Looking for a flavorful and nutritious dinner that satisfies your cravings without compromising your health goals? Look no further than this healthy Buffalo Chicken Casserole recipe! Packed with protein, essential nutrients, and the irresistible tang of buffalo sauce, this dish is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. It’s a great one to bring to a potluck- because no one would really know that it’s healthy. But you are able to stay on track with it.
Indulging in a flavorful buffalo chicken casserole doesn’t have to mean sacrificing your health. Buffalo Chicken Casserole offers a lighter twist on the classic dish, without compromising on taste. With lean chicken, low-fat dairy, and a blend of tangy and creamy flavors, this casserole is a winning option for a satisfying dinner. Enjoy the goodness guilt-free and relish every mouthful of this wholesome and delectable meal. Let’s dive into how you can prepare this delicious casserole in no time.
Three reasons why you need to make this recipe!
Chicken casserole is a classic, quick dinner.
Most of us grew up having casserole at least once a week. It’s easy, versatile, and typically a one-pot dinner. This buffalo chicken casserole is a healthy twist on the dinner classic. You can even make it 24 hours ahead of time if needed to save a ton of time. Just make it all the way up to the baking step, cover it with foil, and let sit in the fridge for 24 hours. Bring it out of the fridge to return to room temp while the oven is preheating. Then bake according to the last steps.
It’s a cheese-lovers perfect meal.
Cheese lovers will rejoice at the flavor and creaminess of this casserole. If you’re on a weight loss journey, cheese isn’t always your friend. This recipe uses plenty of light cheese to give a protein boost without the extra fat calories. You’ll be able to indulge your cheese tastebuds without packing on the pounds.
It’s very balanced in protein, carbohydrates, and fat.
Having a meal that’s balanced in all three macronutrients means you’re covering your basic nutrition needs. The protein will help with muscle recovery and keep you satisfied. Fat is great for brain and hormone health. Carbs provide energy for your body to function.
Ingredients you need to make Buffalo Chicken Casserole:
- 1 (7.5 oz) package of Pillsbury biscuits
- 6 oz softened light or fat-free cream cheese
- 12 oz cooked shredded chicken
- 1/3 cup franks hot sauce
- 1/4 cup light ranch dressing
- 1/2 cup light shredded cheese
- 5 slices cooked and crumbled bacon
How to make Buffalo Chicken Casserole (step-by-step):
- Preheat oven to 375F and spray a 9×13 casserole dish.
- Cut the biscuits into 6 pieces each and spread them out on the bottom of the casserole dish.
- With a hand mixer, in a big bowl, mix the softened cream cheese, ranch dressing, and Franks sauce. Slowly stir in the shredded chicken.
- Drop the mixture by spoonfuls onto the biscuits. Make sure to cover all the areas.
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove the casserole then sprinkle cheese and the crumbled bacon over the top.
- Return to oven for 10 minutes so the cheese can fully melt. Remove from the oven, then cut into 6 equal servings.
Makes 6 servings. Nutrition info per serving: Calories 341, Fat 18g, Saturated fat 9g, Carbs 24g, Sugars 7g, Sodium 1522 mg, Protein 21g.
WW Points
- Pillsbury Biscuits 16 points
- Light cream cheese 17 points
- Chicken 0 points
- Franks hot sauce 0 points
- Light ranch dressing 6 points
- Light shredded cheese 4 points
- Bacon 9 points
9 points per serving based on the WW app recipe creator.
If you’re using an older version of WW, check out these points below.
Personal points- 7-8PP range depending on your 0PP foods
SP Freestyle- (blue & purple) 7 using WW recipe builder
Smart points- (green) 8 using SP calculator
Points plus- 7 using PP calculator
Different ways to change up this recipe:
- You can make it more spicy, or even less spicy depending on your taste preference. Feel free to add a few tbsp of hot sauce or cut the franks with a little 1% milk to reduce the heat.
- Throw in some fresh herbs to really enhance the flavor- like rosemary and thyme.
- You can hide some veggies in this recipe by chopping broccoli into very small pieces and adding it in with step 4. Chopped bell peppers and onions would work really well too.
- You can change up the meat and do ground chicken, ground turkey, or extra lean ground beef. By using ground meat and adding a bit of sage, it would give you more of a sausage flavor.
