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Creamy, slightly spicy and absolutely hearty, this Buffalo Chicken Casserole is the perfect healthy dinner the whole family can enjoy. You’ll need just around 20 minutes of hands-on time to put it together, and there’s barely any cleanup afterwards. Best of all, it is low calorie, low carb, gluten-free, Paleo and Whole30-friendly too
My family is obsessed with anything and everything buffalo chicken, and this healthy buffalo chicken casserole didn't disappoint! You know you gotta a winner dinner when the people in your family who hate vegetables (especially cauliflower) go back for seconds!
For more buffalo chicken-inspired recipes, you've got to try my low fat buffalo chicken dip, these lean and juicy buffalo ground chicken meatballs, and these air fryer homemade chicken nuggets. These recipes are all low carb and low calorie dishes that have been huge hits with everyone.
Why You’ll Love This Buffalo Chicken Casserole Recipe
- Healthier: The casserole is made using healthy and wholesome ingredients and is incredibly versatile too.
- Easy to make: It is the perfect one pan dinner recipe that you can make when you’re looking for something easy yet delicious .
- Crowd pleaser: With the creamy and saucy flavors, it is the perfect dish to put together when you’re feeding a crowd. It's also the perfect way to get picky eaters to like their vegetables.
- Freezer friendly: The dish is freezer friendly, and perfect for meal prepping! You can assemble it up to 30 days ahead of time, freeze and then thaw and cook whenever you want to.
Ingredients
- Chicken: I used shredded chicken breast as the base for this recipe. You can use my Instant Pot shredded chicken or this slow cooker shredded chicken to make it! For a store-bought option, rotisserie chicken works great for shredding.
- Cauliflower rice: To keep it low calorie and gluten-free, I used cauliflower rice instead of pasta.
- Egg whites: To add moisture and extra protein to the casserole. You can use one whole egg instead, but it adds more calories and reduces the protein.
- Buffalo sauce: For that kick of heat. If you don’t have buffalo sauce, use any other hot sauce of your choice.
- Greek yogurt: Unsweetened plain Greek yogurt adds a nice bit of creaminess to the dish, and tones down the heat from the buffalo sauce.
- Veggies: I used a mix of red bell peppers, onions, and carrots.
- Seasonings: To season, I used some garlic powder, salt and pepper.
- Extra virgin olive oil: Always my favorite choice when it comes to putting together delicious, healthy and wholesome meals. You can use avocado oil if that’s what you have at hand.
- Parsley: Just a bit for garnish at the end!
See the recipe card below for exact ingredient amounts, nutritional information, and detailed instructions.
Variations & Dietary Modifications
- Extra veggies: You can also bulk up the dish by adding more veggies into the mix. Zucchini, mushrooms, broccoli, celery and corn are all great choices. Use what you have at hand.
- Meat swap: You can replicate the same recipe using shredded turkey instead of shredded chicken if you want to. You can also use cooked ground turkey or chicken as well or cook it with vegetables during preparation.
- Dairy-free: To make the dish dairy-free, swap the Greek yogurt with any good dairy-free yogurt or cashew cream of your choice.
- Milder: If you are looking to make the flavor a bit less spicy, choose a mild buffalo sauce or you can reduce the amount of buffalo sauce and replace it with some broth.
How to Make Buffalo Chicken Casserole
To make this buffalo chicken cauliflower casserole, start by preheating your oven to 375 degrees.
Step 1: Cook the veggies. Saute the veggies in a skillet over medium heat with some olive oil until they soften. Add the salt, pepper, garlic powder and parsley and mix well.
Step 2: Add the cauliflower rice. Add the thawed cauliflower rice to the pan and continue to cook for a few more minutes. Take this off heat and let it cool.
Step 3: Make the creamy buffalo sauce. Combine the buffalo sauce, egg whites and Greek yogurt in a mixing bowl.
Step 4: Add the shredded chicken. Add the shredded chicken to the buffalo sauce mixture and mix well.
Step 5: Add the veggies. Add the veggies to the chicken mixture and give it all a good mix.
Step 6: Arrange and bake. Transfer this mixture to a baking dish and pop it in the preheated oven and bake.
Storage Directions
- Storing: 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. Store your leftover buffalo chicken casserole in the refrigerator for up to 5 days in an airtight container.
- Freezing: To freeze leftovers, place them in freezer friendly container and store in the freezer up to 30 days. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
- Reheating: Reheat the casserole in the microwave on high, pausing every 30 seconds or so, or pop it into a preheated oven for a few minutes until it has nicely warmed up.
Serving Suggestions
Serve up the casserole with extra buffalo sauce and Greek yogurt for serving as well as a sprinkle of green onions or parsley for some color.
This casserole is hearty and delicious and works great paired with a simple salad like copycat Olive Garden salad or my healthy broccoli crunch salad!
Other simple sides like roasted broccoli or these zucchini biscuits go great too! If you prefer a grain side dish, I love this wild rice casserole!
Expert Tips
- Quick chopping: To chop up all the veggies quickly, use a food processor. Blitz all the veggies for a quick minute, and then add them into the mix.
- Make a double batch: If you need to feed a crowd or want to plan on extra leftovers for a future meal double all your ingredients (you can use the 2x feature in the recipe card to calculate the ingredient quantities) and bake in a rectangular baking dish.
- Topping fun: For a bit of extra deliciousness, you can also choose to top the casserole with some shredded cheese. Mozzarella or cheddar would be great!
Recipe FAQs
If you don’t have cauliflower rice, you can make cauliflower rice in a food processor to make it or use broccoli rice instead. Another option is to replace it with a healthier grain like quinoa or brown rice if you don't need it low-carb. Remember that you’ll need to pre-cook them though.
The casserole is great for meal prepping ahead of time. Simply assemble the casserole and store in an airtight container. Freeze for up to 30 days. Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator, transfer it to a baking dish, and then pop it in the oven whenever you want to.
More Delicious Casserole Recipes
If you tried this buffalo chicken casserole recipe or any other recipe on my website, please please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you go in the 📝 comments below.
Healthy Buffalo Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 lb Chicken Breast cooked and shredded
- 1 ½ tbsp Olive Oil
- ⅔ cup Carrots diced
- 1 Red Bell Pepper diced
- ½ cup White Onion diced
- 12 oz Cauliflower Rice frozen and thawed
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Dried Parsley
- 2 Egg Whites
- ¾ cup Buffalo Sauce
- ⅓ 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.
Nutrition
Will I need a bigger than 8x8 pan if I double the recipe?
Yes, you will.
Do you know roughly how many grams of egg whites I should use? I only ask because I'm going to use a carton of egg whites and I just want to know how much to use.
I just did a Google search for this question and one egg is 30 grams so you would need 60 grams.
Delicious and leftovers were just as amazing for work lunches! So glad I found this website- so many recipes I want to try! Thank you!
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.