This Cheesy Chicken Noodle Casserole is comfort food at its finest! Everything you love about chicken noodle soup, but as a flavor-packed casserole. Enjoy!
Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup, But Make it a Casserole!
Raise your hand if you’re a fan of creamy chicken noodle soup! US TOO! This is why it was the inspiration for this delicious creamy chicken noodle casserole.
Cheesy Chicken Noodle Casserole is the epitome of Midwestern cuisine. It’s flavor-packed with chicken, veggies, a creamy cheese sauce, and egg noodles! Combine it all in a casserole dish, bake it, and you’ve got yourself a cheesy dinner main the whole family will love.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention. There is no cream of chicken soup or cream of mushroom soup involved in this chicken noodle casserole recipe! It’s made 100% from scratch.
What does cheesy chicken noodle casserole taste like?
This casserole is so savory, cheesy, and delicious. It tastes like a creamy chicken noodle soup with a whole lot of cheese mixed in. You really can’t go wrong.
Cheesy Chicken Noodle Casserole — What You Need
This casserole and its creamy cheese sauce feature basic ingredients, but pack SO MUCH FLAVOR:
- Egg noodles — we tested this casserole with regular egg noodles as well as extra wide egg noodles. Both will work! But the extra wide noodles definitely stand out more in this dish than regular egg noodles.
- Frozen mixed vegetables — any frozen mix will work! We used carrots, peas, green beans and corn.
- White onion — we like the mild flavor of white onion, but if you prefer yellow or red onion, go right ahead!
- Cooked chicken breast, diced into bite-sized pieces — we do NOT recommend using raw chicken for this recipe as it will not bake for enough time to fully cook the chicken.
- Beef broth — we love the delicious flavor of beef broth, but if you prefer chicken broth or vegetable broth, both will also work!
A Few Swaps
Switch it up the chicken
Don’t have time to cook up your own chicken breast? Shred or dice a rotisserie chicken instead. It will save you so much time.
Use a different noodle
Don’t have egg noodles? You can pretty much use any kind of cooked pasta for this recipe. Try rigatoni, ziti, or any other kind of noodle!
Casserole Cheese Sauce ingredients
How cheesy is this cheesy chicken noodle casserole? Well, we used 3 different kinds and we’re not mad about it!
- Shredded Monterey jack cheese
- Shredded mozzarella cheese
- Shredded parmesan cheese
- Butter
- All-purpose flour
- 2% milk
- Garlic powder
- Salt
- Pepper
How to Make Creamy Chicken Noodle Casserole
This cheesy and delicious casserole comes together in 1-2-3. Start with some prep, then make that cheese sauce, and finish up with baking your casserole!
Preheat & Prep
Preheat the oven to 375ºF and spray a 9×13-inch casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. Place the following into the baking dish and mix together until everything is combined, and then set aside:
- Noodles
- Vegetables
- Onion
- Cooked chicken breast
Cheesy Sauce Time
Then, heat a medium-sized saucepan over medium/high heat, and add butter. When butter is melted add the flour to the saucepan and whisk them together until a paste forms.
Slowly add the milk to the saucepan and whisk until all the ingredients are combined. Continue to whisk the milk until it thickens, and then remove from heat.
Add Worcestershire, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to the milk mixture and mix.
Finally, add the shredded cheese to the milk mixture and whisk consistently until all the cheese has melted.
Mix it All Together
Pour the cheese sauce over the noodles, vegetables, chicken, and onion, and mix until combined. Lastly, add the broth to the casserole dish, mix, and cover the casserole dish.
Time to Bake
Place the casserole dish in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, mix, and return the casserole dish to the oven for an additional 20 minutes.
Once most of the liquid has been absorbed in the casserole dish, remove it from the oven, stir, and let the casserole sit covered for 5 minutes before eating.
Can You Freeze Chicken Noodle Casserole?
Oh the burning question of: can you freeze this casserole? Most of the time, we’d say HECK YES! However, we don’t ever suggest freezing a recipe that involves noodles.
Unfortunately, noodles don’t hold up very well when thawing and reheating, and so we advise against freezing this chicken noodle casserole.
How to Store Chicken Noodle Casserole
Store this casserole in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3-5 days.
Chicken Noodle Casserole
Ingredients
- 12 oz. egg noodles uncooked*
- 20 oz. frozen mixed vegetables
- 1/2 white onion minced
- 1 lb. cooked chicken breast diced into bite-sized pieces
- 1.5 cups beef broth
Cheese Sauce
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 cups 2% milk
- 1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF and spray a 9x13-inch casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray.
- Place the noodles, vegetables, onion, and cooked chicken breast into the casserole dish and mix until everything is combined. Set aside.
- Next, heat a medium-sized saucepan over medium/high heat. Add butter.
- When butter is melted add the flour to the sauce pan and whisk them together until a paste forms.
- Slowly add the milk to the sauce pan and whisk until all the ingredients are combined.
- Continue to whisk the milk until it thickens and remove from heat.
- Add worcestershire, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to the milk mixture and mix.
- Finally, add the shredded cheese to the milk mixture and whisk consistently until all the cheese has melted.
- Pour the cheese sauce over the noodles, vegetables, chicken, and onion, and mix until combined.
- Lastly, add the broth to the casserole dish, mix, and cover.
- Place the casserole dish in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, mix, and return the casserole dish to the oven for an additional 20 minutes.
- Once most of the liquid has absorbed in the casserole dish, remove from the oven, stir, and let the casserole sit covered for 5 minutes before eating.
This casserole is delicious. I loved making the cheese sauce. I added whatever cheese I had in the fridge, which was LOTS of pepper jack. My husband devoured this dish and exclaimed “HOLY SH*T” many times. Oh, I added MORE Worchestershire sauce (that’s my business, you do you). This Shizzzz is good. Make it.
You leave the best reviews. And also your husband is lucky because you’re a chef.
This was an accessible recipe for someone that gets easily stressed out in the kitchen. I loved the cheese sauce and the leftovers kept great for lunches throughout the week. I plan to make again!!
We are obsessed with this recipe!
Such a great winter comfort dish and you feel good about it because it has veggies in it 🙂 I didn’t think it would cook properly because the casserole dish was so jam packed with goodness but it did! My husband has already asked for this again and it’s easy enough that he can make it next time 🙂
This is a favorite of ours too!
I really wanted to love this dish. I made it to the tee but found it bland. It was pretty good to me. My husband hated the thick cheesy sause and my youngest son and daughter hated everything about it. The only one that loved it was my oldest son.
Made this and it was an absolute hit! So comforting and delicious!