French Onion Chicken Noodle Casserole
This French Onion Chicken Noodle Casserole is filled with delicious noodles smothered in a creamy French onion sauce. It’s easy to make with leftover or rotisserie chicken and your favorite onion dip!
A big thanks to Wewalka for sponsoring this post, all opinions are my own.
French Onion Chicken Noodle Casserole
Friends, get ready to make the most flavorful casserole of your life. It’ll take you some time to get those onions to caramelize, but the taste of this casserole is well worth it.
This is a great recipe to use with leftover or rotisserie chicken for an added shortcut.
If you don’t have pre-cooked chicken, searing seasoned chicken breasts in the pot before you caramelize the onions does add a great amount of flavor.
The pasta is then gently boiled in chicken and beef broth the same pot as the caramelized onions.
From there you add your favorite onion dip, cream of chicken soup, (here’s a homemade version), and freshly shredded mozzarella cheese.
Finally, we top it all of with flaky, golden Puff Pastry!
Ingredients
See recipe card at the bottom of post for ingredient quantities and full written instructions
- Vegetable Oil
- Skinless/Boneless Chicken Breasts- Or cooked chicken
- Salt/Pepper
- Italian Seasoning
- Butter
- Onions
- Fresh Thyme
- Chicken Broth
- Beef Broth
- Rotini Pasta- or similarly sized pasta
- Onion Dip
- Cream of Chicken Soup- try my homemade version!
- Mozzarella Cheese- Low Moisture shredded from a block at home
- Wewalka Puff Pastry
- Egg- Optional, used for egg wash.
How to Make it
Season and sear the chicken in vegetable oil until golden brown on both sides. Remove and leave 1 Tablespoon oil in the pot. Add the butter and onions. Toss to coat.
Caramelize the onions, stirring occasionally, reduce heat if needed to allow them to cook low and slow until they reduce and turn a caramel color. Add fresh thyme.
Add water, chicken broth, and beef broth. Bring to a gentle boil and add Rotini. Allow it to gently boil for about 7 minutes, until no more than Al Dente
Add diced chicken, onion dip, cream of chicken soup, and mozzarella cheese. Stir to combine.
Transfer to a lightly greased 9 x 13 casserole dish. Top with puff pastry and brush with egg wash if desired.
Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Serve!
Wewalka Puff Pastry
For best results, I highly recommend using Wewalka Puff Pastry. Here are the major perks:
- No thawing required. (This is huge. Have you ever waited for Puff Pastry to thaw before? It takes forever.)
- Easy to unroll on any surface with no flour or rolling pin required. Other brands that I’ve used crack and split easily when unrolled. Wewalka dough is super smooth and easy to handle.
- Easy to cut to fit perfectly around a casserole dish.
- There are 64 layers of dough that make up this golden flaky topping.
PRO Tip: Don’t remove the puff pastry from the fridge until you’re ready to use it.
Storage
Refrigerate for 3-4 days in an airtight container or freeze for up to 3 months.
Try These Next!
- French Onion Smothered Pork Chops
- French Onion Soup
- French Onion Chicken
- Cheesy Beef and Rice Casserole
- Chicken Alfredo Bake
- Tomato Basil Pasta
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French Onion Chicken Noodle Casserole
Ingredients
- 2-3 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
- 2 small boneless/skinless chicken breasts, or 2 cups cooked chicken
- 2 Tablespoons Italian Seasoning
- Salt/Pepper
- 4 Tablespoon unsalted butter
- 2 extra-large yellow onions, or 1.5 pounds
- 2 springs fresh thyme
- 2 ½ chicken broth
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1 cup water
- 1 lb. Rotini pasta, or similarly sized pasta
- 1 cup onion dip mix, see notes
- 1 can cream of chicken soup, (10.5 oz.)
