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Ground Chicken Taco Casserole

This one pan chicken taco casserole combines ground chicken breast with pinto beans, roasted corn, diced tomatoes and green chiles, corn tortillas, and Mexican cheese. It’s super easy to make and each serving has 30 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber with just 340 calories.

Casseroles are one of my go-to meal prep recipes, and this one is no exception.

chicken taco casserole in a cast iron skillet behind a white bowl with a serving of the casserole garnished with nonfat yogurt, cilantro, and salsa macha

Ingredients for Tex Mex Ground Chicken Casserole

Here’s a quick look at everything you need:

  • Ground Chicken
  • Beans
  • Diced Tomatoes and Green Chiles
  • Roasted Corn
  • Taco Seasoning
  • Corn Tortillas
  • Mexican Cheese

It’s a short list, but you have tons of substitution options. Let’s go through the list.

Ground Chicken

Feel free to use any protein. I make a ton of ground chicken recipes because I love its neutral flavor profile. If your grocery store doesn’t carry ground chicken, it’s easier than you might think to make ground chicken breast at home.

cooked ground chicken in a cast iron skillet with chili powder, garlic powder, oregano, and ground cumin

Veggies

For the beans, I used a can of charro beans from H-E-B. If you have trouble finding charro beans in a can, you can use a can of pinto beans, black beans, chili beans, or something similar. You could also make my homemade charro beans (on a smoker or baked in the oven) to use for this ground chicken casserole and have plenty of leftovers for other meals.

I like using roasted corn instead of canned for the extra flavor added from roasting, but canned corn works perfectly fine. The same goes for the tomatoes and green chiles—roasted is ideal but optional.

roasted corn, canned beans, and RO-TEL in a cast iron skillet with seasoned ground chicken

If you want to add even more veggies, you can sauté them before adding the ground chicken. Check out my green chile beef enchilada skillet for an example of zucchini, poblano peppers, and fresh corn going in before ground beef. Onion, peppers, and maybe even riced cauliflower like I used in my stuffed peppers with ground chicken would all work great here.

Corn Tortillas

You can’t beat the flavor of corn when it comes to making tacos. Any tortilla works here, but I highly recommend sticking to corn.

chopped corn tortillas in a cast iron skillet with ground chicken and veggies

Cheese

I’m always a promoter of using freshly grated cheese, but with recipes like this chicken taco casserole, you can get away with shredded blends. Sometimes it makes sense to use a blend if you doubt you’ll work your way through four blocks of cheese. And there’s always a chance you won’t be able to find queso de Oaxaca and other Mexican cheeses in your local grocery store.

ground chicken taco casserole topped with shredded Mexican cheese

If you can find it, however, Oaxaca and Colby jack cheese are a great pairing. Take a look at my southwest beef and veggie quesadillas for a look at it in action.

And if you’d like to learn more about different types of Mexican cheese, this article is a good start.

ground chicken taco casserole in a cast iron skillet

There’s a good chance you’ve seen salsa macha used as a garnish if you’ve seen any of my Tex Mex recipes in the past year or so. It’s an amazing ingredient that every pantry should have. If you like chili oil and chili crisp with your Asian dishes, you’ll love salsa macha.

Chopped cilantro, fat free Greek yogurt or light sour cream, and cotija cheese would all be great additional garnishes for this chicken taco bake. For a pop of freshness, you might check out my creamy guacamole salsa or zucchini salsa verde.

More One-Pan Casseroles

If you dig this ground chicken casserole, I bet you’ll enjoy the following recipes as well:

And that’s the way the cookie crumbles. You have plenty of cooking to do now.

There is a recipe card below for you to save to your device or print for your recipe book. I always appreciate recipe reviews and comments letting me know how recipes worked outside my test kitchen.

serving of ground chicken taco casserole in a white bowl garnished with salsa macha, cilantro, and nonfat Greek yogurt

Ground Chicken Taco Casserole

Yield: 5 Servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes

A one pan casserole with ground chicken, pinto beans, tomatoes and green chiles, roasted corn, corn tortillas, and Mexican cheese.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
  • 1 pound Ground Chicken
  • 1 packet Taco Seasoning (or seasoning blend in notes below)
  • 15 oz can Beans*
  • 10 oz can Diced Tomatoes and Green Chiles*
  • 1 cup (170g) Frozen Roasted Corn*
  • 1/2 cup Chicken Broth or Water
  • 6 Extra Thin Corn Tortillas, cut into thin strips
  • 4 oz Shredded Mexican Cheese

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 400ºF. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
  2. Once hot, add the ground chicken and cook for 3-4 minutes to brown one side before breaking apart and fully cooking.
  3. Add the taco seasoning or spice blend to the cooked ground chicken. Stir until evenly incorporated before adding the can of beans (undrained), tomatoes and green chiles, frozen corn, and broth or water.
  4. Stir everything together before folding in the tortillas and topping with the cheese.
  5. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the cheese is melted and the tortillas are browning slightly around the edges.
  6. Garnish with chopped cilantro, salsa macha or hot sauce, sour cream or nonfat Greek yogurt, or your choice of toppings.

Notes

*I used H-E-B charro beans, Mexican style RO-TEL, and Whole Foods fire roasted corn. You can use any style of beans, but I'd recommend pinto beans. You can use a drained can of whole kernel corn in place of frozen corn. If you're using a can of beans with very little liquid, you'll want to add a bit (1/2 to 1 cup) of water or chicken broth.

If you don't have taco seasoning on hand, you can substitute with 2 tablespoons of chili powder and 1 teaspoon each of kosher salt, garlic powder, ground cumin, and dried Mexican oregano.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 5 Serving Size: about 10 oz
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 340Total Fat: 12gCarbohydrates: 26gFiber: 6gProtein: 30g

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Michelle

Sunday 18th of February 2024

Delicious! Comes together quickly. Used black beans.

It was sort of soupy though. Do you drain the tomatoes?

Definitely going on the repeat list.

Mason Woodruff

Tuesday 20th of February 2024

Tomatoes go straight in. Maybe the beans had a bit more liquid in the can? Or if you used canned corn, you can drain that. Also might try reducing on the stovetop a bit longer before adding the chopped tortillas and cheese if it looks a bit thin next go around. Hope that helps!

Lori

Sunday 10th of September 2023

This is a great recipe! I doubled the meat and added some chopped onions then served with plain Doritos broken up atop each bowl (I was out of corn tortillas). Everyone devoured it and went back for more! Definitely making this again!!

Cynthia

Monday 7th of August 2023

Can you make this in a ninja foodi?

Mason Woodruff

Saturday 12th of August 2023

Seems like the perfect recipe for it. You could use the air fryer lid to broil the cheese.

Krista

Sunday 4th of June 2023

Could you double this and use a 9x13 casserole dish?

Mason Woodruff

Monday 5th of June 2023

Great idea! I think everything should fit okay in a 9x13. Report back if you try it out.

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