How To Make Chicken Noodle Casserole
This recipe is available in a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
This Chicken Noodle Casserole is a kid favorite wherever it’s served, and my husband seems to get just as excited! The ingredients are simple so it’s a great last minute supper for busy evenings.
With a few shortcuts, you can have this all on hand as a shelf stable meal, too! I’ll put those instructions below and a link to my other shelf stable Bags to Dishes meals as well.
Warning: this is ridiculously delicious. This chicken noodle casserole has no right to be this simple and taste this good.
The Ingredients you’ll need for Chicken Noodle Casserole are:
- Egg Noodles
- Cooked chicken*
- Milk (not pictured)
- Cream of Chicken Soup
- An optional topping of round crackers
- Butter
This picture shows fat free but I usually use regular Cream of Chicken. You can use your favorite or you can make cream soup from scratch using this recipe. You can also make your pasta from scratch and even raise and process your own chicken if you like – but I’ve found few purists willing to go much further than the homemade cream soup :).
*I sometimes pick up a rotisserie for a quick lunch and save the rest of it for this chicken noodle casserole. You can also just use a large can of cooked white meat chicken in water, drained.
- Cook egg noodles until just done, being careful not to overcook. Drain well.
- Place soup, chicken, milk, and cooked pasta in a bowl.
- Stir that all up really good.
- Spoon into a 9×13 casserole dish that has been sprayed with a little cooking spray.
- If you want to add a little topping to make it prettier, stir together 1/2 a sleeve of crushed crackers and 1/2 a stick (1/4 cup) of melted butter.
- Sprinkle this over the top. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.
- Serve warm and enjoy!
I like to serve this with a low carb veggie such as roasted asparagus or green beans. YUMMO
Ingredients
- 1 package egg noodles
- 2 cans cream of chicken soup
- 1/2 cup milk fresh or canned
- 2 cups cooked chicken (or a large can of chicken)
Optional
- 1/2 sleeve Ritz Crackers, crushed
- 1/4 cup melted butter
Instructions
- Cook egg noodles according to package directions until just done, careful not to overcook (I like to undercook them by a minute or two). Drain.In large bowl place hot egg noodles, cream soup, milk, and chicken, Stir until combined. Pour into greased 9x13 pan.Optional topping: Crush 1/2 sleeve Ritz crackers and stir these crumbs together with 1/4 cup melted butter. Sprinkle over top of casserole in baking dish. Bake, uncovered, 20 minutes at 350. Serve hot.
Notes
Nutrition
You might also enjoy this recipe:
Chicken Fried Rice Easy Peasy (And You Can Freezey 😆)
Bloom where you’re planted, even if you don’t get to pick the field.
~Shared with me by my friend, Karen Terry.
I make this often and add a packet of Ranch dressing mix for extra flavor. So tasty! And sometimes instead of a cracker crumb topping I will use fried onions instead :).
As for picky eater stories, the first one that comes to mind was my aunt who insisted that she did NOT like chicken. At all. No way. Well, she was at a bridal shower for another family member and kept going on and on about how delicious the tuna salad sandwiches were. No one had TOLD her it was tuna salad, she just assumed it was. She ate a couple of them and then someone told her it was actually chicken salad, not tuna, and she refused to eat another bite! LOL!
The ranch idea is wonderful, thank you!! and HAHA!!! That is a funny story!!! lol I’ve known a lot of people who would have done the same thing!
Ugh… Picky eater at my house! She is a teenager and so what she eats is really mood controlled. Foods she used to love become “nasty” in the blink of an eye. So I’ve learned to cook for me and her momma and keep on hand plenty of little stuff for her. She loves Pepperoni applesauce saltines so those are always on hand.
GREAT story about your Aunt. We all have an “Aunt” in our family like that.
I bet she goes home and makes it herself and eats it while no one is watching. LOL
This is pretty much how I make Tuna Casserole, use mushroom soup, velvetta cheese and potato chips on top.
Ooh that sounds yummy – I don’t even like Tuna but I’d like to try this one!
Christy, my husband didn’t like tuna either, so I made that exact casserole with canned chicken. We all loved it!
I make a chicken noodle casserole also but I like to add broccoli and lots of cheese! I also do a mix of cream of chicken and broccoli cheddar soup to give it a little more flavor
Wonderful idea Shannon, gets some of those green vegetables in!!
Do you think this would freeze well? I would wait to put the ritz cracker topping on it until after it has thawed or cooked (from frozen) for a while but I wonder if the noodles would be okay if frozen.
Hey Leah! I haven’t tried it but I think it would work. If you give it a try let me know how it turns out, and if I get a chance to freeze it I will let you know.
I tried freezing and had no problems with the noodles.
Thank you for letting us know Wendy!!
You were very kind in how you pointed this out and I appreciate it! Often, as I’m typing at the speed of light I overlook little typing errors and this sounded like it could be one of those. However, in this instance I meant to use the word “stable” as in enduring, not expiring, prone to spoilage, or deteriorating over time. I can easily see how you would think I meant staple as in something one always has on hand.
Thank you for being here and I appreciate you taking the time to read so carefully! Have a great week!
I loved vegetable up until I was 3 (or so my parents told me) when my little brother was introduced to “people food” and he didn’t like them. So I stopped liking them. My mother would always put a spoonful of vegetables on our dinner plates and I would treat them like pills, swallowing them down with milk, unchewed (even green beans). My husband has taught me to like some vegetables – always fresh (no more cans) and cooked way differently from the way my mom cooked them. My oldest granddaughter only liked chicken when she was beginning to eat “people food”, so every meat was called chicken no matter what it really was. She outgrew that and now will eat almost everything. Thank you for another winning recipe!!
I am trying not to giggle at the thought of a child swallowing veggies whole like medicine! That was innovative! lol I LOVE that you called all meat chicken, sounds like something I would do! Susan, I just appreciate the mess out of you! Thank you for being here and always bringing joy!
I makethis adding a little sour cream . Sometimes I cut the soup down and use a jar of Alfredo and mix parm cheese in the cracker mix on top . It’s all good . For color you can add a can of drained green peas !!!!