Creamy Spinach Chicken Casserole is one of the most popular creamy chicken recipes from our blog! This chicken and spinach casserole is layered into a baking dish using fresh spinach, raw chicken breasts, and a parmesan cream sauce that will melt under the cheese crust! Serve it as an easy weeknight dinner over rice or pasta!
Chicken Casserole Recipes pair perfectly with pasta recipes and if you want to make this into a chicken spinach rice casserole simply add parboiled rice onto the bottom of the casserole! Try our other most popular chicken recipe by making this Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup! I also have a Chicken Corden Bleu Casserole coming up so keep your eyes on that!
Watch How To Make Creamy Spinach Chicken Casserole:
Creamy Spinach Chicken Casserole
Creamy chicken recipes like this chicken and spinach casserole are the perfect example of comfort food served fast! You can’t make any faster chicken casseroles, I mean literally, everything goes into the casserole fresh and cooks in the oven!
This chicken casserole recipe has been loved and pinned over 326K times! Many readers have made it with different variations including chicken thighs, bacon, served over rice, Brussel sprouts, steamed cauliflower, noodles, and even pesto pasta! It’s kid-approved and super easy for the home cook to make for busy weeknight dinners. I’ve even been messaged on how good this chicken dish was!
So, where did I get this easy chicken casserole recipe? Well, when a friend shared this Creamy Spinach Tilapia casserole years ago, (I know you can even make fish taste good with this recipe), I decided to make this casserole with chicken too. As easy and quick as it was I’m glad I shared this cheesy chicken casserole because many of you love it! It has also been named Keto Chicken so, it happens to be gluten-free and low-carb!
Ingredients for Spinach Chicken Casserole:
- Fresh spinach- pack that casserole with an 8oz package of fresh spinach (you can use frozen spinach too.)
- Chicken breasts- slice 2 large chicken breasts in half crosswise to make 4 fillets or pick up thinly sliced chicken breasts from the store.
- Mayonnaise- you could substitute a creamy salad dressing however, adjust the garlic salt to your liking.
- Sour cream- a substitute for sour cream here, is yogurt.
- Cheese- I use freshly grated parmesan cheese for the cheese sauce and shredded Monterey Jack cheese for the top (using a box grater.) Feel free to use shredded mozzarella cheese or other cheese blends. (Note: if you pick a cheddar cheese blend the cheese crust can get yellow and dark brown.)
- Seasoning- the parmesan cheese and mayo already have salt so, go be careful not to oversalt this chicken casserole. Feel free to use adobo seasoning for the chicken breasts.
How To Make Spinach Chicken Casserole:
This chicken casserole is so easy to make! Follow these instructions to make dinner fast!
- Preheat the oven to 500°F.
- Assemble the casserole, by layering fresh spinach, chicken breasts, creamy cheese sauce, and shredded cheese into a 13×9 dish.
- Bake casserole for 18-25 minutes or until the chicken breasts are done.
Q&A
What Is a Spinach and Chicken Recipe?
A chicken and spinach bake is a chicken breast dish smothered with a creamy cheese mixture and then topped with grated cheese and baked. This makes an easy chicken casserole as you do not need to pre-cook the chicken breast meat or spinach. Serve it with healthy sides of broccoli or wild rice!
What Sides Go With Chicken Casseroles?
Creamy Chicken Casserole Recipes go with many side dishes as this makes a main coarse meal! Eat this chicken dish with a side of pasta or bread and for low-carb options serve it with Zucchini zoodles or steamed veggies. Here are some recipe ideas:
- Pasta noodles or Fettucine Alfredo
- Stovetop Rice
- Mashed Potatoes
- French Bread- or garlic bread
- Creamy Cucumber Tomato Avocado Salad
- Cooked grains like Farro.
- Outback Broccoli and Cheese
- Oven-Baked Potato Wedges
- Spaghetti Squash, Steamed Asparagus, or broccoli
How Long To Cook Chicken?
How long to bake chicken breast casserole depends on the thickness of your meat. To cook this, first slice the chicken breasts in half and assemble.
Chicken is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. Depending on how thick your chicken breast fillet is, it can take anywhere from 18-25 for the chicken to bake at 500°F. My chicken breast was sliced in half crosswise and cooked fully in a 25 minute-range.
Chicken Casserole Variations:
There are so many different add-ins you can add when baking this chicken! These variations are to be baked together with the chicken:
- Spinach Chicken and Sausage- add 8 oz of your favorite sliced sausage.
