Sheet Pan Buffalo Ranch Chicken and Cauliflower Bowls

With 10 minutes of prep, you can transform frozen chicken breast chunks and a head of cauliflower into these high protein crispy buffalo chicken and ranch roasted cauliflower bowls. The chicken and cauliflower combo is served over mixed greens and shredded veggies with blue cheese and a homemade low calorie ranch dressing.

Making Crispy Buffalo Chicken with Frozen Chicken Breast Chunks

I’m sure by now you’ve seen people using the frozen lightly breaded chicken breast chunks from Kirkland (Costco), Just Bare, Perdue, or Tyson. I highlighted them in my Costco shopping guide and use them all the time. They are great on their own or worked into other recipes like sweet and sour chicken or these buffalo chicken bowls.

One 3-ounce serving of lightly breaded chicken has 140 calories, 16 grams of protein, 9 grams of carbs, and 5 grams of fat. A 3:1 protein to fat ratio is really solid for a pre-cooked protein option in my opinion!

My recipe calls for baking the chicken alongside a sheet pan of ranch cauliflower florets, but you can air fry the chicken if you prefer. Though you’ll need a big air fryer if you want to cook the chicken and cauliflower at the same time.

The baked chicken is tossed in buffalo sauce right before serving. If you have the calories to spare, I would recommend melting down a tablespoon or two of unsalted butter and mixing it together with the buffalo sauce.

What If I Can’t Find Frozen Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks?

There are other frozen breaded chicken options you can use, but you will want to account for the calorie differences.

If you’d like to skip the breaded chicken altogether, you can make skillet buffalo chicken like in these hearty buffalo chicken bowls that inspired this recipe!

You can also try using another convenience protein like rotisserie chicken and tossing with warmed buffalo sauce (or broiling like my Korean BBQ rotisserie chicken bowls).

Ranch Roasted Cauliflower

It doesn’t get much easier than this! Just cut a head of cauliflower (or use a bag of florets) into bite size pieces, toss them in some olive oil, and season with ranch seasoning. Throw the cauliflower on a sheet pan and bake on the middle rack for 30-35 minutes.

The recipe makes roughly a 1:1 ratio of chicken to cauliflower. If you think you want more roasted cauliflower in your chicken bowls, you can probably add another half head to the sheet pan or bake a third sheet pan if you have room.

If you’re not a big cauliflower fan, you can use other cruciferous veggies or something like potatoes. My sheet pan meatballs and potatoes recipe bakes for 35-40 minutes with medium diced potatoes, for comparison.

Making the Chicken and Cauliflower Bowls

The recipe includes a low fat ranch dressing made with Greek yogurt, ranch seasoning, milk, and a tiny bit of vinegar. I like to make this a bit thin to drizzle over the top of the bowls, but you can adjust the milk to make it as thick as you like.

In addition to the ranch, the recipe calls for shredded carrots and cabbage, baby spinach and arugula, and blue cheese or your choice of cheese. The hearty buffalo bowls from Plays Well with Butter I mentioned above calls for rice, but I want to keep this on the low carb side.

Feel free to add rice or another grain to turn this into more of a grain bowl. I was tempted to add something like the crispy rice in this Pinch of Yum salad but ultimately decided to keep it simple.

I’d love to hear how you end up serving your chicken and cauliflower bowls. Let me know in the comments or in a recipe review below. Those are always appreciated!

I’ve included amounts for all the chicken, cauliflower, and add-ins in the recipe card’s notes section below that correspond to the nutrition facts. I’ve also included the nutrition facts for individual components in case you decide to go in a different direction with bowls.

Oh, and as a final note, I’ve been on a rotisserie chicken tear as of late. If you’re looking for more things to make with leftover rotisserie chicken, check out my tacos, enchilada casserole, or buffalo wraps.