The Best Copycat Costco Chicken Bake Recipe
The popular food court favorite! This is the best Costco chicken bake recipe, made from scratch! It's as close as you can get to rolling up pizza dough (that tastes like Costco's) and stuffing it with chicken, Caesar, cheese, and bacon. No waiting in line, or funny ingredients! Just a simple, straightforward recipe that tastes exactly like the chicken bakes from Costco!
Equipment
Ingredients
Pizza Dough:
- 2 1/2 cups bread flour, (scooped and leveled)
- 1 cup warm water, (80-90°F)
- 1 tsp dry active yeast
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp granulated sugar
- 2 tsp olive oil, (or any neutral-flavored oil)
Chicken bake filling:
- 9 oz cooked chicken breast , (chopped) see notes below*
- 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, (half of it mixed with grated provolone cheese) It should equal 5 oz.
- 1/2 cup bacon bits, (toasted)
- 1/4 cup creamy Caesar dressing
Topping:
- 2 Tbsp shredded Parmesan cheese , (for tops)
- 4 Tbsp creamy Caesar dressing, (smeared on top)
Instructions
- To make the pizza dough, mix 1 cup of water and 1 tsp yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add 2 tsp sugar, 2 tsp salt, and 2.5 cups of flour, give it a good stir, and add 2 tsp of oil. Knead for 4 minutes. Then rest for 15 minutes covered. It's ready to be used at this point. I often keep this dough refrigerated. It should be tacky and very pliable.
- Pre-heat oven to 450°F. Lightly grease a 16-inch perforated pizza pan. Cut the pizza dough into four equal pieces. Roll each piece into a thin 11x8-inch rectangle and smear the inside with 1 Tbsp of Caesar's dressing, leaving a 1-inch border around the edges.
- Combine all the filling ingredients: 9 oz cooked chicken, 1 1/2 cups of mozzarella (blended with half provolone), 1/2 cup toasted bacon bits, and 1/4 cup Caesar's dressing. Then place 1 cup of filling across the center of each rolled-out piece of dough.
- Fold in the sides and roll up jelly-roll style, pinching the seams to seal.
- Place all the Chicken bakes onto the prepared pizza pan and brush each chicken bake with 1 Tbsp of Caesar dressing and 1/2 Tbsp shredded parmesan cheese. Bake at 450°F for 20 minutes on the bottom rack of the oven.
Notes
- The pizza dough should yield 1.5 pounds of dough to make four chicken bakes. I often triple the recipe to yield three balls of dough (12 chicken bakes). For that, I knead together 7.5 cups (1058 grams) of bread flour, 3 cups of water, 1 Tbsp of yeast, 2 Tbsp of salt, and 2 Tbsp of sugar.
- For exact flour measurements in the recipe, I weighed 2.5 cups of bread flour, and it weighed 367 grams.
- Cook two medium-sized chicken breasts with seasonings of choice to make 9 to 10 ounces of cooked chicken meat. I include how I made mine in the blog post. You can also buy a 12-oz bag of fully cooked, flame-grilled chicken breast strips at Walmart or Aldi next to the raw chicken (or frozen). Costco uses John Soules Foods Chicken Breast Strips.
- If using store-bought pizza dough, then use 1.5 pounds of any refrigerated pizza dough.
- Originally, the cheeses that I mixed were 1.5 cups of mozzarella and 1/3 cup of shredded parmesan cheese for the filling. Costco makes its chicken bakes with a mozzarella and provolone blend, which is why I tweaked the cheese. It's so delicious either way.
- A perforated pizza pan makes the bottoms super crisp. You can use any pizza pan to make them; just make sure you cool them in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire cooling rack so the bottoms don't get soggy.
- To freeze chicken bakes: Par-bake the chicken bakes for 10 minutes. Then cool completely and wrap each chicken bake in foil. Freeze for up to 2 months in a jumbo freezer bag.
- To bake frozen chicken bakes: Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 25 minutes wrapped, then unwrap and bake uncovered for an additional 15-20 minutes. Or microwave on high for 4 minutes (on a paper towel-lined plate), rotating in between (be sure to remove foil if microwaving).
- For extra-crisp bottoms, brush bottoms with creamy dressing and extra shredded parmesan cheese. These will be so crunchy!
- Depending on the chicken breast being used, you may need to add a squirt or two more of creamy Caesar's dressing. If it looks too dry, add enough to coat the mixture well.
- Can use fully cooked bacon strips or oven-bake six strips; just chop them to make 1/2 cup of crumbled bacon.
Nutrition Facts
The Best Copycat Costco Chicken Bake Recipe
Serving Size
1 chicken bake
Amount per Serving
Calories
851
% Daily Value*
Fat
40
g
62
%
Saturated Fat
11
g
69
%
Polyunsaturated Fat
15
g
Monounsaturated Fat
11
g
Cholesterol
101
mg
34
%
Sodium
2397
mg
104
%
Potassium
335
mg
10
%
Carbohydrates
69
g
23
%
Fiber
5
g
21
%
Sugar
4
g
4
%
Protein
50
g
100
%
Vitamin A
328
IU
7
%
Vitamin C
1
mg
1
%
Calcium
310
mg
31
%
Iron
2
mg
11
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
