This comfort food recipe for chicken noodle casserole takes everyone’s favorite feel better soup and transforms it into a hearty pot pie supper.
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Why we love this recipe ❤️
I do love me a good old-fashioned chicken noodle soup (you might have guessed this from the zillion chicken noodle soups I have collected here).
And while I am 100% okay with eating chicken noodle soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the rest of my multigenerational crew often likes to have something a little more substantial for supper.
So this recipe for chicken noodle casserole was born. All the chicken noodle flavors and ingredients, plus a couple of extras to transform it into satisfying comfort food baked form.
Ingredients you need 🍗
Ingredient notes and substitutions 📝
- Chicken: We like to use shredded white meat chicken in this recipe, but if you want to use dark meat that is a-ok. Or a combo of both!
- Breadcrumbs: The easiest way we know to get fresh breadcrumbs in a flash is to whirl a slice or two of bread in your food processor and voila! Fresh breadcrumbs!
- Poultry Seasoning: Look for this spice mix in the baking aisle with the other spices.
- Egg Noodles: We like the fine thinner egg noodles for this recipe but you can use any noodles you like. Just make sure you adjust the cooking time if you are using bigger noodles.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities and nutritional information.
How to make this recipe 👩🏻🍳
STEP 1: Preheat your oven to 350° and spray a casserole with cooking spray.
STEP 2: Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add some fresh breadcrumbs and stir them up until they are golden. Scoop them out and set them aside in a little bowl.
STEP 3: Add a little more butter to the skillet and let it melt over medium high heat. Add some peeled and chopped onions, carrots and celery and sauté everything until the veggies are just tender about five minutes. Stir in a couple tablespoons of flour.
STEP 4: Pour in some chicken broth and give it a good stir. Add some poultry seasoning and some salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Add some thin egg noodles and cook it all up until the noodles are tender, about 6 to 8 minutes.
STEP 5: Stir in some cooked shredded chicken and a little half-and-half.
STEP 14: Pour the chicken and noodle mixture into your prepared casserole and top with your beautiful golden breadcrumbs. Bake it up until everything is hot and bubbling, about 30 minutes. Give it about five minutes to rest and then serve it up!
Recipe FAQs 🧐
If you have the time, my favorite way to get myself a pile of cooked chicken is to pop a few chicken breasts in the slow cooker with about 2 cups of chicken broth and let it cook for 8 hours on low. It will be amazingly tender.
Or, you can put the chicken in a pot of water, bring it to a boil and turn off the heat. Cover the pot and let the chicken cool completely. This is called poaching the chicken and again…so tender.
OR, you can buy a rotisserie chicken at your supermarket, or use leftover chicken.
I am CONSTANTLY whipping up fresh breadcrumbs, because I have yet to meet a recipe that doesn’t get better with a sprinkle of buttery crunchy breadcrumbs, and those type of breadcrumbs are the best when you start with fresh bread.
Grab a slice or two, tear them into quarters and pop them into your food processor. Give them a whirl…and that’s it! Fresh breadcrumbs!
Poultry seasoning is a combo of ground thyme, sage, marjoram and sometimes a little black pepper. It gives that little something extra to chicken dishes (and I also sometimes use it on fish).
I always have some in my spice drawer, but if you don’t have any on hand, you can combine dried sage (that spice is essential to poultry seasoning) with any of those others above and you will be just fine.
It can, all the way up to the baking part. Store the chicken mixture in the fridge and then bring it to room temperature before you bake it. Top the casserole with the breadcrumbs right before you bake it so things don’t get soggy.
Pop your question in the Comments section under the recipe card and I will answer pronto!
Equipment we used for this recipe 🥣
These are some of my favorite kitchen tools! These are Amazon affiliate links, which means I get a little something if you buy through my links at no extra cost to you. (Which helps pay for all that bacon I keep buying! 😄) And I only share things I use and love. I’m so grateful for your support!
- Measuring Cup: We love these angled cups that show the measurements on both the inside and outside of the cup.
- Cutting Board: These sturdy, dishwasher-safe cutting boards come in all different sizes.
- Bear Paws Shredder Claws: These impressive looking claws are not only perfect shredding cooked chicken or meats, they are also dishwasher safe!
- Food Processor: This all-star kitchen appliance is one of the very few that gets to live on our countertop 24/7.
- Measuring Spoons: These handy magnetic spoons are not on a ring, so you can just pick the one you need.
- Round Casserole: We love this oven safe dish for everything from main courses to sides (looking at you, Baked Mashed Potatoes!)
- Large Skillet: We have a few of these in our cupboard but this is one of our faves.
What to serve with this recipe 🍽️
If you are looking to add a few more veggies you can add some whipped cauliflower on the side, or some roasted green beans. We also love this cheesy Southern spoonbread as a side.
And for dessert, let’s have some Snickerdoodle cookies!
Other casserole recipes we love! 🥰
We want to know what you think! 🤔
If you try this recipe, we would love to hear how it came out for you! I’d be super grateful if you could leave a star rating (you pick how many stars! 🌟 ) and your thoughts in the Comments section below the recipe card.
Chicken Noodle Casserole
This comfort food recipe for chicken noodle casserole takes everyone’s favorite feel better soup and transforms it into a hearty pot pie supper.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
- 1 sweet onion, peeled and chopped
- 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 4 celery stalks, chopped
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 8 ounce package thin (also called fine) egg noodles
- 1 cup half and half
- 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded into bite sized pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and spray a casserole with cooking spray.
- Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add breadcrumbs and stir until golden. Scoop out and set aside.
- Add the remaining butter to the skillet and melt over medium high heat. Add onions, carrots and celery and sauté until just tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour.
- Pour in chicken broth and stir. Add poultry seasoning, salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Add the noodles and until the noodles are tender, about 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in chicken and half and half.
- Pour the chicken and noodle mixture into the casserole and top with the breadcrumbs. Bake until bubbling, about 30 minutes, and serve!
Notes
- Chicken: We like to use shredded white meat chicken in this recipe, but if you want to use dark meat that is a-ok. Or a combo of both!
- Breadcrumbs: The easiest way we know to get fresh breadcrumbs in a flash is to whirl a slice or two of bread in your food processor and voila! Fresh breadcrumbs!
- Poultry Seasoning: Look for this spice mix in the baking aisle with the other spices.
- Egg Noodles: We like the fine thinner egg noodles for this recipe but you can use any noodles you like. Just make sure you adjust the cooking time if you are using bigger noodles.
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