- Creamy Chicken Casserole with Shrimp- add 6 oz of cooked shrimp and 1 Tbsp of minced garlic to the chicken.
- Creamy Salmon Casserole- Substitute with 4 salmon fillets and dollop spinach with 4 tablespoons of butter.
- Herbed Mushrooms and butter- saute mushrooms in butter and Italian seasoning.
- Chicken Bacon and Ranch Casserole- add 1/2 cup of bacon bits and use ranch dressing instead of the mayonnaise.
- Tuscan Chicken Thighs- use 4 skin-on boneless chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts.
- Asparagus and Shrimp- place 2 cups of cut asparagus to the bottom of the casserole and layer as instructed.
- Chicken Broccoli and Rice Casserole- add 8 oz of cooked rice (or 1-8.8 oz microwavable rice packet) and 2 cups of cut broccoli to the bottom of the casserole. Layer as instructed.
Note: for keto chicken, serve with low-carb add-ins or sides.
What Cheese is Best For Creamy Chicken Casserole?
The best cheese is Monterey Jack. We used parmesan cheese for the sauce mixture and that is plenty of salty so be careful with how much salt you add. A mildly flavored melting cheese is one that you want to choose. Another popular white cheese that can be used is Mozzarella cheese.
Storing Creamy Chicken Casserole?
If you have any leftovers they reheat great! Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days and reheated in a skillet or microwave.
To reheat chicken: microwave in 30-second intervals until hot. You could also place leftovers into a buttered pan and heat them covered over medium heat until warm.
Can Chicken And Spinach Casserole Be Frozen?
This casserole is loaded with spinach, raw meat, and dairy products. Therefore if you freeze this uncooked, it may result in a high-water content casserole that can turn out grainy. However, you can make ahead this casserole and store it in the fridge for up to one day (assembled.)
Best Casserole Tips:
- Use a heavy dutch-oven casserole or a stainless steel dish. The oven temperature gets quite high for this chicken recipe.
- Shredd a block of your favorite white cheese for a speckled brown cheese crust. My favorites, are a Mozzarella and parmesan cheese blend and Monterey Jack (the white block not the Colby blend.)
- To use frozen spinach squeeze out the excess liquid.
- When using fresh spinach a lot of readers found that the fresh spinach got a little runny on the bottom so, you can add a layer of cauliflower or parboiled rice to the bottom this should soak up any excess liquid. Note: you may need to bake longer.
- Since this chicken casserole is gluten-free, Keto, and Low-carb you can pair it with more low-carb dishes like steamed vegetables, Zoodles, brown rice, and grains.
- Serve this with pasta noodles, cooked white rice, mashed potatoes, or crusty bread!
- This chicken casserole bakes at 500°F to wilt the spinach and cook the chicken thoroughly. Baking this dish at such a high temperature also creates a speckled cheese crust.
What You Need To Make This Chicken Casserole:
- One 13×9 baking dish.
More Chicken Recipes To Make:
- White Chicken Enchiladas (or try our Beef Enchilada Casserole Recipe!)
- Slow-Cooker Chicken Bacon Ranch Sandwiches (Crack Chicken)
- Creamy Chicken and Rice Broccoli Dinner
- Cheesy Bacon BBQ Chicken (Monterey Chicken)– that you can serve over pasta or mashed potatoes!
- Creamy Chicken and Rice Soup
- Gloria Chicken Casserole– a cheesy chicken casserole in cream sauce.
- Chicken Potato Casserole
- Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken Parmesan Casserole
How To Make Spinach Chicken Casserole:
Creamy Spinach Chicken Casserole Recipe
Equipment
- 1 13x9 baking dish
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 1 lb chicken breasts (2 chicken breasts, cut in half crosswise)
- 8 oz fresh spinach
- 8 oz Monterey Jack cheese (shredded)
Creamy Sauce:
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (grated)
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp garlic salt
Instructions
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 500°F. Lightly spray a 13 x 9-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside. Meanwhile, combine the creamy sauce ingredients.- Next, pack the casserole dish with the spinach.
- Top with uncooked chicken breasts.
- Spread evenly with the creamy sauce mixture.
- Sprinkle with shredded Monterey Jack cheese and bake on the bottom rack of the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until spinach shrinks and chicken breasts cook thoroughly.
Notes
- Note: use a baking dish safe for an oven temperature of 500°F like a heavy dutch oven baking dish.
Nutrition per serving
