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French Onion Chicken Casserole is made with chicken, pasta and green beans in a creamy sauce made from scratch and topped with crispy french fried onions. It’s the perfect comfort food for a busy weeknight!
Why I Love This Recipe
- Creamy and Satisfying – The sauce is super creamy with a delicious onion flavor.
- No Cream Soup – The sauce is made from scratch, made with milk, chicken broth, sour cream, and onion soup mix.
- Feeds a Crowd – Easily get 8 servings from one casserole or double it and make two pans.
Ingredients Overview
- Chicken Broth – I always opt for a low-sodium variety.
- Flour and Butter – to make the roux for the sauce.
- Milk – Any milk that you would typically use in a sauce. Nut milks are usually slightly sweet so keep that in mind as it could change the flavor of your sauce.
- Sour Cream
- Onion Soup Mix – Any brand, but I use Lipton.
- Cooked Chicken – Cook fresh, or use meat from a store-bought rotisserie.
- Green Beans – I just used canned green beans, but frozen could be thawed and added. If you want to use fresh green beans, you’ll need to at least par-boil them first.
- Pasta – I like rotini but you could also use farfalle or penne.
- Crispy Fried Onions
How To Make French Onion Chicken Casserole
- Cook pasta in boiling water and according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
- Boil chicken broth and milk, then add a slurry of flour to thicken.
- Stir sour cream and onion soup mix into the thickened chicken broth mixture.
- Combine chicken, noodles, green beans, and sauce.
- Pour into a baking dish, cover with foil, and bake at 350℉ for 25-30 minutes.
- Uncover and top with the crispy fried onions, then bake for an additional 5-7 minutes or until browned and bubbly.
Make Ahead and Storage
Make Ahead: This is great for prepping ahead and baking later. Prepare the casserole a day in advance, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours. Remove from the fridge 20 minutes prior to baking. *Do not add the fried onions until the last several minutes of the baking time.
Freezing Unbaked: Prepare the casserole but don’t bake it. Cover with plastic wrap and foil and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw completely, then bake as directed. *Do not add the fried onions until the last several minutes of the baking time.
Storing Leftovers: Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days and reheat in the microwave or oven. To freeze leftovers, store in a freezer container for up to 6 months. Thaw and reheat as desired.
Pro Tips
- For a lighter casserole, use plain Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream.
- Don’t overcook the pasta. In fact you could under-cook it slightly and it would be fine.
- If you prefer, skip the fried onions on top and use Panko breadcrumbs instead.
- Green beans could be swapped for another vegetable or omitted completely.
- Prefer shredded chicken in your casserole? Learn my favorite methods to making shredded chicken.
Chicken Casseroles to Try Next
- Chicken Potato Casserole
- Chicken Pot Pie With Biscuits
- Chicken Pasta Bake
- Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole
- Doritos Chicken Casserole
- King Ranch Chicken Casserole
French Onion Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups chicken broth
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 packet onion soup mix
- 3 cups diced cooked chicken
- 2 15- ounce cans green beans drained (or 2 ½ cups fresh or frozen)
- 12 ounces uncooked rotini
- 2 cups french fried onions
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Bring a pot of salted water to boil over medium-high heat. Add the pasta and cook to package directions. Drain and set aside.
- Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring chicken broth and half a cup of milk to a simmer. While the broth is coming to a simmer, whisk together flour and remaining 1 cup of milk in a small bowl until thick and smooth. Pour into the saucepan with the broth and continue whisking over low heat while it simmers. Continue to whisk until thickened; about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- In a large bowl, combine thickened chicken broth mixture, sour cream and onion soup mix until well mixed. Add chicken, noodles and green beans and stir to coat completely. Pour into a large baking dish. Cover with foil and bake for 25-30 minutes.
- Uncover and top with the french fried onions; bake for an additional 5-7 minutes or until onions are crispy and golden brown.
- Cool for several minutes. Garnish with fresh minced parsley if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer Kristin Maxwell of “Yellow Bliss Road” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. For accurate calorie counts and other nutritional values, we recommend running the ingredients through your preferred online nutritional calculator. Calories and other nutritional values can vary depending on which brands were used.
This tasted good, but when I clicked 2x to double the ingredients, it did not change the directions at all. It needed to cook for twice the amount of time that it stated in the directions. I pulled it out after 30 minutes and it was completely raw still. This had a lot of prep work needed as well- so if you’re going to make it all at once, give yourself a lot of time. Even though we all liked it, I probably won’t make it again like this. I’ll probably just buy cream of chicken soup and mix in Lipton’s onion mix and skip all of the prep work it took to make cream of onion soup to cook it in.
Tip- add bacon bits to change it up
That’s because the chicken is supposed to be already cooked (like leftovers or from a rotisserie, or just cooked any way you like). You don’t generally put raw chicken in a casserole. It’s a great casserole if you make it correctly – I hope you’ll give it another try.
Looks Delicious and gives a whole new twist compared to my boring chicken casserole.
Thank You