This homemade Ritz Chicken Casserole is a hearty and flavorful family favorite that’s ready in less than 30 minutes, making the perfect weeknight dinner. Soft egg noodles mixed with a creamy chicken and vegetable filling, and topped off with a crunchy Ritz cracker topping!
Ritz Chicken Casserole
You can never have enough chicken casserole recipes! They are quick and easy options for a weeknight family dinner.
This Ritz Cracker Chicken Casserole is one of my family’s favorites. The hearty, comforting dish is full of flavor. The perfectly baked Ritz topping adds in the ultimate crunch!
This recipe is a quick and simple dish, made easier by it’s ingredients list. Egg noodles are so quick to cook and I usually use a store-bought rotisserie chicken which adds great flavor, and saves me the step of cooking the chicken.
This is a casserole you will be making again and again!
Why We Love This Chicken Casserole Recipe
- Quick and easy to make
- A simple weeknight dinner
- Easy assembly
- Hearty and filling family dinner
- Your kids will love it
- Great served as leftovers
- Many options for variations on the ingredients
Ingredients/Shopping List
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- 1 red bell pepper chopped
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 2 cans (10.5 oz) cream of chicken soup
- 1 cup half and half
- 2 cups sharp cheddar shredded (shred your own cheese so it melts best!)
- 3 cups egg noodles cooked
- 1.5 pounds chicken breast cooked and shredded
- 1 tbsp parsley
- Salt and Pepper to taste
For the Topping
- 1 sleeve Ritz crackers
- 1 cup sharp cheddar shredded
- 4 tbsp butter melted
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How to Make Ritz Chicken Casserole
This recipe comes together quickly and easily. It’s especially easy to put together if you have the ingredients like the egg noodles and chicken cooked and ready to go. Then, it’s as simple as assembling the casserole and putting it in the oven to bake!
Add oil, peppers, onion, and celery to a Dutch oven and cook until tender.
Add in garlic and cook.
Reduce heat and add cream of chicken soup, half & half and stir.
Add cheese until it’s melted.
Add cooked egg noodles, chicken and seasonings.
Pour into a 9×13 dish.
Place the Ritz crackers in a ziplock bag and crush with a rolling pin.
Mix crushed Ritz crackers with melted butter and cheddar cheese.
Top casserole with cracker mixture.
Bake for 15-20 minutes.
Variations / Options / Add-ins
- VEGETABLES: You could add mushrooms, you could also add other veggies like carrots or peppers or maybe even zucchini or peas. You could add green chiles, too.
- ROTISSERIE CHICKEN: An easy option for the chicken in this recipe would be to use a store-bought rotisserie chicken. It also adds delicious flavor!
- CHEESE: You could definitely use different kinds of cheese for different flavors. Mozzarella, swiss, or provolone would be delicious in this recipe.
- BACON: A super easy and tasty addition to this dish is adding bacon! You can use store-bought or bake your own and cut it up into bacon bits.
- FLAVORED RITZ: They make lots of different types of Ritz Crackers! You can use any type of Ritz to add variety in flavor.
Frequently Asked Questions
Store leftovers covered in the fridge for three days. I wouldn’t recommend freezing this one because I don’t think the egg noodles would hold up great in the freezer although you could make all the rest of it to freeze and then stir in noodles later on!
I don’t recommend assembling this recipe ahead of time, because the noodles might get soggy. However, you can definitely prepare your ingredients ahead of time. In fact, I recommend doing so to make the assembly super quick and easy!
You could substitute the chicken in this recipe for canned chunk chicken to make it easy on yourself. If doing so, you’ll want to make sure to drain the chicken completely and pat it dry with a paper towel, so that it doesn’t add moisture to the casserole.
However, I really prefer using a rotisserie chicken.
More Great Casserole Recipes
Chili Cornbread Casserole|Chicken Fajita Casserole |Pizza Casserole | Lasagna Casserole | Million Dollar Spaghetti Casserole |Dorito Casserole | Chicken Pot Pie Casserole | Hamburger Casserole | Baked Spaghetti and Meatballs | Stuffed Pepper Casserole | Mexican Casserole
Ritz Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- 1 red bell pepper chopped
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 2 10.5 oz cans cream of chicken soup
- 1 cup half and half
- 2 cups sharp cheddar shredded (shred your own cheese so it melts best!)
- 3 cups egg noodles cooked
- 1.5 pounds chicken breast cooked and shredded
- 1 tbsp parsley
- Salt and Pepper to taste
For the Topping
- 1 sleeve Ritz crackers
- 1 cup sharp cheddar shredded
- 4 tbsp butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick spray.
- In a 4-quart Dutch oven, add olive oil, bell pepper, onion, celery and cook over medium-high heat until onion is translucent and pepper/celery are becoming tender (about 5-6 minutes).
- Add minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds, stirring to prevent garlic from burning.
- Reduce heat to medium and add cream of chicken soup, half and half, then stir to combine.
- Once heated through, add cheese. Continue to stir to melt.
- Add cooked egg noodles and shredded chicken once the cheese is all melted.
- Season with parsley, salt, and pepper.
- Remove from heat and pour into the prepared 9×13 baking dish.
- Place the Ritz crackers in a ziplock bag and crush with a rolling pin. Add crackers to a medium bowl.
- Stir in melted butter and 1 cup shredded cheddar.
- Spread topping over casserole dish.Place the dish in a preheated oven uncovered and bake for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Jenn’s Notes
- To make serving this dish super easy, and save on doing too many dishes, your chicken casserole can be served straight from the dish you baked it in!
This was SO good! I used a lot less red pepper because that was all I had but it was so good. I made it earlier in the day and baked it for dinner. Will definitely be making it again!
never seen recipe cards at end to simplify recipe. please help. to many thi gs popping up on screen and I could see how to or full recipe
wen reed
The Ritz Chicken Casserole was delicious; my family enjoyed it. However, saying prep time is 5 minutes is extremely misleading. Not sure how you cook and shred the chicken, cook the noodles, chop all the veggies, and shred the cheese in only 5 minutes.
how did you cook the chicken ?