Keto Baked Caesar Chicken is a super easy and flavorful dump-and-bake dinner recipe! Just 15 minutes of prep time. Serve with a simple green salad and optional cooked veggie, such as cauli rice or Roasted Cauliflower.
8 to 10chicken thighsboneless, skinless; or 4 to 5 chicken breasts, each one cut in half crosswise at an angle (see photo in Step 1 below) -- or a combination of both -- about 3 pounds total
1full recipeEasy Caesar Salad Dressingsee just below
1smidgenxanthan gumoptional (if you want the dressing to stay evenly mixed and not separate) - A smidgen is 1/32 of a teaspoon.
Instructions
Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9″ x 13″ baking dish or similar size. Place chicken in casserole dish, thighs or cut breasts, or a combination of both. For cooking times to be accurate, be sure to cut the breasts in half first, crosswise (not lengthwise or width-wise, see photo below).
Whisk together Easy Caesar Salad Dressing (except the Parmesan!) in a 4-cup Pyrex with pour spout or a medium bowl. Ideally use an electric beater or hand blender to combine, but you can hand whisk if you don't have one (the ingredients just won't come together in as creamy a way; they'll stay un-homogenized). At first, the dressing ingredients will stay separate: Keep blending, and the ingredients will come together to look creamier. Pour the dressing over thighs and/or breast pieces, spreading it evenly. Sprinkle Parmesan over the top.
Place in the oven. Bake for 25 minutes. If you want them more browned on top, Broil (on low if it's an option) for 2 to 4 minutes (but watch closely to prevent burning).
If you'd like to test for doneness, just cut into one. Or, when done, a meat thermometer will read 165°F when put into the thickest part of the chicken. However, it is better to stop cooking chicken a little early, at 150°F, as it will keep cooking when removed from the oven, and it gets dried out if allowed to stay in the oven until it's fully cooked.
OPTIONAL for best presentation: Transfer chicken to warmed plate or to attractive warmed baking dish. Pour all baking juices into a deep mixing bowl or Pyrex. Using electric beater, start on Low speed (because the pan juices are hot). While blending sprinkle in the smidgen of xanthan, and blend another 15 to 20 seconds, until creamy, smooth and fully homogenized. Pour some of the sauce around the chicken pieces in your serving dish. Save extra on the side to pass at the table. Or, stir some into already cooked cauliflower rice to serve as a side dish or under the plated chicken (which is what I did in the photos). The reason we thicken the sauce after cooking is that the chicken creates its own pan juices. These will thin the sauce. By thickening after cooking, all of the pan juices are mixed with the dressing, and thickened as one.
Serve with extra spoonfuls of sauce from the pan. Enjoy with a green salad and cauli rice or roasted cauliflower.