Keto Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
Keto chicken cordon bleu casserole is a low carb dinner made with cauliflower, ham, and chicken, smothered in a delicious dijon cheese sauce.
Chicken cordon bleu is one of our favorite meals. But traditional recipes are made using breaded chicken, which means you can’t typically enjoy the dish on a keto diet.
We made this recipe so we could enjoy the flavor of the classic chicken without going over our macros.
Like the original, it is full of comforting flavor and gooey cheese so we took our delicious keto alfredo sauce that we use on our keto chicken alfredo casserole and keto chicken and broccoli alfredo casserole and we added Gruyere cheese and dijon mustard.
It’s decadent and indulgent feeling but it is also low on carbs, which makes it a perfect keto comfort food.
If you’re looking for more easy keto recipes make sure to check out our most popular keto chicken recipes!
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Ingredients You’ll Need
Here’s a list of all the ingredients you need to make this rich comfort food:
- Cauliflower florets – To save time, you can purchase already cut florets from your local store.
- Chicken breast – We use boneless and skinless chicken for this recipe.
- Ham – You can use your favorite variety or brand. Just make sure to check the nutrition facts some ham has sweet sauces like maple syrup or honey on the outside. You want to choose something with the least carbs possible.
- Spices – You’ll need onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
- Other flavors – Fresh garlic and Dijon mustard add additional flavor to the casserole.
- Butter
- Heavy cream – Heavy cream gives the casserole a rich, decadent sauce.
- Cheeses – You’ll need both Gruyere cheese and mozzarella cheese. If you can’t find Gruyere cheese you can substitute it with a mild swiss.
Instructions
Here’s what you need to do to make this casserole.
Step 1 – Prep the cauliflower. To start, place the cut cauliflower in a microwave safe bowl with 1 cup of water. Cover with a damp paper towel and microwave on high for approximately 3 to 5 minutes or until the cauliflower is fork tender.
The cauliflower is going to continue to cook in the oven so it should be just tender enough for the fork to push into it. Don’t over steam it or it will get mushy in the oven.
Once it has steamed, drain the cauliflower completely and pat dry with a paper towel. Set aside.
Step 2 – Cook the chicken. Cut the chicken breast into 1-inch pieces and sprinkle with onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
Next, add olive oil and the chicken to a skillet set over medium high heat. Cook for approximately 10 minute or until chicken is cooked through. Set aside.
Step 3 – Make the cream sauce. Before starting the sauce, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
As the oven heats, clean the skillet by removing any burnt bits from the pan and then melt 3 tablespoons of butter over medium heat.
When the butter has melted, add the garlic to the pan and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant.
Next, pour the heavy cream into the pan and bring it to a simmer over medium heat. As the cream cooks, make sure to stir often so the cream doesn’t burn.
Stir in the Dijon mustard and then add 6 ounces of Gruyere cheese. Keep stirring until the cheese sauce begins to thicken. This will take about 8 to 10 minutes. You will know it is ready when the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of your spoon.
Once thickened, add 3 ounces of mozzarella cheese to the sauce and stir until it is melted and the sauce is smooth. Turn the heat to low and keep the sauce warm while you assemble the casserole.
Step 4 – Assemble the casserole and bake. Prepare a 13×9 inch casserole dish by spraying it with non-stick spray and then spread ½ cup of the cheese sauce on the bottom.
Next add half of the cauliflower to the dish, making a layer of it on the bottom of the dish. Top the cauliflower with half of the cooked chicken and half of the ham. You can allow the meat to fill in the spaces between the cauliflower to fill the dish.
Pour ½ of the remaining cheese sauce over the cauliflower, chicken, and ham and sprinkle 5 ounces of Gruyere and 3 ounces of mozzarella cheese on top.
Repeat the steps using the remaining cauliflower, chicken, and ham to make a second layer.
Finally, pour the remaining cheese sauce over the top of the casserole, followed by the remaining 5 ounces of Gruyere cheese. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the casserole is warmed through and the cheese is fully melted.
Make Sure to Dry Your Cauliflower
Drying your cauliflower is an important step that you should not skip!
Cauliflower releases a lot of water when it cooks, which is one of the reasons we steam it first. Steaming helps to release some of the moisture before placing it in the casserole.
Before adding to the casserole, make sure you thoroughly strain and pat the florets dry. The more moisture you remove helps to prevent the casserole from becoming watery.
How to Store It
Storing the casserole is super easy! First, allow the casserole to cool completely.
Place the cooled casserole in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to about 4 to 5 days.
To reheat, preheat your oven to 325 degrees F and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes or until it is heated through.
Or you can warm up an individual portion in the microwave. To do this, cook on high in a microwave safe bowl for about 2 to 3 minutes.
We don’t recommend freezing this dish. When cauliflower freezes, it becomes mushy when defrosted and reheated. cheese sauce also tends to break apart when frozen, so it is best to enjoy it when it is fresh.
Looking for More Easy Keto Recipes?
