Mexican Chicken Alfredo Casserole – for when you can’t decide between Mexican and Italian for dinner! This is super easy to make and tastes AMAZING! Chicken, pasta, Alfredo sauce, taco seasoning, salsa, onion, ricotta cheese, and parmesan cheese. Can make in advance and refrigerate or freeze for later.
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Pin This RecipeEasy Make-Ahead Chicken and Pasta Casserole
This recipe combines all of my favorite foods – chicken, Mexican food and pasta. Perfect for when you can’t decide between taco night and pasta night! I love everything about this Mexican Chicken Alfredo Casserole. Chicken, pasta, taco seasoning, Alfredo sauce, salsa, and cheese. We ate this for lunch and leftover for dinner the same day. It was that good! Serve this with some crusty bread and a side salad and you are in for a treat!
How to Make Mexican Chicken Alfredo Pasta Casserole
This Mexican Chicken Alfredo Casserole is super easy to make. Start with boiling the pasta. While the pasta is cooking, chop the cooked chicken and mix together the Alfredo sauce, salsa, taco seasoning, onion, and ricotta cheese. Add the cooked pasta to the chicken mixture and spread into a 9×13-inch baking dish. Top the casserole with some grated parmesan cheese and bake.
To cut down on prep time, I used a rotisserie chicken for the cooked chicken in this recipe. Rotisserie chickens are my number one shortcut. They make casseroles like this a breeze! I always have some pulled rotisserie chicken in the freezer.
My favorite Alfredo sauce to use is Rao’s jarred Alfredo sauce. I also like Trader Joe’s jarred Alfredo sauce. For the salsa, I used Mateo’s. I buy it at Walmart and Costco. It is the BEST!
Can Mexican Chicken Alfredo Casserole be Frozen
This casserole can be made ahead of time and refrigerated overnight. I love walking in after a long day and popping the casserole dish in the oven for an easy dinner. This also makes a great freezer meal. You can even split the pasta between two 8-inch pans and cook one now and freeze one for later. I freeze this casserole unbaked. To bake the casserole after freezing, thaw the casserole completely in the refrigerator and bake as directed below.
You can also freeze any leftovers for a quick meal later. To reheat after freezing, thaw completely and reheat in the microwave or covered in the oven.
This is a great casserole to take to someone that just had a baby or surgery. It is also great for potlucks!
What to Serve with Mexican Chicken Alfredo Casserole
This Mexican Chicken Alfredo Casserole has quickly become a favorite in our house. It is so quick and easy to make. We like to top our pasta with some extra salsa. Sometimes we even add a little sour cream too. YUM! Here are some of our favorite side dishes that go great with this yummy casserole:
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Mexican Chicken Alfredo Casserole
Ingredients:
- 1 (16-oz ) package penne pasta
- 4 cups cooked chopped chicken
- 2 Tbsp minced onion flakes
- 2 (15-oz) jars Alfredo sauce
- 1½ cups salsa
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 (1-oz) package taco seasoning
- 1½ cups grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain.
- Combine cooked chicken, onion, Alfredo sauce, salsa, ricotta cheese, and taco seasoning. Stir in cooked pasta. Spread into prepared baking dish.
- Top casserole with grated parmesan cheese.
- Bake covered for 50 to 60 minutes, until bubbly.
Notes:
- Can make in advance and refrigerate or freeze for later.
- To bake after freezing, thaw completely and bake as directed above.
- Can split casserole between two 8×8-inch baking dishes.
- I like to use Rao’s jarred Alfredo sauce. I also like Trader Joe’s jarred Alfredo sauce.
- Our favorite store-bought salsas are Mateo’s, Kylito’s, Pace Picante Sauce, and Pace Restaurant Style Salsa.
Steph
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Just to clarify, grated parmesan – the kind in the jar with the green lid, right?
You can use freshly grated parmesan cheese off the block or the stuff in the can.
Can I use rigatoni or rotini if I don’t have Penne pasta
Sure
It was really good! I used canned chicken, I’ll use fresh chicken next time.
Have you made this without the chicken? This looks delicious and I would like to make it as a side dish to serve with a different meat.
It should be fine without the chicken.
What do you cook the temperature on?
Line 1 of the instructions
Easy. Delicious.
This was really good! The only changes I made was green onions instead of dried and 1 jar of raos then I made some alfredo bc I already had HWC for another recipe.
very yummy! whole family loved it! taco seasoning add an extra ~flare~ to the taste
It adds that “razzle dazzle” that you didn’t know you needed!
Can I replace the salsa with something else? I am not a big fan of salsa.
You can do anything you want with the recipe. It is your kitchen. 😊
Maybe fire roasted tomatoes??
What brand of alfredo sauce do you use?
I mentioned my preferred brands of Alfredo sauce and salsa in the post. It is under the second photo.
You stated, you freeze without cooking, then thaw and cook when ready to eat…
Do you cook the chicken before freezing still?
yes – this recipe uses cooked chicken NOT raw chicken
Can’t wait to try it looks so yummy an very easy
I made this recipe. I made home made alfredo sauce, which was yummy. I added a can of green chilis, which tasted great. Next time we will add more. I split it between 2 – 9X9 dishes and froze half for later. Very happy with this recipe. Thanks
I made half a recipe as there’s only two of us. I totally cheated and used two packages of Barilla ready Penne pasta (that is 4 servings, so equivalent to 8 oz dry pasta). Microwaved each package 30 seconds instead of 60, just enough to break it up to stir in easily. It looks really awesome can’t wait to try it. Will top with Parm and bake off during the week. Can’t wait to taste it.
Cut recipe in half, but used 3 cups chicken, 1/3 cup chopped cilantro, omitted taco seasoning and put Parmesan in casserole. Made three small casseroles for family of two. Froze two of them for future meals. Delicious, thanks for the recipe.
This looks very good Steph
Yum – this sounds soooooo good!
What can you use instead of ricotta cheese I don't really care of it.
You can use cottage cheese or even some cream cheeze