Mar 4

Mar 4 Easy Chicken and Mushroom Alfredo Casserole

I struggled with picking a recipe for tonight’s Food Friday. When I would try to research it would be late at night and when I wasn’t hungry. I didn’t know what I wanted to eat, let alone make.

Thursday morning rolled around and I knew I wanted to do something easy. Later that afternoon my coworker told me she really wanted something with Alfredo sauce. It occurred to me that I could make a casserole with an Alfredo base. Easy. And delicious.

What you need:

A basket of sliced mushrooms
A rotisserie chicken
A box of Dreamfields Rotini Pasta (you can get whatever brand you like)
2 jars (about 15oz each) of Alfredo Sauce (I got two smaller jars because I couldn’t decide which 22oz jar to get. But I like saucy pasta, so I was glad to have the extra sauce. You only need 22oz.)
3 cups chicken broth
Olive oil
Minced garlic
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
Italian seasoning

You need about 2 cups of chopped chicken. I’m going to be honest, I’ve never cup up a rotisserie chicken before and I can’t say that I really enjoyed the process. I didn’t anticipate the level of grease and didn’t care for that. I only like white meat, so thankfully the two chicken breasts did make up two cups. I think if you like dark meat you could do more chicken. It’s really up to you. I should also say that the end result of delicious chicken made the less pleasant process tolerable.

Once you have your chicken chopped up, preheat the oven to 425°F.

Put some olive oil in a pan with the mushrooms. I sautéed these so they would be soft in the finished casserole. After the mushrooms let out some water, I added some minced garlic. I used one of our spoons to measure it, so don’t know exactly how much it was. I also added a bunch of Italian seasoning.

In a large baking dish (I used our pan that is significantly bigger than a 9X13in pan) combine the Alfredo sauce, chicken broth, uncooked pasta noodles, chicken, mushrooms, and another spoonful of garlic.

I chose two different jars of Alfredo sauces mostly because I couldn’t decide which one I wanted… but I’m glad I did because it added another layer of flavor to the dish! Do what you want though—if you have a favorite go with that!

One thing I wish I would have done—and I will be doing it next time—is combining the broth and the sauce in a bowl before pouring it in the pan. I think I did fine at stirring everything together, but it would have been easier.

Cover with foil and put in the oven for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes check the noodles to see if they’re done. Mine were perfectly cooked, but it could vary with your oven and the kind of pan you use.