- If you have some points, you can even bulk it up with pre-cooked chopped potatoes.
- Change it to a BBQ Chicken Casserole by using sugar-free bbq sauce instead of Frank’s hot sauce.
Tips and Tricks for Buffalo Chicken Casserole.
- If you use fat-free cream cheese (3 points), it will drop each serving to 6 points.
- The 7.5 oz Pillsbury biscuits come in a pack of 4. If you can’t find them, you can get a larger pack, and just weigh out 7.5 oz of dough. Great Value now offers a 4 pack of 7.5 oz cans.
- You need about 3 cups of shredded chicken. To cook the chicken, put it in the crockpot with a little broth for 3 hours on high. Once it’s done, you can shred it right in the crockpot with a hand mixer.
- To save points, you can use a zero-point ranch dressing recipe.
- You don’t have to weigh the servings out as long as you make sure each piece is similar in size.
- You can use rotisserie chicken as long as you use only breast meat with the skin removed.
- It will last 7 days in the fridge, so this is a great recipe for meal prep. Bake it on a Sunday afternoon, and divide the pieces up into containers for your lunches for the week.
Similar recipes you’ll enjoy:
- Weight Watchers Chicken Enchiladas
- Quick Weight Watchers Stuffed Peppers
- Stove Top Stuffing Chicken Casserole
Buffalo Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
- 1-7.5 oz package pillsbury biscuits, in the 4 value packs you can buy a larger pack and weigh out
- 6 oz softened light or fat-free cream cheese
- 12 oz cooked shredded chicken, about 3 cups, I cook mine in the crockpot in a little broth on high about 3 hours depending on how much chicken your cooking
- 1/3 cup franks hot sauce
- 1/4 cup light ranch dressing, to save points you could use my zero point recipe
- 1/2 cup light shredded cheese
- 5 slices cooked and crumbled bacon, I use Wegman’s brand from the U.S
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F and spray a 9×13 casserole dish.
- Cut your 10 small biscuits into 6 pieces each and spread out on the bottom of your dish.
- In a bowl mix your cream cheese, ranch dressing and franks sauce. Stir in your shredded chicken.
- Drop by spoonfuls onto your biscuits making sure to cover all areas.
- Bake in oven for 30 minutes, remove and sprinkle cheese and crumbled bacon on top.
- Return to oven for 10 minutes. Cut into 6 equal servings, I don’t weigh mine out I just make sure each serving is similar in size.
- *Please note, some comments below have people saying that when entering info into the WW app they are getting much higher numbers, I am in Canada and you may be in the U.S, changes to this such as different biscuits, a different brand of ranch or cheese can make a big difference, not only do I input my exact ingredients into my fitness pal, I also determine my SP value for each ingredient, add all those numbers up and divide by my yield, so I am doing double the work to ensure my numbers based on my ingredients are correct, I can not help if you have used a different product and it scans much higher.. Here is a break down of my ingredients and their SP (prior to freestyle)value.. Biscuits 17SP, Cream cheese 14SP, Chicken 8SP, Sauce 0Sp, Ranch 4SP, Cheese 6SP, Bacon 4SP
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I bought your app thinking all your recipes would be there. Sadly, they aren’t. How come?
Hi Sherry, this is what i tell people regarding the App, think of it like a cookbook you buy at the store, you pay for the book, leave with the book, and that’s it you get what recipes are in the book, they don’t add recipes to the book once you have bought it.. now yes the App is a little different and we can do add on’s but what people don’t see is the time it takes to add onto the App, first it took 6 months to build the App (a lot of free time invested that we did not earn any money on until the App came out for sale) to do an add on is a big job, for both myself and my App developer, then it sits in review for awhile..At first we were not going to do any add ons, but then we decided maybe 2-3 add on’s a year.. the App is $2, a cookbook you can easy spend $10++ and not get anymore added… My App and blog are not connected, it’s not that simple, when I post a new recipe to my blog it can not just show up on the App, that takes a lot of work on my developers side, coding and all that fun technical stuff.. I hope that all explains it a little better for you..
Hi! I just thought I’d let you know that I figured out why there is a discrepancy in points on the recipe builder. If you put in light cream cheese, the recipe will be 10 points. If you put fat free cream cheese, it will be 7. Since I’m not wild about FF cream cheese, I decided to specifically look up Philadelphia 1/3 less fat cream cheese, and the recipe was 9 points!
