Recipe: Chicken macaroni bake

I grab a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store almost once a week and then we have yummy chicken one night and something with the leftovers the next night. Here’s one tasty way we use up the extra chicken.

Chicken Macaroni Bake

Ingredients:

1/4 cup chopped onions
2 TB butter
1/4 cup milk
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 and 1/2 cups chopped chicken
4 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
8 ounces pasta (I use rotini)
1/4 cup buttered bread crumbs (I use Panko breadcrumbs, which are bigger, if you use regular bread crumbs use about half this amount)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare pasta according to package directions. Brown onion in butter in a large frying pan. Stir in soup, chicken, milk, 3/4 cups of cheese (you’ll have a bit leftover for the topping). Heat until the cheese melts. Mix in the cooked pasta. Pour into a greased baking dish (I use the lasagna size but you could also use a square one and just have a thicker casserole). Mix the remaining cheese and bread crumbs and sprinkle on top. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Keep an eye on it, and if it starts to dry out and you don’t want that* cover with foil for the last 10-15 minutes.

The ingredients can be doubled (we did it for the superbowl) and the casserole will still work just fine in a lasagna pan.

(*I adore the crispy cheese parts, and my kids don’t like anything “soupy” or “casseroley,” so I don’t cover mine at all and we enjoy it somewhat dry.)