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A simple, protein-dense alternative to a grilled cheese, chicken cordon bleu is one of those super fancy yet incredibly simple recipes. This creamy chicken cordon bleu casserole takes all of the flavors of a great chicken cordon bleu and makes them into a crunchy, tender, and cheesy casserole for the whole family to enjoy!
Rather than using store-bought chicken, why not make your own Roast Chicken and use the leftovers in your creamy chicken casserole the next day? Make sure to try this Classic Homemade Garlic Bread to serve with your casserole!
Creamy Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
Chicken cordon bleu is one of those things that a lot of people get excited about seeing on a restaurant’s menu, but it is actually super simple to make yourself.
Made using a simple combination of protein, cheese, and deep frying, cordon bleu is probably one of the richest things you might get at a fancy restaurant.
That’s why this casserole recipe is so nourishing and filling – it hits all of the key notes for a chicken cordon bleu, only in a crispy, thick, tender, and super filling casserole!
Where To Get The Chicken You Need For This Recipe?
A lot of recipes will call for things like “cooked chicken” and just assume that you know where you will get it from.
Most of the time, if a recipe calls for cooked chicken or other meat, it is probably hoping that you will use up some leftover chicken from a previous recipe, like a big roast dinner or something like that.
However, if you don’t want to use leftover chicken or just don’t really have any laying around, you can always buy some cooked chicken instead.
Supermarkets will often keep some cooked chicken in stock, but another great thing you can do instead is to get one of those rotisserie chickens that big box stores often sell.
Not only are they super cheap, but they are cooked into they are super tender, and the meat will practically fall off of the bone, making it perfect for use in this casserole.
Do You Have To use Ritz Crackers? Can You Use Other Crackers?
Ritz crackers are used in this recipe to provide a crunchy, buttery, and flavorful topping layer to this casserole, giving you that little bit of crunch that you would expect when you would bite into a proper chicken cordon bleu.
Ritz crackers are perfect for this because they are not only super crunchy and readily available, they are usually pretty cheap as well.
However, for those that don’t like Ritz or can’t get them easily, you can instead use anything that would provide that super crunchy layer.
Other crackers, like saltines or any kind of salty, savory cracker, would work fine here.
If you don’t want to use crackers at all, you could also just use breadcrumbs instead! As long as you mix the breadcrumbs with plenty of butter, they should crisp up beautifully.
Just make sure to add a little bit of extra salt to make up for the lack of salt that would otherwise be on the Ritz crackers.
What Are The Best Noodles To Use For This Dish?
The noodles in this dish aren’t just there to provide a carby base – they also basically make the dish entirely.
Without the noodles cooked to a perfect al dente, this would just be a big, gooey bowl of cheese and chicken topped with Ritz crackers.
The best noodles to use here would definitely be anything as close to regular egg noodles as possible.
This means any egg pasta, like fettuccine, would work great, but if you don’t have any to hand, even more, Asian-inspired egg noodles would work well here.
Anything that has enough thickness to be coated in all of that tasty liquid at the bottom of the casserole would work great.
Probably avoid anything like pasta shapes, though. Even though some of the more concave-shaped pastas would help cling onto the sauce really well, they just wouldn’t intersperse with all of the ingredients properly, resulting in mouthfuls that are all pasta, rather than the noodles being mixed with everything else and each bite being a flavor explosion.
Looking for more delicious Casserole recipes? Try these out:
• Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole
• Creamy Ham and Noodle Casserole
• Hamburger Hotdish Tater Tot Casserole
Happy cooking
Love,
Karlynn
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Creamy Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole
Ingredients
- one 8 ounce package wide egg noodles (cooked to al dente)
- 2 cups cooked chopped chicken
- 1 cup diced ham
- 2 cups grated swiss cheese
- 1 10.5-oz can cream of chicken soup
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tsp dijon mustard
- ½ tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
Cracker Topping
- ¼ cup butter (melted)
- 1 sleeve Ritz crackers
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Lightly spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, combine the soup, sour cream, heavy cream, dijon mustard, onion powder, garlic powder and mix until combined completely. Stir in the cooked noodles, ham, chicken and shredded cheese.
- Turn out into the prepared pan, smoothing out into an even layer,
- Combine the crushed crackers and melted butter. Stir in the Parmesan cheese then sprinkle over the top of the casserole.
- Bake covered for 25 minutes, then uncover and bake until the top is browned and the casserole is bubbling, another 15-20 minutes.
- Remove and cool for 10 minutes, then serve hot. Garnish with fresh parsley.
Carol Brady says
can I make without noodles and add a topping of panko ?
Karlynn Johnston says
Sure, it would just be a creamy chicken dish.
Dianne Z says
How many ritz crackers in a sleeve. And cooking time should be45 minutes.
Midnitesky says
Tastes Okay
If you are new to cooking, bad choice. cooking times are just wrong. Ratios are off. Watch noodles, don’t droo into soup mixture when just done. cool a bit.
Good idea, but not something we would ever have again