Low Carb Chicken Casserole

Low Carb Chicken Casserole is the ultimate comfort food without the carb overload! This cheesy, satisfying dish is packed with tender chicken, crispy bacon, cauliflower rice, and broccoli, all bound together with gooey cheddar cheese. It’s perfect for busy weeknights, meal prep, or when you’re craving something hearty but want to keep things light and healthy.

Love More Chicken Casseroles? Try My Chicken and Spinach Casserole or this Chicken Wild Rice Casserole next.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

This casserole is everything you want in comfort food without the guilt! It’s creamy, cheesy, and loaded with bacon. The best part? It uses simple ingredients you probably already have on hand, comes together in one dish, and feeds the whole family. No heavy cream soups or processed ingredients—just real food that tastes AMAZING. Plus, it’s keto-friendly, gluten-free, and reheats like a dream for meal prep!

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Ingredient List

For the Casserole:

• 16 ounces riced cauliflower
• 12 ounces broccoli florets
• 2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
• 4 slices bacon
• 3 cups grated cheddar cheese, divided (2½ cups for the mixture, ½ cup for topping)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon mustard powder
• ½ teaspoon cracked black pepper

Why These Ingredients Work

The cauliflower rice is basically pretending to be pasta or regular rice and honestly it works way better than I expected. It just absorbs all the flavors and you barely notice it’s not the real thing. Broccoli’s in there because I need something green to make me feel better about eating three cups of cheese. Also it gives you something with texture to bite into instead of everything being mushy.

Eggs are what make this whole thing stick together – no weird canned cream of whatever soup needed thank god because those freak me out. And the cheese… okay so I use an absurd amount of cheese. Three cups. Because honestly what’s even the point of making a casserole if you’re gonna be stingy with the cheese? Bacon makes literally everything better and I will die on that hill. The garlic and mustard powder are doing some kind of flavor magic in the background – you can’t really taste them specifically but if you left them out you’d know something was missing.

Essential Tools and Equipment

• Large mixing bowl
• 9×13 inch baking dish
• Skillet for bacon
• Steamer basket or microwave-safe bowl for vegetables
• Sharp knife for chopping
• Box grater (if grating cheese yourself)
• Wooden spoon or spatula for mixing

How To Make Low Carb Chicken Casserole

Step 1: Preheat Your Oven

Turn it to 350°F. That’s literally it.

Step 2: Steam the Cauliflower Rice

Steam your cauliflower rice until it’s soft – maybe 5 to 7 minutes if it’s fresh or just do whatever the bag says if you bought frozen. But here’s where I need you to listen to me – you HAVE TO get all the water out. And I mean ALL of it. I wrap mine in a dish towel and twist and squeeze it like I’m trying to strangle it. The very first time I made this I was like “eh it’s fine” and didn’t drain it properly and ended up with basically cauliflower soup in a pan. My husband still brings it up sometimes. Don’t be like me that first time.

Step 3: Steam the Broccoli

Throw the broccoli in your steamer for maybe 4 or 5 minutes. You want it cooked enough that it’s not crunchy raw but not so much that it’s falling apart because it’s gonna cook more in the oven anyway. And drain this too because vegetables are basically made of water apparently.

Step 4: Cook That Bacon

Cook your bacon in a skillet until it’s nice and crispy. I always make extra because I know I’m gonna eat some while I’m cooking – it’s like a chef’s tax or whatever. Let it cool down and then break it into little pieces.

Step 5: Mix the Casserole Base

Okay so just dump everything in your big bowl – the cauliflower, broccoli, chicken, bacon, eggs, most of the cheese (save that half cup for the top), and all your spices. Mix it all up really good. It’s gonna look kinda weird and loose and you might think you did something wrong but you didn’t, that’s just how it looks at this stage.

Step 6: Transfer to Baking Dish

Scoop all that mixture into your baking dish and spread it around until it’s sort of even – doesn’t have to be perfect or anything. Then take that last bit of cheese and just cover the whole top with it. Don’t hold back here.

