This healthy chicken casserole made with broccoli, water chestnuts, and cheddar cheese is the perfect home-cooked meal for a family dinner! Add to your food prep and meal plan today.
I was chatting with a friend about food prep the other day (sure sign of a ‘grown up life’ right there), and she was telling me how difficult it is to get dinners made throughout the week.
I insistently told her,
But, it’s so easy when you food prep. Dinner can come together in less than 30 minutes!
Granted, it probably is a bit tough for her, because she has a full-time job as an engineer (we became BFFs at Purdue) and is going to school for her MBA. Even though she’s awesome, I supposed she is slightly warranted on the no-time-to-make-dinner front. #grownupproblems
I then realized why all my dishes—like this healthy broccoli chicken casserole—seem to come together in 30 minutes or so.
It’s because I food prep so much protein!
Every week, I prep at least a couple pounds of crockpot shredded chicken, pork, or ground turkey. ‘
I don’t typically completely prep any of my dinner dishes through the week (like you’ll see on my meal plans and grocery lists), but I always have meat precooked and veggies chopped. The ingredients are ready to go. I can throw them together in a skillet or in the oven. And sometimes the microwave…because we all get lazy. It’s a fact of life.
Making a casserole like this takes less than half the time it normally would when you already have chicken cooked. And actually, after a quick Google search of healthy broccoli chicken casserole, it looks like nearly all the recipes out there calls for cooked chicken. Some call for a rotisserie chicken, which sounds 1) like too much work or 2) way more expensive than it needs to be!
Since we’re obviously going to talk about this healthy chicken broccoli casserole recipe for a minute, let’s also talk about cheese.
We can do this because there is cheese in it—two kinds of cheese actually. I used part-skim shredded mozzarella (a standard 5 pound bag Costco purchase) and mild cheddar. A good casserole must always have cheese!
Actually I just blatantly lied to you, because paleo spaghetti squash casserole has no cheese and it is fantastic.
But seriously, the worst kind of cheese is having NO cheese in your fridge. This happened to me the other day and I was honestly a bit devastated. No cheese for my eggs? Or my salads? Or my cutting boards for slicing? This type of catastrophe requires an immediate trip to the grocery!
Unless you are at the end of the month and have no more money in your grocery budget. Then you just cry for a bit about how hard it is to be a grown up.
Since you already know about my love for cheese, I’ll tell you about my other favorite part of the casserole. The water chestnuts!!
I love cooking with water chestnuts, because they maintain an awesome crunch after you bake them. They are perfect for stir fries, and giving casseroles like this a little more texture. If you’ve never cooked with them, I seriously suggest you give them a shot! You can find them near the canned vegetables at your local grocery.
Try this healthy broccoli chicken casserole for dinner tonight!
- 1 pound raw broccoli, chopped
- 1 pound shredded chicken, cooked (about three large chicken breasts, cooked)
- 1 cup cooked jasmine rice
- 8 oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained
- ½ cup non-fat Greek yogurt
- ¼ cup unsweetened original almond milk
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic salt
- ⅛ teaspoon thyme
- ½ cup shredded mozzarella
- 1 cup shredded mild cheddar
- 2 T panko breadcrumbs
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Add broccoli, chicken, rice, and water chestnuts to a bowl. Stir together.
- In a separate bowl, mix together Greek yogurt, almond milk, and seasonings. Once mixed completely, stir in the mozzarella and ½ cup of shredded cheddar.
- Pour yogurt mixture over broccoli and chicken mixture. Stir together until mixed completely.
- Grease a casserole dish. Pour the whole mixture into dish. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top, then sprinkle panko.
- Bake for 25 minutes, until broccoli is cooked through.
Looks amazing! I love the healthy spin on a classic. Pinned.
Thank you! I think I’m getting a substitute for canned cream of celery or chicken soup down!
Where’s the cream of celery or chicken soup? It’s not listed in the recipe above. Sounds like it would be creamer with the soup. Or are you saying to substitute the yogurt for the soup?
Hi, Toni! Yes, this recipe substitutes the yogurt for the soup. This makes it healthier, without the processed soups.
I found that it needed more liquid, so I added more milk. Is there something missing in the recipe?
Hi, Cathy! This recipe is a little drier than you might expect, compared to using real cream of chicken or celery soup. Adding a little more yogurt or milk is a great solution!
