Have you tried the Costco Chicken Bake? If you’re obsessed with this food court legend, you have to try this copy cat recipe. Made at home in just 30 minutes!
Costco Chicken Bakes are stuffed with bacon, chicken and a creamy dressing. While this combo has been beloved by Costco shoppers for years, you can switch up the ingredients to find a combination that fits your unique tastebuds.
Make a big batch of Costco Chicken Bakes with fresh and organic ingredients for healthier “frozen food”. When a craving hits or you don’t have time to make a homemade dinner, you’ll be happy you have a couple hanging out in the fridge.
Tips for the Costco Chicken Bake
- Pizza Dough – You can make pizza dough from scratch or pick up a pre-made dough from the store
- Hot tip: Trader Joe’s has a great dough in the refrigerated section. You can snag a plain dough or one that is packed with Italian herbs. Both will work great.
- Chicken – If you have leftover rotisserie chicken hanging out, this recipe is the perfect way to make sure it doesn’t go to waste. If you don’t, plain grilled chicken or instant pot chicken will do.
- Bacon Crisps – If you’re in a pinch and don’t want to fry bacon, buy some pre-made bacon bits from the store. We love using air fryer bacon for this recipe.
- Cheese – Mozzarella cheese is our top pick, but you can use any shredded cheese that you like. Make sure you don’t forget to add a sprinkle of parmesan cheese for that signature taste.
- Sauce – Ranch or caesar dressing work great.
- Flour – A high-quality all purpose flour will work great.
Note: You will need to either purchase or prepare pizza dough prior to making this recipe. When you make a full portion of pizza dough, you can double up the recipe and keep the remainder of the dough refrigerated for a different day. You can use it for garlic knots.
How to make Costco Chicken Bake
- Roll out your pizza dough and slice into even pieces.
- Spread the dressing over the dough.
- Top it off with chicken and bacon.
- Next, add a handful of mozzarella cheese, roll it up and sprinkle on some parmesan.
- Bake at 415°F until golden brown and the cheese is ooey gooey.
Serving Chicken Bake
The Chicken Bake alone will fill you up. These things are hefty! But, if you want to round out your dinner a bit more, try pairing your Chicken Bake with:
- Caesar Salad – Homemade caesar salad is way better than the bagged variety you’ve been eating. This one comes together lightning quick!
- Garden Salad – A simple garden salad is always welcome at the dinner table.
- Broccoli Cauliflower Salad – Broccoli and cauliflower slaw is full of crunchy veggies and tossed with a creamy dressing.
Can You Freeze Homemade Costco Chicken Bake?
You can freeze the Chicken Bake raw or after it has been baked. Either way, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread the Chicken Bakes across it. Pop the entire baking sheet in the freezer to allow the individual pieces to freeze entirely. Once frozen, remove and place in a freezer-safe bag.
To reheat your Chicken Bakes, follow these below instructions:
- Frozen Raw: Thaw on the counter and bake according to the recipe instructions.
- Frozen Baked: Thaw on the counter and then reheat in the oven for about 5 minutes.
Hot tip: Try not to microwave frozen Chicken Bakes to reheat. While tempting, microwaving will make the Bakes soggy.
More Similar Recipes
- Pizza Recipe – Everyone needs a good pizza recipe in their back pocket.
- Flatbread Pizza – Parmesan garlic flatbread makes for the tastiest pizza crust.
- Pizza Rolls – This fun pizza appetizer is perfect for a kid’s party.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lb pizza dough
- 2 cup cooked chicken
- 1 cup bacon crisps
- 3 cup mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup Parmesan
- 1 cup ranch dressing
- flour
Instructions
- Divide the pizza dough into 6 even pieces.
- Roll out each piece into a rectangular shape. Spread on the ranch dressing, being sure to leave about an inch on all sides.
- Top off with chicken and bacon.
- Follow by a handful of Mozzarella cheese. Roll it up and place it to rest on an oiled baking sheet.
- Apply a tiny bit of ranch on the outside. Bake it at 415°F for about 17 minutes, remove from the oven and sprinkle on the parmesan cheese. Bake for another 3-5 minutes or until they become golden brown.
- Serve hot while the cheese is melted.
I love chicken bake. Super yummy can’t wait to make it at home! I have one question, do you use any kind of seasoning? Or the dough and ingredients have enough salt and seasoning in them?
Hi Karina- I do not add additional seasonings, but you are welcome to add your choice of seasoning if desired! Enjoy!