Step 7: Bake to Perfection

Put it in the oven for 30 minutes. You’re waiting for the cheese on top to get all melted with those golden brown crusty spots starting to happen. Fair warning your kitchen is gonna smell so good that everyone in the house is gonna start hovering around asking when dinner’s ready.

Step 8: Serve and Enjoy

Let it sit for like 5 minutes before you dig in. I know that’s torture when it smells so good but it needs a minute to firm up or you’ll have a hard time getting it onto plates without it falling apart. Sometimes I remember to put parsley on top if I actually bought parsley which let’s be honest is like 30% of the time.

You Must Know

Water is public enemy number one with this recipe. I’m being so serious right now – this is the difference between amazing casserole and disaster. Those vegetables are holding onto so much water it’s ridiculous, especially the cauliflower. The first time I made this I was rushing and didn’t drain things properly and ended up with this weird soggy mess that we had to eat with spoons like soup. Now I’m borderline neurotic about it. Steam them, drain them, wrap them in a towel, and squeeze like you’re getting every last drop of water out of a sponge. My husband walked into the kitchen once while I was doing this and asked what the hell I was doing to that poor towel. Sometimes you gotta commit to the process.

Personal Secret: I always put more cheese in the mixture than what the recipe says. Like probably another half to three quarters of a cup. I don’t measure it I just kind of eyeball it and think “yeah that looks good” and throw it in. It makes everything stick together better and you get these little pockets of extra cheese throughout that are just incredible.

Pro Tips & Cooking Hacks

• Cut your broccoli way smaller than you think you should – big chunks just don’t distribute well and then you get these huge pieces that are awkward to eat
• Take your eggs out while you’re doing all the other prep stuff so they warm up a bit. Cold eggs don’t mix in as smoothly and you get weird streaky bits
• I know mustard powder sounds random but don’t leave it out because I almost did the first time and my friend yelled at me. She was completely right – it adds this thing you can’t really identify but you’d definitely miss
• I line my pan with parchment paper sometimes when I’m feeling too tired to scrub burnt cheese off later
• Every oven’s different so start checking around 25 minutes. Mine runs hot so stuff browns faster than it should and I’ve definitely burned the top before by not paying attention
• The biggest mistake I see people make is cooking the vegetables too much before mixing everything. They’re going in a 350 degree oven for half an hour so you really just need them barely tender when you start

Flavor Variations & Suggestions

Once you’ve made the basic version a few times you can start messing with it and making it your own:

• I did a Mexican version with taco seasoning and pepper jack cheese and put jalapeños on top – my sister ate like half the pan by herself
• My neighbor makes an Italian one with mozzarella and puts sun-dried tomatoes in it which sounds weird but is actually really good
• Buffalo chicken is amazing if you’re into that – just mix buffalo sauce in and put blue cheese crumbles on top. My brother requests this specific version every time he comes over now
• You can totally skip the meat and add a bunch of mushrooms instead if you’ve got vegetarians coming. Works better than you’d think
• Sometimes when I’ve had a rough day I just stir cream cheese into the mixture because life’s short and cheese makes everything better
• If you’re hardcore keto you can crush pork rinds on top for crunch which my husband loves but I think is kinda weird

Make-Ahead Options

This is honestly one of my favorite things about this recipe – you can make it ahead and it’s a total lifesaver. Put the whole thing together the night before, wrap it in plastic wrap, stick it in the fridge. Next day when you get home just let it sit on the counter while you change into comfy clothes and then bake it. Might need an extra 5 or 10 minutes since it’s cold but that’s it.

I’ve also frozen this multiple times before baking it. Wrap it really really well with plastic wrap and then foil on top of that and it keeps for months. Just thaw it in the fridge overnight before you bake. One time I had a free Sunday afternoon and made three of these and froze them and had emergency dinners ready for like the next month and a half. Felt like a genius.

