processor; turned out a nice consistency. I hate having to hunt for the last place my wife stored the immersion blended. :/
OMG!!!!!!!!! I died and went to heaven! This is fantastic!
Hi! I’ve been following your meal plan for 3 weeks so far, and am just looking to change up some of the dinners, but its great so far and so is the website! Just having some troubles immersion blending cauliflower and wondering if you could help with how to do it, as all of my attempts seemingly end in failure, thank you!
Is it a cup of a mix of green chiles and tomatoes, or a cup each?
Hey Theresa. I generally buy them in a can mixed together for convenience sake. You can grab the cans in most grocery stores – so it’s 1 cup altogether.
do you drain the can or just pour it all in?
Theresa, I’ve had great luck using a small can of green chiles and cutting up one medium sized tomato though will often vary with whatever I have on hand. Have even done two cans of green chiles and a little salsa.
What about the parmesan cheese? Sprinkle on top or in the cheesey, chicken goodness?
You could definitely sprinkle some over the top to get a more browned look.
I mixed the parm in with the cheddar, then used the combination as the recipe called for in the chicken and the cauliflower. Worked fine that way.
Hi there.. I have no idea where to actually message you [email protected] so I’m just messaging u here.. Please help lol.. I’ve been on keto for 17 days I have studied all the food etc but it’s my macros.. I’m 5’2.. 130 lbs.. And 36 years old.. I want to loose weight and the macros I chose were protein:80 fat: 60 carbs: 13 and it had been working and slowly and I do a work out video 50 min 6 days a week.. I re looked at my macros calculator and the body type I was choosing wasn’t mine.. I was choosing 32% and I measured my neck hips and waiste and its saying I’m 26% with carbs 13.. Protein 77 and fat 113! I don’t know what to do because all calculators are different for me.. Can you tell me what I should be .. I thankyou so much.. And very sorry if I interrupted Someone else’s convo.. I just didn’t know where to messag 🙁
Hey Sue – [email protected] is my actual e-mail address. The second version of the macros sounds much better. The first sounds like it’s pretty (almost too low) in calories. Definitely give the second one a try and see how it goes!
This was soooo good the other night. My husband is always hesitant with my cooking but he had seconds of this meal, thank you!
Hi Craig, I’m fairly new to cooking by myself so what would be the best way to store this after the first serving? Just in the refrigerator? and how would i be heated to eat the next day?
It depends how long you plan to wait until eating it. If it’s going to be within 5 days, use the fridge. If longer, use the freezer. If refrigerated, you could microwave or re-heat in the oven. If frozen, I definitely recommend re-heating in the oven. Around 350F until heated through.
Hi–can I use white meat (chicken breast) instead of thighs? Will it still work?
It would definitely still work, but it would shift the fat down and protein up greatly. You’d have to make sure that fits within your macros 🙂
The chicken and cream right before I put it in the bottom of the casserole dish was so good I could eat just that! I actually don’t like cauliflower much at all(which is weird for me because im keto) but I look for ways that’ll mask the fact that it is cauliflower and this is definitely a winner. My family liked it too and they arent keto.
Very, very happy to hear! I used the be the same way (pre-keto) on cauliflower, but I’ve learned how to mask it and use it often. It’s a really good filler for some vitamins/bulk. Thanks for the awesome feedback 🙂
Omg. The boy is a genius! I licked the spatula like it was cake batter each time I served this. and I’m not kidding. I used a small jalepeno pepper and plenty of heat worked its way into the overall flavor. Thank you again Craig.
No problem at all – I’m just happy you liked it! 😀
Hi there! What size casserole dish did you use on this one?
OMG, I just made this and it was amazingly good. Topped mine with a little sour cream.
I made this with chicken thighs and it was delicious. I decided to try a variation and made it with ground beef, and it was just as tasty!
Great recipe. Thank you.
Does this reheat well? Im debating doing a precook meal prep with it.
It should re-heat pretty well!
When you say “chili seasoning” –do you mean that comes in a packet? Or do you just mean chili powder?
This should say chili powder, though I think both would work just fine.
Thanks so much for sharing your recipes! They have all been amazing and I appreciate your time. I wanted to make one suggestion on this one. I think your calculation for chicken thighs is for chicken thighs with skin; however you say to use skinless. Skinless is not 71 g fat for 1.75 lb… I don’t believe. Tho..I could be wrong.
Again , thanks for sharing!
I will get this checked out soon and update it, thank you!
I’ve tried several of your recipes so far and they’ve all turned out wonderful! However, this dish did not for me. I’m thinking I didn’t use enough cauliflower. I’m wondering if the frozen bag I purchased was smaller than the one you used. Can you include maybe an exact size with the cauliflower? Maybe next time I try it will turn out better. It still tasted great. Thanks for all the hard work in these recipes!
I’m sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy the recipe as much as you could have – it was deinitely a hit in our house when I made it. I’m not sure what you mean by including an exact size – it was a 16 oz. bag of cauliflower as listed in the ingredients. I’m glad to hear you’ve enjoyed most of our other recipes, though!
So this is my lunch for the week, and I love it. I needed more cauliflower, but I think that comes down to what size baking dish is used (shallower dish/larger surface area). Happy to say it reheats really well – my office mates are commenting on how yummy it smells!
Awesome to hear Sara – I’m so glad that you liked the recipe!
I know it says six servings but how many grams per serving
I’m not sure to be honest. Our serving sizes are just based on how many calories are in the dish. You should make your serving sizes based on your macros.
Yummy! I felt like it needed more cauliflower, but great recipe! Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback, Julee D! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