I haven't had a chicken bake from Costco in maybe 10 years. This tastes exactly how I remember it. I am so happy to have found this recipe.
Hi Yvette. That's the best compliment! Thank you very much. Enjoy!
Very excited to make these! Wondering if you have ever added any vegetables in them? Celery? Onions? Peas? Tomatoes? I would love to add some veggies for my kids, I have to sneak it in wherever I can. 😉
Hi Libbie - Oh yummmmmm. My guess is that adding any of these three is a good idea. This is definitely a perfect recipe to sneak some veggies in for picky kids. 🙂
Made these today and they are delicious. Only change I made was using creamy Ceasar dressing because we dont like ranch.
Mmmmmmmmm! That sounds great and probably added a nice pop of tang. Thanks for sharing and so happy you enjoyed.
Decent recipe. Definitely needs much more dressing and bacon! Triple the amount listed and it'll be like Costco.
Hi there- thanks for sharing! I always encourage modifying things to taste for ultimate culinary satisfaction 🙂
I will shop for all the ingredients & make this recipe this weekend. I plan to serve it with a garden salad. However, I have one question. Do I need to seal the short end of each roll. I do not see this step in the instructions, but the pictures show the ends sealed.
Hello, Gloria. Yes, pinching or sealing the ends is a good idea to prevent the filling from coming out while baking or eating. Enjoy!
This was so good and even better the next day. I left out the bacon (did not have any) and added red onion as suggested in one of the comments. Was very tasty.
So glad you loved it, thank you for your feedback!
Hello Natalya, I have question on the roll out pizza dough, how thin you would recommend? I made pizza dough from Natasha's recipe and I cut it to 4 pieces,. They look not big but not sure how to compare with yours.
Another question is why mine isn't brown? it's quite pale...after 17 mins.
Hey Eva, I would roll out the dough as thin as possible because they would rise, you can make them a bit longer instead of thicker. Sometimes the oven runs at a lower temperature, you can bake them for a bit longer until they are golden.
You can brush them with oil before baking if you want a browner crust, I’d recommend olive oil but it doesn’t matter much.
Hello! Before I make this recipe, I was hoping you could tell me how many footlong sandwiches this recipe makes?? You say to cut the 1.5 lb dough into 6 pieces, but then your finished photos show 3 really long sandwiches... did you just choose to split the 1.5 lb dough into 3 parts for the final product rather than 6 or will I have really have 6 large sandwiches?
I would recommend splitting it into. It would depend on how thin you roll out the dough but you should have 6 sandwiches that are about 3/4 of a footlong. Hope this helps.
I was craving a chicken bake but Costco was closed and these hit the spot! Maybe even better than Costco. I used the garlic and herb pizza dough from Trader Joe’s to add more flavor. Next time I would mix the chicken/bacon/cheese together with the caesar dressing instead of layering it all on top of each other. So good!!
Thank you, Kayla, for taking the time to comment and share your feedback!
Is it better to freeze after you bake it or freeze after assembling it???
It depends on your preference. I personally would freeze after its baked. It will be quicker to reheat.
You gotta bake them and then freeze, ideally with a vac sealer. Then reheat at 350 till it’s warm
Hi Fred - Definitely a good call! These are awesome to have on hand for a rainy day in the freezer. Thanks for the tip!
What do you need the flour for?
Hey Jeanelle, to dust the surface when working with the dough. Enjoy
My hubby is obsessed with this in Costco. Thank you for the delicious healthier alternative since Costco probably uses lots of unnecessary ingredients.
Homemade is always best! Thank you for your feedback.
I worked at Costco and this recipe is spot on! Healthier would be to use no bacon and stick to homemade with no preservatives!
Back in the day i worked the kitchen 1997-2000 the bakes used to have scallions also, think they took them out after 2001. Always wantes to add adsitional ingredients, now i can. Thanks for the recipe, mostly the temp and times. Lol.
Anthony, thank you for that feedback, that is so good to hear!!
Just finished this single serving style and threw in whatever I had. Used a naturally leavened pizza dough, ranch, chicken, mozzarella, Parmesan, sundried tomatoes, red onions, and salami since I didn’t have bacon bits. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! It was better than I could have imagined.
Oh my, that sounds heavenly you are making me drool! Thank you for sharing your version Jamie.
Ok, what can i substitute for the ranch? We arent ranch fans.
