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Healthy Buffalo Chicken Casserole is baked buffalo chicken recipe with cauliflower rice. A super simple and delicious one pan meal that is low calorie, low carb, gluten free, Paleo and Whole30 friendly. Low Calorie + Low Carb + Gluten Free + Paleo + Whole30
You know you gotta a winner dinner when the people in your family who hate vegetables (especially cauliflower) likes your dinner recipe. I don't mean just like either - I mean they went back for seconds.
This recipe makes it very easy to get picky eaters to like their veggies. It's loaded with cauliflower rice, onions, carrots and red bell peppers. But the recipe is so tasty you don't even know they're there. Best of all, each serving is so much food for very few calories!
What Makes This Buffalo Chicken Casserole Recipe Healthy
Here's a few more reasons why I love this lighted up buffalo chicken casserole recipe!
- Low Calorie - Calories aren't everything. What makes up the calories is always most important. This recipe is high protein and filled with nutrient dense ingredients making it naturally lower in calories. Each serving is 243 calories and the servings are huge! I recommend adding a salad, legume or grain to serve on the side of this meal to up the calories slightly.
- High Protein - Protein is key for stabilizing hunger and cravings. This recipe has the right amount of protein to keep blood sugar stable and is appropriate for hormonal weight loss.
- Gluten Free - The recipe is naturally gluten free.
- Low Carb - The carbs are lower in this recipe, fiber is moderate and the carbs are coming from nutrient dense sources which is exactly what we want for women over 35 trying to lose weight.
- Paleo / Whole30 - This recipe is easy to customize to make it Paleo and Whole30 friendly. See my substitutions below!
Ingredients To Make Healthy Baked Buffalo Chicken
Here's what you need to make buffalo chicken in the oven! You'll also need a casserole dish and large skillet.
- Chicken Breast (I get mine from ButcherBox) or shredded chicken - options for this below
- Cauliflower Rice, frozen
- Red Bell Pepper
- Carrots
- Onion
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Buffalo Sauce
- Greek yogurt (or dairy-free for Paleo or Whole30)
- Egg Whites
- Garlic Powder
- Dried Parsley
How To Make Shredded Chicken
This chicken casserole uses shredded chicken and you have a few options for choose what works best for you. You can make shredded chicken in the Instant Pot or in a slow cooker like I did in this recipe.
You can also buy a Rotisserie chicken and shred the meat from the bones or buy shredded chicken at the store. Many stores are now selling shredded chicken. Look for these convenient options. They simplify meal time and reduce the effort it takes for you to eat healthy!
How To Make Buffalo Chicken Casserole Low Calorie
Making this chicken casserole with buffalo sauce is super simple. Don't let it intimidate you! If you are short on time, you can prepare everything up to the point of baking, store in a casserole dish then pop in the oven and bake for when meal time comes around.
The other option is to chop the veggies ahead of time and store in the refrigerator to reduce the cooking time at meal time. I use my food processor to roughly pulse the veggies and it save so much time!
Here's how to make the buffalo casserole!
Step One - Prepare the shredded chicken or purchase it as described above.
Step Two - Heat the olive oil in a skillet with the carrots, onions and red bell peppers. Sprinkle with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Cook until the veggies are soft then add the cauliflower rice. Cook another 4-5 minutes.
Step Three - Whisk the egg whites together in a large mixing bowl with the buffalo sauce and Greek yogurt. Toss the shredded chicken in with it. Add the veggies, top with dried parsley and stir.
Step Four - Transfer to a casserole dish and bake!
How To Store Leftover Buffalo Chicken Casserole
You can store leftover buffalo chicken casserole in the refrigerator up 5 days. The leftovers from this meal are crazy delicious! Usually leftovers are a toss up, but this is one dish that the leftovers are very forgiving.
To store your leftovers, you can cover the casserole dish and store in the refrigerator or you can transfer to a storage container.
Can You Freeze Buffalo Chicken Casserole
There’s two ways you can make this buffalo chicken casserole. You can either make it prep everything ahead of time and freeze or freeze leftovers.
To freeze leftovers from oven-baked buffalo chicken casserole, place leftovers in freezer friendly container and store in the freezer up to 30 days. To cook, thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat.
To make buffalo casserole ahead of time and freeze, prepare everything up to the point of baking. Transfer to a freezer bag or freezer safe container. When ready to cook, defrost the prepared casserole overnight in the refrigerator then place in a casserole dish bake according to the instructions.
