Overnight King Ranch Chicken Mac & Cheese – a new family favorite! It is on repeat in our house! It is like chicken tetrazzini with Velveeta and Rotel. YUM! Just dump everything in the casserole dish and refrigerate overnight. No boiling the noodles! Chicken, cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, milk, chicken broth, Velveeta, Rotel, taco seasoning, elbow macaroni, and Mexican cheese blend. Use a rotisserie chicken for quick prep.
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Pin This RecipeEasy Chicken Pasta Casserole
This Overnight King Ranch Chicken Pasta is a favorite in our house. It is like chicken tetrazzini with Velveeta and Rotel. All of my favorite flavors combined into one dish. This might be my favorite chicken casserole ever! I love everything about this casserole; especially that I don’t have to boil the pasta noodles! I love easy no-boil pasta casseroles like this. They are PERFECT for easy weeknight meals!
How to Make Overnight King Ranch Chicken Pasta
This Overnight King Ranch Chicken Mac & Cheese Casserole is very easy to make. I like to start with a rotisserie chicken. Rotisserie chicken is my secret weapon in the kitchen. I always have some pulled rotisserie chicken in the freezer for quick meals.
Since this casserole uses Velveeta cheese, I like to heat the sauce ingredients on the stove just until the Velveeta cheese is melted. You can skip this step if you wish, but you will just have pockets of cheese instead of a creamy cheese sauce.
Once the sauce is heated, simply mix together the sauce, chicken and uncooked pasta and pour it into a lightly greased baking dish. Cover the dish with plastic wrap or foil and refrigerate overnight. It will be ready to bake the next day.
Please note that you don’t cook the pasta before assembling the casserole. The excess liquid in the casserole will soften the noodles overnight and they will be perfect once cooked.
Also, this casserole uses a can of Rotel diced tomatoes and green chiles. We didn’t think this was too spicy. If you are worried about the heat, please use a can of mild tomatoes.
Can I Freeze Overnight King Ranch Chicken Mac & Cheese
Sure! You can absolutely freeze this casserole for a quick meal later! I prefer to freeze this particular casserole after it has been baked. Since there are only two of us, I split the casserole into two pans. I bake one and freeze one for later. When you are ready to eat the leftover casserole, just thaw and either cover and bake in the oven or microwave the dish to reheat the Queso Smothered Chicken Pasta.
What to Serve With Overnight King Ranch Chicken Mac & Cheese
As I said this Overnight King Ranch Chicken Mac & Cheese was a HUGE success in our house. We’ve made this several times over the past few months and just can’t seem to get enough of it. You really need to add it to your menu ASAP! I promise it will be a hit!!
This is a pretty hearty casserole. You don’t need very many sides to go with it. Here are a few of our favorite side dishes that go great with this easy chicken casserole:
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Overnight King Ranch Chicken Mac & Cheese
Ingredients:
- 4 cups chopped cooked chicken (1 whole rotisserie chicken)
- 1 (10.5-oz) can Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
- 1 (10.5-oz) can Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
- 1¼ cup milk
- 1¼ cup chicken broth
- 1 (10-oz) can diced tomatoes and green chiles, drained
- 2 Tbsp taco seasoning
- 2 cups Velveeta cheese, shredded or diced (8-oz)
- 8- oz elbow macaroni, uncooked
- 1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend
Instructions:
- Spray a 9×13-inch pan with cooking spray.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, combine soups, milk, chicken broth, diced tomatoes and green chiles, and Velveeta. Cook just until Velveeta melts.
- Combine cooked chicken, sauce mixture and taco seasoning. Stir in uncooked pasta.
- Pour pasta mixture into prepared pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Remove casserole from refrigerator and uncover.
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Top casserole with shredded Mexican cheese blend. Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour.
Notes:
Steph
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Can you make up in the morning and cook at dinner time? Or does it need the full 24 hours?
You can try it. My guess is that it would be fine. Might just need a few extra minutes of cooking time.
So am I suppose to use 8oz of the velveeta cheese you make queso out of or 8 oz of shredded cheese or is either ok to use and are they the same measurement of 8 oz?
I used an 8-oz package of SHREDDED VELVEETA cheese. If you can’t find shredded Velveeta, you can use a block of Velveeta and cube it.
Is it only 8oz of velveta. It says 2 cups, but that would be 16oz; yes?
NO, NO, NO. 2 cups of shredded cheese is 8 ounces. You are thinking of liquid measurements. Liquid and dry ingredients do not weigh the same. For example – cheese is 4-oz in a cup, four is 4.5-oz in a cup. Water is 8-oz to a cup.
I had some elbow noodles already cooked and wanted to try this. Could it be mixed by recipe but have already cooked noodles instead of not cooked ahead of time?
I’ve only tried this with uncooked pasta. If you use cooked pasta, you will need to adjust the liquid in the casserole.
Other than macaroni, can spaghetti be used?
I haven’t made this with spaghetti, so I can not say with certainty.
This is a new family favorite! My picky teenager said this is a keeper! Really easy — it made a lot so I made two and froze one. Sometimes these casseroles separate and aren’t as good after they’re frozen, but this one turned out great!
YAY! So glad it was a hit!
I notice you only use 8 oz. of macaroni when it comes in a 16 oz box… can you double it to feed more… would it still fit in one 9 x 13 pan or would you use two pans?
If you use a whole 16-oz box, you would need to double the recipe in two 9×13-inch pans
i need to quarter this recipe down to make it for one! hahahahaa