Chicken Bacon Caesar Casserole
With the bold flavors of garlic, parmesan, and bacon this easy keto casserole will please the most reluctant low carb eater. My Chicken Bacon Spinach Casserole is great when you are pressed for time. It is easy, flavorful, and can be made ahead. You can even make it in a crockpot. This easy keto casserole recipe is low carb, keto, gluten-free, grain-free, sugar-free, and Trim Healthy Mama friendly.
I’ve made this keto casserole so many times over the last few months it’s amazing my kids haven’t complained. But they still love it. This is the only way to get some of them, or all of them, to eat spinach. When I’m craving a little rich and creamy comfort food this is one of my go-to keto casserole recipes.
How to make a keto casserole
The simplest way to make any casserole keto-friendly is to leave out the starches. Most regular casseroles call for fillers like rice, pasta, or beans. In my low carb casseroles, I use proteins, vegetables, and fat. No starches.
How to make a casserole in a crockpot
It isn’t hard to convert this to a slow cooker recipe. There are just three steps to making a chicken casserole in a crockpot instead of your oven.
- Cook the chicken in the crockpot. It is very important not to OVERCOOK the chicken or you will have a dry casserole. Cook chicken breasts on low for 2.5 hours. Add a little chicken broth, butter or oil, and salt and pepper before cooking.
- DRAIN the cooking liquid. Cut up the chicken.
- Proceed with the rest of the casserole recipe. This time just cook it in the crockpot until it is hot.
The most important step is draining the cooking liquid. If you don’t do this you will end up with soup instead of a casserole.
What ingredients are in the sauce?
My typical sauce base for casseroles is cream cheese, mayo, and sour cream. This is how I can get a smooth and rich sauce without using any cans of condensed soup.
Chicken, chicken, and more chicken
We eat a lot of chicken. It is very budget friendly and easy to cook. You may remember me getting excited when my husband brought me home a two-pound bag of shrimp.
I was slightly less excited when he brought home 12 pounds of chicken breast because the freezer was packed after my Costco trip the day before. I managed to squeeze one pack in any way and we cooked the rest.
This casserole was invented about halfway through our chicken week when I just needed something that tasted less like chicken. So, in other words, it needed bacon. This Chicken Bacon Caesar Casserole has already gotten rave reviews from everyone who has tried it.
What else is in this keto chicken casserole?
This is very similar to my Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole. If you’ve tried that one and liked it there is high probability you will like this one too. Instead of dried herbs, there is parmesan cheese and roasted garlic powder. Instead of cheddar, there is mozzarella. But there is always bacon.
More keto casserole recipes:
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Chicken Bacon Caesar Casserole
Ingredients
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 4 oz sour cream
- 4 oz mayo
- 2 tsp roasted garlic powder (this is worth the investment, the flavor is amazing!)
- 2 tsp dried minced onion
- 2-2.5 lb cooked chicken , cubed
- 12 oz bag frozen spinach , thawed and drained
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 4 slices crisp cooked bacon or 1/4 cup bacon crumbles
- 2 oz shredded mozzarella
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 if baking immediately. Or you can prep ahead and keep in the refrigerator for a day or two.
- Combine cream cheese, sour cream, mayo, and spices and mix thoroughly. I do this first in a big metal bowl.
- In the big bowl combine the cream cheese mixture you just made with the chicken, spinach, parmesan cheese, and 1/2 the bacon and mix well.
- Dump into a 9x13 baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Sprinkle remaining cheese and bacon on top.
- Bake until hot about 35 minutes.
Nutrition
Originally Published March 12, 2016. Revised and Republished January 18, 2020.
Where are the carbs coming from? I am on a no carb diet and this sounds amazing! Hoping I can make a simple change.
Dairy has some carbs, garlic powder has a little, as does the spinach.
What’s 4 oz of mayo?? 1/4 cup?
1/2 a cup
I made this recipe tonight using fresh spinach and cheddar cheese because that’s what I had. It came out wonderful, and my picky husband said it was a keeper! The fresh spinach did not make it runny at all. It was a perfect, creamy thick consistancy.
Made this last week – Delicious!! Making again tonight for company. Thank you!
Very tasty, thanks! Can it be frozen?
I have frozen this before in lunch-sized portions. It worked well.
I recommend you add about a tablespoon of dijon mustard, and about a tablespoon of fish sauce to get a more authentic Caesar flavor.
Hi Emily, thanks for those suggestions. I personally do not like when Caesar salad tastes fishy but that is definitely more authentic than my Americanized version. The mustard is a good idea though. I may try adding a little next time. We’d probably prefer a teaspoon to a tablespoon though.
Only change I made was to add artichokes. So delicious!
What is considered a serving? It sounds so good but I wanna know how much of it I can eat! Lol
A serving is 1/8th of the recipe. I normally just eye it up and scoop it onto plates.
So flavorful! Packs well in my lunch for work. Will definitely make again. Very creamy and spinach makes it more so rather than a chunky vegetable.
You mentioned having made this in a crockpot. What’s the cooking time in the crockpot, on high or low setting?
It really depends on your crock pot. I just cook it until the chicken is cooked through. Then I remove the chicken, drain the liquid, and proceed with the rest of the recipe. Add the casserole mixture back in, add the toppings, and cook for an additional 20 min or so to heat it and melt the cheese.
Pardon me if this was already asked and I just missed it, but could you use fat-free plain yogurt and low-fat cream cheese to cut out some of the fat? 70% daily value of saturated fat is a lot.
You can use low fat cream cheese but I’m afraid yogurt might separate. I do use cottage cheese in some of my other casseroles. I think that would be better than yogurt.
That’s bc it’s Keto..keto calls for high fat instead of carbs..
I tried this and the chicken was so tender it shredded. I wasn’t a fan of the texture so the next time, I cubed chicken breasts raw and made it and threw it in the oven till the top was golden (took 45 minutes or so. I liked it much better, which is to say I LOVED it and it is now a regular rotation (and sometimes spur of the moment) make ahead meal. If using raw chicken, I wouldn’t let it sit before baking. This freezes well after being cooked and separated out into individual servings or as a casserole for a family dinner. Thank you for a great recipe.
So you cubed the raw chicken and mixed it with the other ingredients to bake, not pre cooking the chicken at all?
I imagine cooking the whole batch for 45 minutes would cook the raw chicken. I myself would pre-cook the chicken. Much safer.
Love your blog.
My favorite recipe. We keep this on a regular rotation. I follow your recipe exactly. Perfect with a salad!
OMWord. I’ve been batch cooking all day long and I want this NOW!! It looks fabulous. Thank you so much for what I know will be a great recipe.
Can you make this ahead and freeze it?
Yes, I’ve done that successfully.