Hi, I would like to make this dish a day in advance and bring it to my daughters the following day. Shall I cook and reheat or prepare up to baking and bake at her house the next day? Also, I would like to substitute almond milk with cow’s milk. Should work, right?
Substituting for regular milk will work just fine! You could mix it up and then bake it only once at your daughter’s house. You may want to make extra of the yogurt/milk mixture though, because the chicken will probably soak some up.
Thank you. Do you suggest doubling or tripling the yoghurt/milk mixture?
Also do i increase the corn starch if I’m increasing yoghurt and milk?
I would double the yogurt/milk. You could actually skip the cornstarch altogether! I’ve been meaning to update it and take it out.
What size casserole dish do you use for this recipe? Thanks.
Use a 9 x 13!
Ohoh, can it wait to be baked two days?
Hi, Julie! Since I’ve not done it before, I’m not sure. I’d probably just wait one day!
Casserole is delicious. Have you ever frozen leftovers?
So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂 I have never tried freezing it!
This looks great! I love casseroles, especially during the winter months. Broccoli with cheese was one of the only vegetables I would eat as a kid, haha 🙂 Looking at these pictures makes me remember why – delish!
haha! I think I was pretty good with vegetables, but I am from Wisconsin so we also put cheese on just about anything 😉
Ha the first sign of being old you talk about recipes and making food rather than ordering out! That is about right 🙂 I needed this recipe last night, I was on the hunt for a fun casserole. I’m pinning now for later!
Yes! Luckily Kyle and I both love to cook!
Looks delicious, love the addition of water chestnuts and greek yogurt. Much better than the cream of whatever soups that are so common in casserole dishes.
I always keep cheese on hand, it would be a sad day in our house without a block of cheese in the fridge!
Exactly – I am trying to substitute those creamed canned soups! I have another recipe from ages ago on the blog, but I used cream of celery. need to remake that one next!
I need to make shredded chicken in BULK, put it into a tupperware container and eat it like one might eat from a bag of potato chips… Cause I am classy like that 😉
Lol… I do that too 🙂 But I usually pour black beans and avocado on top of it
Water chestnuts are delish! Love that you do so much food prep for your week – very impressive 🙂 this recipes looks great!
Thanks! A little work on the weekend pays off big during the week! 🙂
I tried it, it came out dry, any suggestions??
You could try doubling the sauce mixture. This casserole is inherently a little more dry than a typical casserole that uses cream of chicken/celery, since it is with healthier ingredients!
This looks AWESOME and I bet the leftovers are amazing! I’ll let you know if I try it out. Thanks for sharing! Tweeted and Pinned! 🙂
This looks awesome. Is the broccoli fresh or frozen? Thanks!
I would suggest fresh, but you could also boil frozen broccoli for 5 minutes or so, strain it and add to the recipe. Using fresh broccoli will make it a little crispier.
I’m wandering what can I substitute for cheese my wife can’t eat cheese or any dairy. She doesn’t even like it when I use butter in a rue for sauses and gravy. Any suggestions would be great.
Hi Done! Being 100% honest, I don’t know of any substitutes for the dairy products in this recipe. The creamy base is made with yogurt as well. I would have to try something out before I could recommend a substitute that would taste good!
Coconut nondairy yogurt and a little mayo is what a I plan to try. Also not doing dairy. I would
Substitute ground pork rinds for crunch on top too. And instead of rice shredded cauliflower.
Can’t wait to try and so happy to find a sub for canned cream anything! Would subbing brown rice for jasmine be too boring? Let’s see what my kiddos tastebuds think.
Hi Adriana! I think you could use brown rice, but it might be a little drier. Jasmine rice is usually a little more sticky and moist, especially since this recipe called for precooked rice. Hope you enjoy it1
I used brown rice and it was great!
So glad to hear! I have not tried it with brown rice yet! 🙂
Is there a way to make this without the breadcrumbs or something else I could use to reduce the amount of carbs? I am a bariatric patient and have to watch my carbs !
Hi Amanda! The amount of carbs from the panko in this recipe is very small. Most of the carbs are coming from the rice, broccoli and yogurt. If you were concerned, you could reduce the amount of rice you use!
A little confused — is it one cup of rice that’s been cooked, or one cup of rice that you cook?
Hello! It is one cup of already cooked rice. 🙂
That would have been nice to include in the directions. Maybe add that so it’s clear?
