Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole

We are eating lower carb, which we translate to mean more veggies. Doug suggested trying some different spices, so I found a Chicken Bacon Ranch casserole to try.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Chicken breast (cooked, cubed or shredded)
• 1cup Ranch dressing, from:
• 3/4 cup cottage cheese
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1.5 tsp lemon or lime juice
• 1.5 tsp dried parsley 
• green part of 1 green onion, diced (optional)
• 1/4 tsp dried dill
• 1/3 tsp garlic powder
• 1/3 tsp onion powder
• 1/3 tsp Kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 ounce milk
• 2 cups broccoli (will be steamed or microwaved, diced into small chunks)
• 4 slices Bacon (cooked, diced)
• 1 bell pepper (will be diced)
• 1/2 Vidalia onion or some green onions, diced
• 2 ounces Mozzarella cheese (shredded)
• 2 ounces Cheddar cheese (shredded)

Instructions:

1. Cook the chicken if needed (I put two frozen breasts in pressure cooker with 2 cups of water. Sprinkle chicken with parsley, dill, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Bring pressure to high, cook for about 12 minutes. Release heat quickly, test chicken is at least 1656 degrees, or pressure cook a few more minutes.) Let chicken cool a bit.
2. Mix up Ranch dressing ingredients in a food processor, scraping down sides. Let sit while cutting and fixing veggies.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
4. Microwave broccoli until softened - maybe 4 minutes from frozen. Let cool a bit.
5. Cook bacon until crisp. Let cool a bit.
6. Dice bell pepper into small pieces (< 1/2 inch) - put in a large mixing bowl
7.  Dice up about 1/2 cup of Vidalia or green onion into small pieces. Stir into  mixing bowl, stir in broccoli as well
8. Dice chicken into 1/2 inch chunks, stir into bowl
9. Stir in about 1/2 of shredded cheeses and 3/4 of bacon into bowl, as well as Ranch dressing mix
10. Spray a large pie dish or an 8x 8 baking pan with cooking spray. Transfer casserole into pan. Sprinkle top with remaining cheese and bacon.
11. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 25 to 20 minutes.

Carole's Notes:

This was pretty tasty.  Next time I will try pre-cooking the onions and peppers - they released some water. I also updated and increased the ranch dressing mixture amounts to make it more creamy next time.

Lightly adapted from https://www.wholesomeyum.com/recipes/chicken-bacon-ranch-casserole-recipe-easy-low-carb/