Caveman Keto Weight loss through low carb cooking
The hardest meal to think of innovative options for is lunch. For breakfast there are many different egg and bacon concepts. For dinner you can make steaks, side dishes, etc. For lunch, the entire meal needs to fit in a tiny container and generally everything in the container needs to be microwave safe and quick. My wife wanted to switch it up so we tried Chicken Cordon Bleu. The inspiration for this was a post on LCF: http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/lowcarb-recipe-help-suggestions/725313-chicken-cordon-bleu-casserole.html
Here is the finished product with some spinach for greens.
For this meal, I used chicken thighs. The reason for this is I made half Chicken Thighs with Spinach and half this. So I was able to get by just getting one meat product. The original recipe calls for chicken tenders. However, I think if I were to make it again I would just use chicken breasts The first step is to rough chop the chicken as shown and apply salt and pepper.
Add cubed ham. I used ham steak and cut it up. WARNING: I just bought any other ham steak and to my dismay, when I got home I discovered this has sugar in it. Make sure to buy one without sugar. I used it anyway but I was really close to just pitching it because I eat a lot of vegetables and I really don’t want empty carbs.
Sprinkle with swiss cheese. Again, the original recipe called for cubed swiss, but I find that grated melts better. I hand grated it with a regular table top grater.
Here is the final result before baking. When you add the liquid over top, give it a stir to combine everything together. One note, for these massive, all week meals, I don’t use a standard 9×13 pan. The one shown is actually a 15″ x 10″ casserole dish.
And here is the final product! This made 10 servings.
- Serves: 10
- Serving size: 1
- Calories: 486
- Fat: 30
- Carbohydrates: 4
- Fiber: 0
- Protein: 38
- 53 oz Chicken (breast or tender or thighs)
- 300 g Ham Steak
- 11 oz Jarlsberg Swiss Cheese
- 1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- To Taste Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder
- 1 cup Cream Cheese
- Cut up chicken into 1" cubes, spread on bottom of pan
- Salt, pepper, garlic powder the chicken
- Cut up the ham into ½" cubes and sprinkle on top of chicken
- Shred Swiss cheese and spread over mixtures
- Heat the cream cheese in the microwave, then add the cream and mix, pour over casserole
- Mix the dish up
- Bake @ 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
- Makes 10 portions. Half the recipe for 5 or a smaller pan.
 4.8 Quart Casserole DishGreat for cooking those gigantic, week long casseroles! I call them 5day meals on the website. Normal casserole dishes are 10×13 but this one is gigantic and can easily be divided into ten portions. |
 Cuisinart 9-Cup Food ProcessorI first got this food processor as a wedding gift and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Well, let me tell you, its been a godsend on keto! I shred cheese, slice brussels sprouts, and rice cauliflower like a boss! |
 GlassLock 17 Oz. Square Food Container These are my new favorite food storage container! They are good for the refrigerator, microwave and freezer. Additionally, the gasket makes it so they never leak and the lids are super secure. |
I made this tonight for work lunches next week. I notice you make mention of heating the cream cheese in the microwave but it’s not in the ingredients list. Looks and smells really good, I’m looking forward to lunch tomorrow!
Oh man, good catch!
I’m curious if the cooking time would be different if I used pre-cooked chicken breast? I work in a diner-type restaurant, and take home whatever chicken we don’t serve to customers. Do you think this would be doable?
When I make this, it is completely delicious, so thank you for the recipe, but it seems to be rather oily, especially around the edges…..any remedies or reason?
I made this using your measurements exactly, but what I ended up with (maybe I can’t see it) had a lot of liquid in the pan. I tipped it to the side and drained it all out, but it wasn’t a solid casserole.
Had to bake it longer to.
I just made this for lunches this week. Tastes pretty darn good. Was a little soupy like when I took it out of the oven, but I added in some broccoli florets and once it sat for a little bit it thickened right up.
I have the ingredients to make this for dinner tonight, could anyone that has made this successfully give me a pointer as to keeping the casserole a solid. It seems like most people who made it encountered a liquid issue.
The liquid is cooking out of the ham and raw chicken and into the casserole. Sear your chicken and ham first, drain, then bake. The cheese will still render a lot of oils but at least you won’t have a water/oil solution floating around in your casserole.
This will also give you an opportunity to spice your chicken and get a nice sear on it. 🙂 For ease of clean up, sear in an oven-ready roasting pan for a 1-dish-meal.
I too had a lot of liquid in mine when it was done. I even cooked it longer but it didn’t help. Kind of ruined the dish for me. I wish I had read the comments first. I’m pretty bummed since it sounded so good.
This was liquidy for me at first. However after a night in the fridge, the consistency improved immensely. Have been eating it for lunch this whole week. Tastes great
I made it tonight and it was delicious. Believe it or not, I couldn’t find Swiss cheese at my local Jewel, so I used some mozzarella I already had. Thanks for the recipe!
I made this the first time and there was WAAAY too much fat from the chicken thighs. It was pretty much unedible.
The second time I cooked the chicken thighs (in a pot) and let the thighs cook in their own fat. Once cooked, I drained the fat.
After completing the recipe it came out MUCH better. It really depends on how lean your chicken is. If you have a lot of fat on your chicken you’re going to have to either render it down first or cut it off – in the pictures you can see there is a little bit of fat but for the most part it’s pretty lean. I’ve seen thighs that are a ridiculous amount of fat, so you just need to be aware of this.
Hey, thanks for this! This is one of my favorite dishes to make for 5 days! This week, i added mozzarella cheese, removed the ham, layered it with pepperoni instead and a bit of pizza sauce. It’s like meatzza casserole!! 🙂 looking forward to a week of yummy food!
I made this Sunday and have been eating it all week. It is super awesome and SO freakin’ delicious! I used boneless skinless chicken breast and they didn’t dry out and it wasn’t too runny.
I also mixed it all up in a huge bowl and put it evenly into two 9×9 pans I had and just made slightly bigger servings. They were perfect!
I love you Caveman Keto.
Another winner, absolutely fantastic. I noticed in the video the meat is precooked but in the step by step the casserole is put together raw. I precooked mine and it turn out great, not watery at all as mentioned in some comments.
I skipped one chicken breast and used chorizo instead. I also browned the ham with the chorizo to cook out a lot of the water added to the ham. Added a lot of flavor and turned out very tasty, but still a little rich to eat too much.
Just made this tonight. It was absolutely delicious!!
This cooks unbelievably runny. Cook the chicken first in a pan, then cube the chicken. Mix everything in a bowl and pour into the pan. Then cook for 40 @350 comes out nice.
Do you think this would freeze well or would the cream cause it to separate?
I didn’t use ham because it’s really expensive but hot dang this recipe is good. WILL be making this frequently.