This seemed really dry for us. I’m wondering if we did something wrong. It tasted decent, but super dry. I even doubled the milk/yogurt mixture. I’m tempted to try it again with adding some cream of chicken soup.
Hi Kelly! I would think that doubling the milk and yogurt mixture would make it much creamier. Though, the consistency is not the same as a can of creamed soup.
Is the rice already cooked for this recipe?
Yes, it is already cooked!
Hi Cindy! Yes, the rice should already be cooked for this recipe.
This looks perfect for a family lunch this weekend! Is there anything you could suggest as a substitute for the water chestnut? Can’t seem to find it in my area here in the UK.
Can you find waterchestnuts near the Asian foods? That seems to be where I find them! They’re a bit hidden. You could try jicama instead, it would be less sweet but still crunchy in the recipe.
Hi can you freeze this ?
Hi Tracey! I have not tried, so I am not sure. I will try this though and let you know!
Made this today and it was a hit. Might “cheat” a little next time and add a “cream of….soup” to it.
Haha! I know those cream of soups are sooo good 😉
We don’t use almond milk in our house, and I don’t think I want to buy it just to have for this recipe. Do you think it would work with regular skim milk?
Yes, I think it would work just fine! 🙂
I wanted to use a disposable casserole dish, how big does it need to be?
Also can I just use skim milk, I don’t like almond mol
You absolutely can!
As close to 9×13 you can find, but any size should really work without altering the bake time!
What about using brown rice??
Hi Stephanie! You could absolutely use brown rice. Since you will need it pre-cooked for this particular recipe, it will not alter the cooktime.
I gotta agree, it was pretty dry. Next time, I’ll either double the yogurt/milk or make my own ‘cream of whatever’ to avoid those awful cans. But maybe I did too much broccoli/chicken/rice?
I also seemed to needed to bake it almost double the time. Hard to tell when broccoli is done, but I waited until the cheese started to brown a bit. I also wasn’t sure if it was chopped broccoli, and if so how fine? And it was raw broccoli, yes? Info on said broccoli was pretty vague.
Otherwise, it’s pretty tasty and SUPER filling! I also baked some in a smaller dish and put it in the freezer for later.
Hi, Ariel! To tell if broccoli is done, I’ll try to stick a fork in it. If it goes through easily, then it’s good to go! I used raw broccoli for this recipe. I can update the instructions if that is not clear!
Baking it for a longer time can make it dryer too—but every oven can be slightly different. Doubling the yogurt/milk mixture should definitely do the trick. I’m glad to hear that it tasted good for you!
Hi. I’m wondering if there’s something else besides corn starch that can be used? I don’t keep that in my cupboard anymore and don’t want to buy a whole box for this one recipe. Otherwise, I’m super excited to try this out! I love all the ingredients and combining them in a casserole really is a no-brainer.
Hi, Ana! You could try a little bit of flour instead. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the recipe!
Omgosh, I NEVER write reviews for things, but I made this last night (after a general internet search for healthy casserole) and it was AMAZING!!!! I did modify just a little. I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk (because that’s what I keep in the house), and it was fine. I doubled the sauce mixture, and would maybe even triple it next time because I like it creamy- all the spices in the sauce were awesome!! I cooked up a yellow onion (almost caramelized) and added that in (because what isn’t better with onion). I cooked my chicken in a little olive oil and a spicy dry rub for some more flavor. I would add more broccoli next time- by the time I trimmed a pound of broccoli, I think the casserole could have handled more. This really was exceptional- better I think than the usual heavy, fatty, creamy casserole! Thank you for an amazing recipe- sure to become a staple in this house!!!!
Yay! so glad to hear you enjoyed it. And I agree…onion makes everything better 😉
I suggest cooking the broccoli before. By the time it was cooked everything else was dried out.
Hi, Kelly! This casserole would be a little bit drier if you’re expecting the exact same consistency of Cream of Chicken soup. You could try doubling the sauce mixture if you want more creaminess to it.
I just found this recipe and I’m going to try it, but I have a question. The instructions mention corn starch, but there’s no corn starch in the ingredient list. How much corn starch do I need?
Thanks!
Hey, Chris! I actually removed corn starch from the recipe. Looks like I forgot to completely update it, thank you for catching!
What would you serve with this? A salad, sweet potato or ????
I serve it on it’s own!