I love chicken casseroles. In fact I love chicken so much that I once thought of opening up a chicken restaurant. This recipe is a popular favorite. It’s a great way to use up leftover chicken or turkey after the holidays as well.

This pan of creamy cheesy deliciousness is good ole American comfort food at its finest. It tastes great, is super easy to make, and uses only a few simple pantry staples, making it inexpensive to cook. I’m giving you the basic version, but there are lots of possible variations. Feel free to be creative and change it up to suit your taste.

Many versions of this recipe call for poppy seeds, but to me they don’t really have much taste and they get stuck in my teeth. But you can put poppy seeds on top if you want. You can add in any vegetable such as steamed brocolli, mushrooms, water chesnuts, onion, carrots, chopped green onions, or just about any vegetable you want.

Some have added a can of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup. That sounds good, but I’ve never tried it. You could also try the condensed cream of chicken with herbs soup instead.

This makes a great easy weeknight family meal and may quickly become one of your go-to classic favorites. If you are only cooking for one or two people this can easily be split into two smaller pans, and you can freeze one. Make sure you double wrap it though to avoid freezer burn. It can also be made ahead of time and frozen to eat later.

Here is all you need:

1 cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store (de-boned and shredded)

1 10.5 oz. can condensed cream of chicken soup

1 cup sour cream

1 cup shredded blend cheese (I used Mexican blend)

2 sleeves Ritz crackers, crushed up

1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter, melted

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray a 9 x 9 square baking dish (or a 2.5 quart baking dish) with no-stick cooking spray. Note: a 9×13 dish is OK, but cooking time may need to be shortened 5 minutes.
3. In a large bowl mix together soup, sour cream, cheese, and shredded chicken.
4. Spread mixture into the pan.
5. In another bowl mix together the crumbled crackers and melted butter.
6. Sprinkle the cracker mixture over the casserole.
7. Bake 25 – 30 minutes until the cracker topping is golden brown and the casserole is bubbly.

This great served with green beans or a tossed green salad and rice. I think this may be one of your favorites too! I hope you like it. Let me know how it turns out!