Creamy Chicken Noodle Casserole

Ingredients Needed

This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.

• Wide egg noodles – I love Amish Egg Noodles, like these ones. They are think and delicious and taste homemade!
• Salt and pepper
• Butter
• Red bell pepper – I prefer red bell pepper here for both flavor and color. You can certainly sub orange or yellow if that’s what you have on hand, but I would avoid green peppers here since they have a unique flavor in comparison to the sweeter colored peppers.
• Onion
• All-purpose flour
• Half and half – Half and half adds richness and stability to the sauce. You can use milk in a pinch, but I would recommend whole milk. Just know the sauce may be a bit looser if you use milk.
• Chicken broth
• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Deli American cheese – American cheese provides unique stabilizers that prevent the sauce from breaking so it stays creamy and smooth from start to finish. When you’re shopping for American cheese, hit the deli counter for the best quality (aka: avoid the Kraft Singles, that’s not what we’re going for here). It can be either yellow or white though!
• Sharp cheddar cheese – This provides a hit of good, cheesy flavor.
• Frozen peas
• Ritz crackers

How to Make Creamy Chicken Noodle Casserole

1. Bring some salted water to boil in a Dutch oven.  We’re only going to boil the noodles for a few minutes, then rinse them in cold water to stop the cooking process. This way they will cook to tender perfection as the casserole bakes in the oven.
2. Now that our pot is empty, add a pat of butter and sauté some sweet bell pepper and a finely diced onion for a few minutes and set aside.
3. In goes a bit more butter for our roux.  (A roux is a mixture of fat and flour, used to thicken sauces.  Read more about making a roux, here.) Toss in a few tablespoons of flour, and whisk it up for a minute.
4. Then very slowly add a little bit of liquid at a time (we’re using both chicken broth and half-and-half here) and whisk whisk whisk.  It will thicken immediately, and one of the secrets of a non-lumpy sauce is not to pour in all of the liquid at once.  Always add a little at a time, or a very slow steady stream as you whisk the entire time to incorporate the flour mixture.
5. After that sauce boils for about 5 minutes, we’ll add chicken directly to the pot. Gently poaching it will not only ensure juicy chicken, but it will flavor the sauce as well.  We’re under-cooking the chicken just slightly, as we under-cooked the noodles.  This allows it to finish cooking in the oven, as opposed to over-cooking in the oven and ending up dry and chewy. Pull the slightly pink chicken out and shred it into bite-sized pieces.
6. While you’re waiting for the chicken to be cool enough to handle, you can whisk your cheese into the sauce.
7. In addition, Before we throw this all together, you’ll need some frozen peas. To avoid extra moisture in the sauce, I run my peas under warm water, drain them, and then pat them dry before putting them in.
8. Now just toss it all together and put it in a 9″×13″ pan (or you could put it in individual baking dishes if you wanted) and sprinkle with crushed cracker crumbs. It all bakes up together for about 15 minutes.  That finishes cooking the chicken and pasta perfectly, and toasts the buttery crumb topping.
9. Make sure you let this sit for 10-15 minutes so the sauce can set up before serving.
   

Frequently Asked Questions