Buffalo Chicken Casserole with Hasselback Baked Potato

Super Bowl Sunday normally means cheese and more cheese for me.  This year, we’re doing it differently, we’re doing it healthy! But still delicious.  After seeing quite a few posts about Jay’s Baking Me Crazy Whole30 Buffalo Chicken Casserole, the Super Bowl became the perfect opportunity to try this recipe out.  The links I’ve provided give more detail (and way better photos), but I’ve recapped my experience below.

This recipe has a lot of prep – but if you have the ingredients ready to go, it’s a simple dish that feels special occasion.

What you’ll need:

• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 cup carrots, diced
• 1 spaghetti squash, cooked and shredded 
• 2 lb chicken, cooked and pulled
• 1 cup hot sauce (ensure Whole 30 compliant, like Frank’s Red Hot or Cholula)
• 1/4 cup ranch dressing
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Few cranks of black pepper
• 3 eggs

Instructions: 

• Preheat oven to 400F and line a casserole dish with parchment paper
• In a pan, cook and soften onions and carrots, 5-7 minutes
• Remove excess moisture from shredded squash with a cheesecloth or paper towels
• In a large bowl, combine shredded squash, pulled chicken, hot sauce, ranch dressing, garlic powder, salt, pepper and eggs
• Spread evenly into the casserole dish and cook for 35 minutes
• When it’s time to serve, use a knife to help serve (to cut through the squash) – garnish with scallions or extra ranch

For the hasselback baked potatoes, there are a bunch of recipes online.  I plan to tackle these more thoroughly in a future post, but briefly: thinly slice potatoes (but not all the way through), brush with olive oil and sprinkle with coarse sea salt (we used truffle salt). Bake on a baking sheet at 450 for about an hour. I garnished mine with scallions.