Substitutions For Low Carb Buffalo Chicken
Here's substitutions you can make for this recipe. Remember that when you make substitutions, it will change the nutritional data you see below.
- Chicken - Substitute shredded turkey. Ground chicken or ground turkey would work too - I recommend cooking ground meat with the veggies. Tempeh or tofu could also be easily substituted here.
- Cauliflower Rice - I recommend frozen cauliflower rice for this recipe. If you don't like cauliflower rice, broccoli rice works instead. Quinoa or brown rice could be substituted, but I would recommended adding those things pre-cooked as I have not tested how long that would take to bake in the casserole.
- Buffalo Sauce - Any hot sauce you like works. If you like things less heat, reduce the quantity and replace some with broth.
- Egg Whites - You can omit. Some of you will ask if you can use whole eggs - yes, you would substitute ONE whole egg. HOWEVER, this will decrease the protein and increase the overall calories.
- Greek Yogurt - Any dairy free yogurt substitute will work.
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Healthy Buffalo Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breast cooked and shredded
- 1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2/3 cup carrots diced
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 1/2 cup white onion diced
- 12 oz cauliflower rice frozen and thawed
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 2 egg whites
- 3/4 cup buffalo sauce
- 1/3 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat with the olive oil. Add the carrots, onions and bell pepper. Sprinkle with garlic powder, dried parlsey, salt and pepper. Cook a few minutes until translucent about 4 minutes. Add the thawed cauliflower rice to the skillet. Stir and cook another 4 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg whites, buffalo sauce and Greek yogurt. Mix the shredded chicken in the bowl then stir in the veggies.
- Transfer to an 8-inch x 8-inch baking dish and bake uncovered 22-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve immediately!
Notes
- 1/4 of the recipe equals one serving. It's a high volume of food, but with very few calories. Consider adding a salad or grain on the side to boost the calories a bit.
- My Amazon shop has more products similar to those used for this recipe and that I recommend to my weight loss clients.
- If you love this recipe, check out my cookbook for more delicious recipes!
Nutrition
This recipe looks delicious.I plan to prepare it tomorrow. I read the recipe and blog post. I also followed the baking dish link to Amazon, but I'm still not sure about the correct baking dish to use. The link was to a rectangular dish, but the dish in most of the photos appears square. Will you please provide the correct baking dish size by its volume and/or its dimension in inches?
It's a standard 8x8 square baking dish. I updated the links in the blog post. Thanks for letting me know!
Thank you!
This looks awesome and I want.to try it but I am allergic to eggs. Are the eggs necessary? I'd yes, could I sub another binder like flax egg?
Thanks!!
I wouldn't say the egg whites are necessary although they do help to bind. I wouldn't use flax or chia eggs as they will impact the flavor and consistency a lot. If it were me, I would try Just Egg plant based substitute or egg beaters if you can do those.
Should you Cook the chicken before adding it to the dish or mix it raw and the baking cooks it?
It should be cooked and shredded before assembling the casserole.
Can this be frozen after making it? TIA
I have not done it because it is made with cauliflower rice and that I expect would get mushy from the moisture after freezing. I suppose you could freeze it, but the flavor would be diluted from the moisture and it wouldn't taste as good.
I’m wondering how much a serving is? I’m trying to keep track of my calories.
This is mentioned in the recipe notes. One serving equals 1/4 of the recipe.
Size of Baking Sheet???? Don's see this anywhere..
There is no baking sheet used for this recipe, just a casserole dish which a recommend one is linked under the ingredients section of the blog post.
Perfect ! Didn’t tweak a thing and it was fantastic.
Our family loved this dish so much and the hot sauce was just the right amount. Thank you!
As this was coming together I wasn’t sure it would have enough flavor but it pleasantly surprised me! I would suggest using a food processor or grater for fresh riced cauliflower as it makes a huge difference in the texture. I also liberally salted after adding the cauliflower to the pan and reduced the hot sauce to about 1/2 cup based on others’ reviews. Overall a solid dish!
A great recipe and super easy to tweak. Thanks!!!
I liked this recipe a lot and I like spicy, but I would cut the hot sauce in half next time. 3/4 of a cup was a lot and the family thought is was too spicy. Thank you for the recipe though!
I dont eat spicy so if I dont want to use buffalo sauce, what would you recommend?
BBQQ sauce, teriyaki sauce, sweet & sour etc. would work.