Thank you.
Hey Jane, you can use caesar salad dressing. That's what I like to use as well.
Costco bakes are made with ceasar dressing.
Hey Brett, yes, I am aware. I did share that you can use Caesar or Ranch dressing. Enjoy!
Hi, how did you cook your chicken?
Just cheat and buy the rotisserie chicken from costco.
Thanks for the tip!
Pretty sure with heat! Sorry Dad Jokes, couldn't resist!
Typically leftover or the grilled chicken recipe. Here it is: https://momsdish.com/recipe/6…
I'm gluten free so I plan on subbing a different type of dough. How many cups of pizza dough do you use? Thank you so much!
You will need the same amount of dough as you would for a medium size pizza. I hope this helps.
Makes a solid fleshlight substitute!
Hey Terry, thank you! Hope you loved it!
Really yummy chicken bake. I read through reviews and saw that many people recommend the Caesar dressing so I used that, and it turned out amazing. Thank you!
Kristina, thank you for sharing your feedback. I am so glad you loved it!
Hi, thanks for the recipe! I used Alfredo sauce instead of ranch and it was so good ?
Oh thats an awesome idea. Thank you for sharing. I think Alfredo would add so much of a creamy flavor.
The costco Chicken Bake utilizes caesar dressing, mozz cheese, bacon, and parmesan cheese. It starts as a round dough ball and you roll and scoop it until you're able to form the rolled log. This is no where near the costco chicken bake.
Really Alan?! You took the time to write this nice lady who took the time to create and share a very good recipe just to dis her? Well the jokes on you. Costco is selling premade chicken bakes now, not the originals, and people hate them! But please, go fill up on them. I’ll make this recipe instead and enjoy something thoughtfully created by a nice lady who just likes to cook and share food with her family and friends. For free!
Alan, thanks for letting us in one secret!! Recipe does say "inspired by", I agree that is not same as chicken bake from costco 🙂 probably a little better .. lol
Okay, hold up, there is no way this is better than a chicken bake DIRECTLY FROM COSTCO. I'm going to need to check your Costco membership card.
My husband tried the chicken bake from Costco couple weeks ago and didn’t like it, said ingredients tasted frozen/kind of fake. So excited to try a homemade version to see if he will like it 🙂
Anna, I hope you love it as much as we do. What's great is you can use leftover chicken in this recipe, it saves me so much time. 🙂
lol:) way better!
do you think it will be ok to us Pillsbury bread dough
I have used pillsbury before and it worked!
Awesome. I like the dough I make at home for this recipe but I think its definitely amazing option.
how many chicken bakes does the whole dough recipe make?
Depending on the size you make them, around 10
Trader joes sells pizza dough in bags in the refrigerator, for $1.15 eavh bag. I always pick up a few when im there.
That's a great price. I have never tried it before. I will pick it up next time I am there. Thanks for telling me.
Can you freeze these chicken bakes?
You can, just bake them for about 10 minutes. Freeze them in a ziplock bag than reheat in an oven.
Thank you:)
I made them yesterday using my own dough. I didnt have any bacon, instead I put a little of mushrooms and tomato. They were ok, but I dont think I will make them again. I like calzone much better.
But thanks for the idea 🙂
Maybe the dough you used made the difference? How do you make your calzone?
I made these for dinner yesterday and they were so perfect! I didn't have ranch on hand, but I did have some homemade Caesar dressing so I used that and omg was it delish! Also, since I'm not a fan of 'breads' I rolled the dough into smaller sections and stuffed it then folded it over instead of rolling it so that there wouldn't be any dough in the inside. 🙂 Thank you for my new 'go to' recipe! :))
Luda I love that idea with making them shaped almost like piroshki. I was thinking maybe even Alfredo sauce would work too.
Thanks for sharing your tips.
What a great idea making your own. I liked Costcos chicken bake so much until once I bit on a huge piece of chicken fat. 🙂 You are right, yours tasted much better just by looking at the picture you can tell. Do you know if Costco uses ranch or some other sauce?
I honestly don't know what they use for the sauce but I like the ranch in this recipe.
They use caeser dressing
Oh cool! Thanks for sharing
That chicken bake looks amazing! Do you think using Pillsburry pizza crust would work fine? And I'm thinking about adding some diced tomatoes and some spinach on the inside.
I think pillsburry pizza crust will work, the recipe I have is actually very simple. Green onions would be an awesome addition too.