Recipe Notes & Baker’s Tips

If your mixture looks super loose and wet before you put it in the oven don’t panic about it. The eggs cook and make everything firm up – it’s kind of wild how much it changes. But if it looks really DRY and crumbly then beat another egg and mix it in because you need those eggs to do their binding thing.

With frozen vegetables you gotta make sure they’re completely thawed and then get every single drop of water out. I learned this lesson way too many times before it finally stuck in my brain. Now I spread them out on towels and let them sit for a while and then wrap them up and squeeze.

The mixture is supposed to look jiggly and wet when you first mix it all together. That’s completely normal even though it looks wrong. Don’t start second guessing yourself and adding random stuff to try to fix it. Just trust the process and put it in the oven.

Serving Suggestions

This is pretty filling on its own – like nobody’s leaving the table hungry after this. But I usually throw together whatever salad I can make with whatever’s in my fridge and put some lemon juice on it. Helps balance out all the richness and makes me feel slightly less guilty about the amount of cheese I just ate.

Sometimes I make this on Sunday and portion it out into containers for lunch during the week. It reheats perfectly in the microwave and honestly tastes just as good or maybe even better a day or two later. My coworkers always comment on how good my lunch smells which is kind of satisfying not gonna lie.

If you take this to a potluck nobody’s gonna have any clue it’s low carb unless you announce it. I’ve literally watched people who claim they hate cauliflower with a passion go back for seconds without realizing what they’re eating. It’s pretty entertaining to watch actually.

How to Store Your Low Carb Chicken Casserole

Room Temperature: Don’t leave this sitting out longer than 2 hours – eggs and dairy go bad and nobody wants food poisoning.

Refrigerator: Put a lid on it or cover it with something and keep it in the fridge for up to 4 days. Honestly day two is the best because everything’s had time to just sit together and get friendly.

Freezer: You can freeze portions in containers for up to 3 months. Leave some space at the top though because it expands when it freezes and I’ve had containers crack on me before from not doing that.

Reheating: Microwave is totally fine – usually takes 2 or 3 minutes to get hot. Or you can reheat the whole thing in the oven at 325°F covered with foil for maybe 20 minutes. I’ve also reheated it in my air fryer which makes the top get crispy again and that’s pretty awesome.

Allergy Information

Common Allergens:

• Dairy everywhere (all that cheese)
• Eggs
• Pork from the bacon

Questions I Get Asked A Lot

Can I use fresh cauliflower instead of riced cauliflower?

Yeah totally! Just throw cauliflower florets in your food processor and pulse it until it looks like rice. One medium head should be enough to give you 16 ounces or so. Then steam it the same way and please for the love of everything squeeze all that water out – it’s even more important with fresh.

My casserole turned out watery—what did I do wrong?

It’s the vegetables every single time. They’re holding so much water and if you don’t get it out you’re gonna have a bad time. After you steam them drain them really well and then squeeze them in a towel until you think you’re done and then squeeze some more. I know it seems excessive but I’m telling you from experience it’s necessary. Also don’t steam them for too long before you mix everything or they’ll release even more water.

Can I use a different type of cheese?

Sure! Sharp cheddar is my favorite because it actually has flavor but I’ve used Monterey Jack, Colby, Mexican blend, whatever’s on sale honestly. Mozzarella works okay but it’s kind of boring by itself – I’d throw some parmesan in with it to give it more flavor. Just make sure whatever you pick melts well or you’ll end up with weird chunks.

How do I know when it’s done baking?

The cheese on top should be all melted and getting those nice golden spots and you’ll see it bubbling around the edges. If you stick a knife in the middle it should come out mostly clean – some cheese stuck on it is fine that’s normal. The whole thing should look set and solid not all jiggly anymore.

💬 Okay so if you make this please come back and tell me how it went! Did you change anything? Did you burn the cheese on top like I did that one time? I wanna know!