Thanks for the tips Allie.. some products vary by country too, I’m in Canada and I know some in the U.S get different point values for things on their App
I made this recipe and it was good; I want to make it again but have a few issues that I hope you can help me correct. My biscuits were overdone and it was to dry. Any ideas as to what I could add to make it moist without increasing the points to much? Should I bake it at 350 as opposed to 375? Have you cooked the biscuits and the chicken mixture separately and put them together just before serving?
Hi, I think it comes down to ovens can vary, my oven at that temp and time cooked the biscuits fine, maybe yours cooks differently and needs less time, and sure you can lower the temp to see if that will help.. you can add extra franks sauce or some BBQ sauce to the chicken mixture if you want it less dry, the recipe is not meant to be a creamy bubble up, but everyone has different taste buds and preferences 🙂
I saw this before I made it tonight, so I reduced the heat to 350, as well as the cook time by 5 minutes, and my biscuits also came out overdone and dry 🙁 The chicken is delicious though, just need to perfect the cook time. I used greek yogurt with dry ranch seasoning for the ranch dressing and it worked great.
Hmmm, I really think it comes down to different ovens varying different temps, Hope it works out for you next time. 🙂
I love that idea for the ranch! I’m going to try it!
🙂 Enjoy!
Looks good but I think I would leave off the bacon. What would that do to the smart points?
Hi Karen, leaving out the bacon would knock off 5 smart points from the whole recipe 🙂
Great! Thank you.
I don’t know that my family would do the hot sauce….could I leave it out? Does the recipe need it for “moisture”?
Hi, you can leave it out but I would replace with another sauce that isn’t hot, maybe a water downed regular BBQ sauce?
Made this last night and it was delicious! Thank you so much for your recipes!
Your very welcome, glad you enjoyed it 🙂
I was putting the ingredients into my weight watchers so I had this recipe ready to go for tomorrow and I am coming back with it at 10sp instead of 8. Are there specific brands you used for your items not listed above? I’m just trying to figure out what I am doing wrong so I buy the correct items at the store.
Thanks!
Hi Melissa, I don’t use the WW recipe builder, I use my fitness pal to get nutritional info then input that into ww calculator, it could come down to specific brands yes, did you use the center cut bacon, the small 7.5oz biscuits? Also I find the WW app for ranch dressing to be way off the one I use, if your in the U.S that could play a factor with the products and what the App is telling you (I am in Canada) it’s your call as to what number to go with, products vary and sometimes people can’t use the exact ones I do.. that’s why I like using my fitness pal cause I can match the product exactly.
I just made this, with my version of your ingredients (everything similar, except Applegate Turkey Bacon, Weight Watchers Cream Cheese, and Kens Lite Buttermilk Ranch Dressing) it came to 11 pts 🙁 🙁 Not too bad for a dinner though. Third recipe of yours ive made and absolutely loved!!
I made this for dinner tonight with a salad. BEST dinner ever!!! WW friendly food never tasted so good – and so easy to put together. Thank you so much for your delicious recipes. This is the second one that I made. The Maple-Pecan- Banana French Toast was to die for as well. I will lose weight on your recipes and never feel deprived!
Thank you for your kind words!! So glad you have enjoyed both recipes, Good luck on your journey!! 🙂
Do you have any ideas for an alternative to the biscuits? I’m not a big biscuit fan, but the rest of it sounds delicious!
Hi Kaitlyn, well you’d be changing it up a bit but you could use pasta or rice.. what about pizza dough?
Thank you for this recipe! I tweaked it a little by using Laughing Cow wedges instead of cream cheese, no ranch or other cheese and added diced carrots and celery. I also added crumbled reduced fat blue cheese on top at the end. Living in Buffalo celery, Carr and blue cheese are how we like our Buffalo Chicken ? This idea to make it as a bubble up is fantastic! Mine worked out to be 6 SP. Thanks again!!
HI Julie, sounds awesome, yes I have heard those in Buffalo use blue cheese or nothing 😉 Glad you made it work for you and nice low points too 🙂
Oh yes!! Always blue cheese!!? There is a yogurt blue cheese dressing that works well in a lot of these recipes. Good point value as well. Thanks for this lovely looking dinner….that will be going into my oven over the weekend!!
Hope you enjoy it! 🙂