Everyone loves a good casserole and they are such an easy meal idea. Everything goes into one pan and gets put in the oven, making serving a breeze. Casseroles are frequently great options for batch cooking and freezing too.
This recipe is made easiest with pre-cooked chicken (I frequently cook extra chicken on weekends or when I’m cooking some for another recipe so that I have some ready to go when I’m short on time) and frozen veggies, but you could start with raw chicken and fresh vegetables if you have a bit more time. Here’s my healthy take on a family favorite.
Tip to Include the Kids:
I love to let my kids help cook whenever possible. Letting the kids help cook is one of the ways I help them learn to love a wide variety of foods and avoid picky eaters. We have the crinkle cutter with the wooden handle from this set and I love to let the children help chop the cooked chicken and grate the cheese if I use it.
Now that they are older, my kids are actually a tremendous help many nights. The time I spent letting them “help” when they were younger has paid dividends (though I still have a two-year old to create the obligatory messes and spills while she helps).
Chicken Broccoli Casserole Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts (cooked)
- 4 TBSP butter (cubed)
- 1 bag frozen broccoli (or 1 head fresh)
- 1 bag frozen cauliflower (or 1 head fresh)
- 1 onion (diced)
- 2 cups cheddar cheese (shredded, optional)
- 2/3 cup sour cream (optional)
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tsp basil
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- If not using pre-cooked chicken, bake chicken until cooked or dice and sauté in a pan.
- Place butter in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.
- Add broccoli, cauliflower, and diced onion.
- Put in oven about 20-25 minutes or until heated and mostly cooked.
- While vegetables are heating, chop chicken into bite sized pieces and grate cheddar cheese if necessary.
- Remove vegetables from oven.
- Add chopped chicken, cheddar cheese, sour cream, spices, and ¼ cup water and mix well.
- Top with Parmesan if desired and put back in oven until everything is warm and cheese is melted.
Notes
Nutrition
What’s your favorite casserole? Share below!
So good! Just made this for supper and my 5 boys (ages 10 and under) all loved it!
I made this earlier in the week and I and my husband both loved it. I too, had water in the bottom with crispy veggies so I think I’ll just leave the water out. We don’t mind crunchy veggies. I like that it has the cauliflower also. This will be a perfect “go-to” recipe once I start precooking chickens over the weekend! Thank you!
I made this this eve. My whole family really liked it!! My family was starving and wanted to eat…..the veggies were still a little crisp and there was quite a bit of liquid in the bottom of the dish. Next time I will allow more cooking time. It seemed to take much longer than the recipe indicated. Might even microwave the veggies a little first. All in all it was a hit.
This is so easy and delicious! Thanks!
Does this Chicken Broccoli Casserole fair well if you freeze it and try to reheat?
Thanks & Blessings,
Shan
The How to Guru
This recipe is delicious!
A couple of suggestions to help make the instructions easier to follow:
– Specify what size casserole dish you’ll need for this, as you’ll need a larger one (!).
– It wasn’t clear what you do with the 4 TBSP of butter by how the recipe is written, and so I assumed it was to use with the onions (see the following).
– Sauté the onions before you add the frozen vegetables, to ensure the onions get cooked enough and are soft.
– Include amount of basic and garlic (as well as the type of garlic–fresh chopped? powder?) that you typically use would be great for us new to cooking.
Thank you for all of your great recipes and articles. 🙂
Just made this and the reaction from the whole family was ‘Wow’! Only thing I changed was I fried onion and garlic in butter then added it to casserole with the sour cream. It’s gone onto our list of regular dinners, thanks.
I love all of your recipes. The only thing that would make them better is if you can list a “ballpark” time it takes to create these meals. I’ve gotten over my head a few times with some of your recipes that seem like they won’t take much time, but end up consuming my night. Thanks!
I have the exact same problem, and not just with wellness mama… this will probably take me 2 hours to make ;/
sounds good i’m going to try it
Why dont yu have nutrition list on recipes or am I missing them