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- More Keto Recipes…
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Keto Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
Ingredients
- 16 ounces Cauliflower florets, cut into bite-size pieces
- 24 ounces Chicken breast
- 12 ounces Ham, cut into small cubes
- 1 teaspoon Onion powder
- 1 teaspoon Garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Pepper
- 3 tablespoons Butter
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 2 cups Heavy cream
- 4 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 16 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated and divided
- 9 ounces Shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
Instructions
- Steam the cauliflower. Place cut cauliflower in a microwave safe bowl with 1 cup of water. Cover with a damp paper towel and microwave on high for approximately 3-5 minutes or until the cauliflower is fork tender. Don’t overcook!
- Drain the cauliflower pat dry with a paper towel. Set aside.
- Cut the chicken breast into 1-inch cubes and sprinkle with onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
- In a skillet over medium high heat add your olive oil and the cubed chicken. Cook for approximately 10 minute, or until chicken is cooked through. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Clean the skillet, removing any burnt bits from the pan and then melt 3 tablespoons of butter in the skillet over medium heat.
- Once butter has melted add the garlic to the pan and cook for 1 minute.
- Pour the heavy cream into the pan and bring it to a simmer over medium heat. Make sure to stir often so the cream doesn’t burn.
- Stir in the Dijon mustard and then add 6 ounces of Gruyere cheese. Keep stirring until the cheese sauce begins to thicken, approximately 3-5 minutes. You will know it is ready when the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of your spoon.
- Add 3 ounces of mozzarella cheese to the sauce and stir until it is melted and the sauce is smooth. Turn the heat to low and keep the sauce warm while you assemble the casserole.
- Prepare a 13×9 inch casserole dish by spraying it with non-stick spray then spread ½ cup of the cheese sauce on the bottom.
- Next add half of the cauliflower to the dish making a layer of it on the bottom.
- Top with half of the cooked chicken and half of the ham. Let the meat fill in the spaces between the cauliflower to fill the dish.
- Pour ½ of the remaining cheese sauce over the cauliflower, chicken, and ham.
- Sprinkle 5 ounces of Gruyere on top and 3 ounces of mozzarella cheese over the chicken and ham.
- Add the remaining cauliflower, chicken, and ham, to make a second layer.
- Pour the remaining cheese sauce over the top then sprinkle on the remaining Gruyere and mozzarella cheese.
- Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the casserole is warmed through and the cheese is fully melted.
Nutrition
This was yummy. Definitely a keeper. Next time I will cut it in half. There’s only two of us, and this could feed an army. I didn’t think it was as good when reheated as leftovers.
Could I make the sauce in my Blendtec?
I think it needs to continue to cook as you stir everything together and I’d be a little worried that the blender would whip the heavy cream. If you try it let me know!
Is the xanthan gum necessary or can i make this without it? Does it have any substitute? Thanks 🙂
Xanthan gum helps to thicken the sauce. If you can’t find it you can add a tablespoon or two of flour and cook the sauce a little longer to help cook it down to a thicker consistency. It will add some carbs but spread out across the whole meal it isn’t too bad. I have heard you can use arrowroot too but I don’t have any experience with it.
I made it without Xanthan gum and cut a cup of heavy cream out. The sauce thickened well. I am going to cut the butter in half as well next time, to cut some more fat.
I’m so glad it turned out for you without the xanthan gum. I think I will give it a try next time.
You could also use Konjac Flour
I’m going to give that a try!
I found the gum in the organic section. It’s a powder.
I made it withou and it was delish!
Have you done the nutrition breakdown on this? How many net carbs? Looks good!
Hi Rhonda we did figure up the net carbs and it is 7 net carbs per serving (8 servings total). It’s super filling too!
Why do you add cauliflower? My husband hates it and I was wondering if there is a reason for it or if I can either omit it or substitute broccoli for it?
I just love cauliflower :). You can definitely add broccoli instead!!
I’ve made this about 6 times now and love it! Although I sneer at those that alter the recipe without first trying it ‘as is’ at least one time, i freely admit I use corn starch instead of xantham gum. I believe this must be why I have to cut the cream in half on order to get the final result to look like what is pictured here. When I use 2 1/2 cups of cream the result is runny! 1 1/4 got me to where I wanted. I must say my family loves this and requests it often, even my very picky teenages who never ate cauliflower in her life!
We use the xanthum gum to keep it low carb. But subbing it out even for flour would work also. It is only used as a thickener.
Has anyone tried freezing this?
This is delicious! We eat low carb and this is a great addition. I didn’t use the thickener, just my preference. It was a bit runny but we feel it’s similar to a chowder. I’ll add some crispy, chopped bacon and fresh chives next time. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for sharing! I’m so glad you liked it. I’ve been playing around with a few tweaks to the recipe that would leave out the thickener so I may have an update soon 🙂
Fantastic Collection of recipes!!!
It shows that the serving size is 1 gram?? That is about the weight of a sugar packet. If you even eat a typical serving of this it would most DEFINITELY NOT be low carb/keto!
Can you clarify?
This recipe makes 8 servings. The stats listed are for 1/8 of the casserole. I updated the nutrition label to state 1 slice.
