Crack Chicken Casserole – creamy chicken casserole loaded with cheddar, bacon and ranch. Use a rotisserie chicken for easy prep! Chicken, cheddar, bacon, ranch seasoning, sour cream, cream of chicken soup. The whole family LOVED this easy chicken casserole. It is already on the menu again this week!
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Pin This RecipeThe BEST Chicken Casserole EVER
You are going to want to add this Crack Chicken Casserole to your menu ASAP! A creamy chicken casserole that is loaded with cheddar, bacon and ranch. YUM! I made this for lunch last week and we both absolutely LOVED it! I’m wishing I had the leftovers right now. It was seriously delicious.
Use Rotisserie Chicken in Casseroles
To cut down on the prep time of this casserole, I used a rotisserie chicken for the cooked chicken. Rotisserie chicken is my go-to for cooked chicken in recipes. We always buy a couple of rotisserie chickens on our Costco trips and keep the meat in the freezer. It makes casseroles like this a breeze to make! I had this ready to bake before the oven had fully preheated.
Can I Freeze this Chicken Casserole?
Absolutely! I love to have easy casseroles in the freezer for a quick meal later and this casserole and it works great. I usually thaw the casserole in the refrigerator overnight and bake as directed below. If you are short on time, cover the casserole with foil and bake for about 20 minutes to thaw in the oven and then uncover and bake as directed. Just make sure the casserole is bubbly before removing it from the oven to serve.
What to Serve with Crack Chicken Casserole
As I said, we LOVED this Crack Chicken Casserole. We served it with some Roasted Green Beans and Mushrooms and a batch of 7Up Biscuits. OMG! Best meal ever!!! Thankfully we had enough for leftovers. It was all just as good reheated. Add this casserole to your menu. I promise it will be a hit!
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Crack Chicken Casserole
Ingredients:
- 4 cups cooked chopped chicken
- 1 (1-oz) package ranch dressing mix
- 1½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 cup chopped cooked bacon
- 1½ cups sour cream
- 1 (10.5-oz) can Unsalted Cream of Chicken Soup
- 1½ cups crushed Ritz crackers
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly spray a 9×9-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- Combine chicken, Ranch seasoning, cheddar cheese, bacon, sour cream and cream of chicken soup. Spread into prepared pan.
- Combine crushed crackers and butter, sprinkle over chicken mixture.
- Bake uncovered 30 to 40 minutes.
Notes:
- If you are sensitive to Ranch seasoning mix, feel free to reduce the amount to your personal preference.
- Here is our recipe for Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix: https://www.plainchicken.com/homemade-ranch-dressing-mix/
- Using homemade ranch seasoning will significantly reduce the salt in this recipe.
- I suggest using Unsalted Cream of Chicken Soup in this dish to control the sodium.
- You can buy it by the case at Amazon: https://amzn.to/49n4uZE
- Need Gluten-free Cream of Chicken Soup? You can buy it here: https://amzn.to/3MtqQ1s
- Here is our recipe for Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup: https://www.plainchicken.com/homemade-cream-of-chicken-soup/
- Can substitute turkey bacon for regular bacon.
Steph
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If I want to freeze it- should I put ritz crackers on before freezing or wait and put them on after thawing before baking?
Either way is fine.
Hi! This looks wonderful, going to try it tonight, thank you for sharing it!
Would it be possible to add a pasta to this and bake it with all other ingredients? If so, would I need to add any sort of fluid (chicken broth, water, milk) to it? Many thanks!
Here is the noodle version: https://www.plainchicken.com/cracked-out-chicken-noodle-casserole/
How would you cook the chicken ( I have raw chicken breast ) if you didn’t use a ROTISSERIE CHICKEN?
Boil, bake, grill, pan sear, slow cooker, instant pot
Can I omit bacon
You can make this however you want.
I made this tonight. So delicious!! My husband is limited on what he eats due to recovering from throat cancer. He lost his taste for most foods and has trouble eating meats. This tasted so good to him and the chicken was nice and tender for him. Thank you thank you!
Any ideas for a cream (chicken/mushroom) soup substitute? I don’t have any of that in the house. Thanks!
Made today, delish! I did add frozen peas to the dish. Will definitely make again.
If you want to bring this to someone’s home. Do you cook first then freeze? Or freeze right after mixing everything, then cook at their home?
I freeze it unbaked
First time making one of your recipes and I love this one!!! Definitely a keeper and will be in the casserole rotation fairly often. I didnt have a rotisserie chicken so I cooked a couple chicken breasts (one was huge) and some thighs and cut it up. It couldn’t have been any easier, just throw it in the bowl and mix it up. I did add extra cheese to mine making the total 2 cups. Love my cheese! It was a little salty but I don’t want to lose the ranch taste so not sure what to do about that. I might cut the ranch back some next time. I used my oval dish and it was perfect for this. Can’t wait to try more of your recipes!!!
Girl I just want to say how amazing you are at answering your readers comments same day lol! I like to try new recipes often and I would NEVER expect a same day response but here you are kicking ass 😂.
I am making this right now, but adding cooked rice, cooking it “al dente.” For beginner cooks, my bag of jasmine rice says to cook 1 cup rice and 1.5 cups water for 15 mins or until all water is cooked off, but I’m only cooking for 12mins or until most water is cooked off, so I’m essentially letting the rice cook the rest of the way in the oven as I don’t want the rice to overcook when I bake the casserole. I use the same logic when adding cooked noodles to a casserole.
Can you make this for two people? Can I cut recipe in half?
sure
I just made this and it’s so easy and was delicious!!! The only thing I would change is not adding the ranch packet because I feel like it was to salty but besides that it was great
What are the best veggies to add?
whatever you enjoy – broccoli is always good
I think mushrooms would be yummy!
Can I add a can of Rotel tomatoes?
Thanks
sure
Can shrimp for substituted for chicken?
I am making this for my boyfriend, we don’t live together yet and it is easiest to drive over a baked all-in-one dish for him. This sounds amazing. I am going to replace the crackers with a mix of pasta and fried french onion crispies.