Recipe: Italian Cream Cheese Chicken Casserole
We love this casserole around here, and it’s such a fabulous comfort food for these cool fall days! I’ve made a few variations of it and we’ve enjoyed each one.
Italian Cream Cheese Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour or organic/non-GMO cornstarch
3 cups chicken broth*
8 oz cream cheese*
1 Tbsp Italian Dressing Mix
1/2 Tbsp dried minced onion
1/2 Tbsp dried minced garlic
2-3 cooked and cubed chicken breasts
1 box of rotini pasta (we use brown rice)*
1 head of steamed broccoli or about 1/2 bag of frozen broccoli
Method of Preparation
Cook pasta until al dente or slightly firm. (if you’re freezing this under cook it) Melt the butter over medium heat and whisk in the flour or cornstarch (cornstarch for you gluten free folks) to make a rue. Once mixed together well, add the broth in slowly while whisking. Once at a gentle boil, whisk occasionally and simmer for 5 minutes until thickened. Add in cream cheese and all the seasonings. Mix well and taste. If you like more seasoning, add it now. Let simmer for a few minutes while you grease a 9×13 pan and dump the pasta, chicken, and broccoli into it. Pour cream cheese mixture over everything and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Take out, stir, and enjoy!
Both my husband and 3yo LOVE this dish. My little one kept telling me after every bite how yummy delicious it was, so it’s a huge hit around here! I barely even had enough for leftovers to send lunch to work with Todd this morning.
Variations we like:
- Use 4 cups of cooked rice instead of the pasta
- For an extra creamy version you can use milk in place of all but 1 cup of broth
- This is also great over potatoes! Just cut up about 5 medium-sized potatoes, mix together the sauce, chicken, veggies, and potatoes. Bake until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork, about 30-35 minutes.
*Nourishing Notes
- If using rice, soak overnight to increase nutrient absorption.
- Use homemade cream cheese by straining yogurt or kefir overnight in cheesecloth.
- Make your own homemade bone broth.
- Purchase organic ingredients.
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About donielle
Donielle is an amateur herbalist and natural momma to two littles (with another babe in heaven) after struggling with infertility. She has a passion for nourishing nutrition, natural living, and spreading the word on how food truly affects our health. Her blog Naturally Knocked Up focuses on fertility and reproductive health and her book on natural fertility will be available in June 2012. She also runs a local blog (Grand Rapids Natural Living) and is active the local community in order to provide the area with resources and information for natural families.
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Oh yum! This looks soooo good. I am putting it on the menu next week for sure!
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Ooooo YUMMY!!! And just in time for when I go grocery shopping tomorrow!!!!
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This looks yummy! It will be on next month’s menu!
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This looks DELICIOUS!
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I’m really excited about having this for dinner tonight! I taste-tested it when I did my freezer cooking Saturday and the sauce was sure yummy!!
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Sounds really good- I am sure that my family will like this! I better give it a try quickly before we get on the GAPS diet and it becomes a temporary no-no!
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donielle Reply:
March 1st, 2010 at 10:24 am
@Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home, Ha! I can’t wait to hear about your GAPS journey. This next month or so I’m trying to replace some our our non GAPS foods to GAPS approved foods since some of them I haven’t made before. I figure this way, we can ease into it a bit.
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Oooo…I made this tonight with my first EVER batch of homemade chicken stock and shredded organic, free-range chicken! Very good! I topped it with some breadcrumbs to give a little crunch. Next time, I’ll add more liquid. Thank you!!!
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You really want to stop using CORNSTARCH all together! It’s a corn by-product and most of the corn in the US is GMO!
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donielle Reply:
October 1st, 2010 at 1:20 pm
@nancy, Yes Nancy, Thank you for clarifying that! I do use an organic non-GMO cornstarch and it’s actually the only corn product I use besides some organic popcorn every month and a half or so. The reason I use it is that we are a gluten free household so flour is not an option for us. I’ve tried other GF sources for making a rue and was not pleased with the results.
Thanks again for your input! I agree the issue is very important and I’ll update the recipe so it reads non-GMO.
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nancy Reply:
October 1st, 2010 at 6:12 pm
@donielle,
Great to hear! I have been reading recently at some websites about using arrowroot for gluten free recipes. Is this like a cornstarch or flour? Have you tried this?
thanks
all your recips sound delicious! and most of them quick.
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I make something similar to this that I found when I was searching for a recipe for Chicken Stroganoff. It was called … Crockpot Chicken Stroganoff! Anyway, the ingredients are similar (though not the same) but it’s made in a slow cooker (except for cooking the pasta).
My version of the recipe is as follows:
Cut 2 raw chicken breasts (the original recipe called for 4) into bite sized pieces. Put them in your slow cooker with 2 tbsp of Italian dressing mix (less would probably be ok; more might be too much – the original recipe called for 1 packet) and 2 tbsp. butter. (optional: Add a splash or two of wine – the original recipe doesn’t call for this, but I’ve made it at different times with red wine, white wine, and sherry. All turn out great. Obviously whether or not you want to do this is going to depend on various factors. If you don’t add this, don’t worry about the lack of liquid in the pot; it should be fine). Cook on low for ~5 to 6 hours (or on high for 2 or 3 hours).
Once the allotted time has passed, add 8 oz. of cream cheese and the equivalent of 1 can of cream of chicken soup. Put the lid back on and wait until these have melted down enough to stir in (optionally, turn the heat up to high to speed this up). Stir them in. At the end, add 1/4 cup or so of sour cream and stir in (the orig. recipe didn’t call for this). Serve over cooked pasta. (I usually cook about 2/3 lb. of pasta, and I often stir the cooked pasta in to the chicken/sauce and serve it all together.
I’ve never mixed any vegetables into it, but there’s absolutely no reason why you couldn’t.
I just thought I’d through that out here for anyone who might like a slow cooker version of a similar recipe.
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I made this last night after looking for something to do with our massive amount of leftover turkey. It was delicious and really easy to do. I loved it. My partner and I agreed that it’s going into the rotation of meals. Not only was it our first step away from cream of crud soup casseroles, but I think the sauce will absolutely replace our tuna helper addiction.
Thank you!
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Thanks for the many different variations. That was really helpful! Now I want to make this for dinner!!
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This was great and very easy to do, I’ve made other similar dishes in the past but this was great with the cream cheese sauce perfect replacement for those who use cream soups….I need to make sure to cook my rue a little longer before adding the liquid as it cooks out the flour taste the longer you cook the rue but you don’t want to overcook it.
This is a super versatile dish though, you can use lots of different seasonings/flavors and any veggies you like, we used frozen sweet peas, but broccoli is excellent too. I used boneless chicken breasts but I think a roasted or rotisserie chicken would be more flavorful.
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I’ve been making this for a few months and my husband and I absolutely love it! I usually double the recipe and stick the second in the freezer for another time. It freezes really well and we always feel so satisfied and nourished after this meal. Thanks!
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donielle Reply:
April 10th, 2011 at 1:14 pm
@Sarah Beth, So glad you enjoy it! It’s definitely one of our top favorite meals around here too.
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