Hello all! Looking through the comments, I noticed two key points: The recipe not tasting so wonderful as a leftover and being somewhat runny. Not here to take out anything from the recipe, but to ask if anyone could try making it another way. Nothing major, but the recipe being runny may contribute to the cauliflower. Cauliflower is inherently water, and steaming it only adds more water. I say, after boiling while it’s set aside, let the cauliflower dry out some by sitting on paper towels. Lastly, this recipe called for some wonderful cheeses. Leftover home made Mac and cheese, for example, is generally somewhat gritty and doesn’t flow as cheese should. This is why people in to fondue add a key ingredient: sodium citrate. I would suggest that after the cream mixture has had cheese added, instead of salt and peppering to taste, add a tsp of sodium citrate and pepper to taste. Just try out this alteration, I did and it made a difference. Thanks for reading this far also!
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comments. I am going to try sodium citrate the next time I make this.
Just made this for lunch (and to have leftovers for the next few days, of course ????) and it was delicious; my 2 year old chowed down! I didn’t have Xanthan Gum on hand so I subbed in glucomannan powder instead and it turned out well! I may cut down on the butter next time, it was a tad runny but nothing bad. Thanks for a great recipe! ❤️
So glad you liked and even more excited your little one did too. Thanks so much for letting us know how it turned out!
Have you ever used the frozen cauliflower rice in the recipe instead of steaming a fresh head to help on prep time?
I’m worried the cauliflower rice, especially frozen, would get too mushy as everything cooked. You could try frozen cauliflower florets just be aware it make but a little runnier than it would be with fresh cauliflower.
This was seriously amazing. I used 2tsp of coconut flour to substitute xantham, and only 2 cups of heavy cream. I have a pampered chef micro cooker, so I used it to cook the cauliflower. Highly recommend this if you don’t already have one, it cooks veggies in minutes. After I cooked the cauliflower I placed it on a cookie sheet lined with paper towel and let it dry while I cooked the sauce. Other than that … I followed the recipe to a tee.
Do you have to add Dijon mustard? Is there anything that I can substitute for it? I’ve never liked the flavor. Thanks!!
You can substitute any mustard if you’d like. If you don’t like mustard flavor at all, I’m not sure what a good sub would be.
Hello! This is in the oven right now and I am going to freeze it for dinner later this week? Any suggestion in reheating? Should I just put it in the oven again?
Hi Terri. I haven’t tried freezing this dinner so I’m not certain of the best way to reheat it. I would try it in the oven if you are reheating the whole casserole. Or you can cut it into individual servings and microwave them.
So good I had to portion it out and freeze it for the week to stop me from eating more. I omitted the xanthan gum because I didn’t have it but it was great.
I skip the xanthan gum sometimes too and it’s just as delicious! So glad you enjoyed it!
Mine came out looking very greasy and more wet than it should. What on earth did I do wrong? I followed the recipe! It’s cooling right now and smells delicious 🙂
It will firm up as it cools a bit.
Could this be. DE AHEAD AND FROZEN?
I don’t recommend making it and freezing it. I think cauliflower gets too watery when it is frozen and then warmed back up.
well I love all the ingredients and cook the majority of our meals from scratch so I thought we’d try this. The texture is not very pleasing, like a gummy, slimy mush. I couldn’t get past the slime texture that the x-gum creates. It smelled amazing however. I won’t use x gum ever again as a thickening agent.
Thanks for trying it and letting us know. I have to agree xanthan gum can be a texture you have to get used to. If you find an alternative you prefer please let us know!
Made this and it was soooooooo delicious!!! Even better the 3rd day!!! The recipe does make a lot. This is the third day of eating for two people, so I will be cutting down This recipe next time. I used 2lbs of chicken and 1 large bag of frozen cauliflower and A little bit of broccoli . (just to use it up)
I did not use xanthum gum. I have xanthum gum but chose not to use it because I believe xanthum gum has to be ran through the food processor in order to not be “chunky”. I have never “sprinkled” xanthum gum in any recipe and not experience cottage cheese like lumps. I did not see the need for it in this recipe.
This recipe was the perfect amount of sauce for the amount of food I used, but I could see it being too much or “watery” if using less chicken or cauliflower. I also used 12 oz of Swiss since I could not find the cheese recommended in this recipe and added more garlic per taste. The little bit of broccoli I added was nice since there is no color to this dish. I had no issues with reheating, I actually thought it was better the next days but that could be because I used frozen cauliflower or no xanthum gum.
Why does it say 13g of carbs but note says 7g of carbs.
Hi Michelle, net carbs are carbs – fiber. This recipe has 13g carbs and 6g fiber so it’s 7g net carb per serving.
one of my favorites! thank you
We love cauliflower so this was a no brainer! It was delicious! However, I did use flour to make a roux rather than use the Xanthan gum and used milk rather than cream (because I forgot it at the store!). It still turned out beautifully thickened. I also oven roasted a combo of broccoli and cauliflower rather than boil it. I think that I might add a little bit of panko breadcrumbs on top when we make it again, but it was a hit!
This was so delicious!! Easy to make
So easy to make and so delicious! Thanks you!
Low Carb Chicken Cordon Bleu is an easy low carb dinner recipe made with cauliflower, ham, chicken, covered in a creamy dijon sauce!