Pesto Chicken Zoodle Casserole for an Easy High Protein Low Carb Dinner

The dinner I make from the basil pot above my kitchen sink. Spring on the plate, ten minutes of prep, and the rest of the evening to me.

May 08, 2026

∙ Paid

It’s basil season again. The herb is suddenly everywhere: bunches at the farmer’s market, two-dollar pots at the grocery store, scrappy plants on kitchen window sills. This morning I snipped a fistful from mine for tonight’s dinner: Pesto Chicken Zoodle Casserole.

It’s high protein, low carb, and keto-friendly. About 10 minutes of prep, then the oven takes over for half an hour. Filling enough that I’m not thinking about food again by 9pm.

The thing I like most is what it lets me do with the rest of my evening. Active time is small. Chop the chicken. Spiralize a zucchini. Blend the pesto with cottage cheese. Layer it into a baking dish. After that, I shower, sit with a book, fold the laundry, whatever I want to do while waiting.

Zoodles are a real spring move. Zucchini comes into season around now in the US, which is why I buy them by the armful when they're cheap and freeze them in single-serving portions. Means I have them ready whenever I want this for dinner, no spiralizer step. One thing to watch out for if you're using them frozen - more on that below the paywall.

What you get out of the oven: a creamy, basil-flecked casserole with a fresh herbal smell that fills the kitchen for an hour. The cottage cheese and pesto together do something I didn’t expect the first time I made it. The mix goes silky, slightly tangy, deeply herbal. The mozzarella on top browns in patches. And the color: a deep, vibrant green from the basil and the zucchini that makes the whole thing look like a dinner you’d plate for someone, not just throw together for yourself.

I grow basil partly because I love the smell of it. The plant in my kitchen does more for me than sit there waiting to be cooked with. Fresh basil in a sunny window is one of the small things I’d recommend to anyone, even if the only recipe you ever made with it was this one.

Below the paywall

You’ll get the full ad-free recipe (with the homemade pesto built right in), printable cards for both the casserole and the pesto on its own, and the real-life notes: what I do differently from the version on my site, the swaps I rotate (yes, including shrimp), the shortcuts, and the few places this dish can go a little wrong.

New here? The cottage cheese English muffin post is free to read in full. It’s a good example of what a paid post looks like.