- 2 cups low moisture mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 1 13 oz. roll Wewalka Puff pastry, found in the refrigerator section
- 1 egg + 1 splash cold water - Optional
Instructions
Prep Work:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Slice the onions ¼ inch thick and set aside. A mandoline slicer makes this quick and easy.
- Shred the mozzarella and set aside. Low moisture mozzarella shredded from a block melts the best.
Cook the Chicken. (Shortcut: Use 2 leftover cooked chicken or rotisserie chicken.)
- Butterfly the chicken and cut the seam to create two thinner pieces of equal size. Pat dry and season with Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
- Heat the oil in a large pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear the chicken on each side for 4-5 minutes, until light golden brown. The bottom of the chicken will release from the pan once searing is complete.
- Carefully remove the chicken and leave 1 tablespoon of oil in the pot. Let the chicken rest for 5-8 minutes prior to cutting into bite-sized cubes.
Caramelize the Onions
- Reduce heat to medium and melt the butter. Add the onion slices and toss to coat.
- Partially cover and stir occasionally. Reduce heat if they begin to cook too quickly.
- Allow them to reduce significantly over the course of 40 minutes, they will eventually turn a caramel color and begin to foam. (See post above for visual.)
- Add the thyme towards during the last few minutes of cooking.
Cook the Pasta
- Add the chicken broth, beef broth, and water to the pot. Bring to a gently boil and add the pasta.
- Let the pasta gently boil uncovered for about 7 minutes, until no more than al dente. Stir occasionally.
Assemble the Casserole
- Remove from heat. Add the onion dip, cream of chicken soup, mozzarella cheese, and cubed chicken. Stir to combine.
- Transfer to a lightly greased 9 x 13 casserole dish.
- Remove the puff pastry from the fridge and gently unroll. Place it over the casserole dish and use a pairing knife to remove excess dough around the edges.
- Optional: Combine the egg + a splash of cold water, whisk to combine and brush a very light coating over the top of the pastry.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve!
Notes
For saucier pasta, use ¾ lb. instead of a full pound.
I can’t wait to share this recipe with my daughter in Love! My 4 year old grandson loves French Onion Soup!! That was his lunch for his birthday on the 17th. Thank you for sharing! Merry Christmas
Such great news Sandie, I’m so glad to hear it- thank you for sharing and Happy Holidays!
Hey Sandie! I am SO happy that your grandson was able to enjoy this for his birthday lunch, that is adorable that he’s four years old and loves French Onion Soup!!! My daughter LOVES soup but I haven’t tried French Onion yet, I’ll have to give it a go, I actually just made a batch last week! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
What if we don’t have those noodles in California?
Hey Sue!! In that case, dried egg noodles will be the next best thing!
got some this evening! thanks. PS I just launched a fun product to go along with all your lovely meals: 202 Conversation Starters – altho with your cooking, I’m not sure you will be needing them!
Could you possibly just add dried French onion soup mix to the cream of chicken soup to achieve the same flavor, but cut some of the calories of adding the dip?
Hi Melanie! To cut some of the calories in this one, I would probably get 98% fat free can of cream of chicken soup. As far as a dip replacement, you could also then get a (16 oz.) container of *reduced fat* sour cream and mix that with a packet of Lipton onion soup mix! I think that’d be your best bet. Feel free to toss in some broccoli or other vegetables that you like as well for a healthier mixture! Enjoy 🙂
Stephanie,
Is the chicken cubes cooked or uncooked when you mix them together?
Hi there! The chicken cubes are uncooked when added 🙂 enjoy!!!!!
I just made this tonight! Doubled it because I have men to feed :). Added the peas after it was cooked because I forgot lol but they were a great addition and I think added after made them more “popish” in the mouth, which is good. I also had half a container of the French fried onions with jalapeño so added that to my one container of regular ones plus a bit of Panko to even out the measurements. This dish turned out so yummy! I thought I’d have left overs but said men, and possibly me, made pigs of themselves.
Hi Lisa!!! Ohhhhhhh I’m so glad you enjoyed it!!! Reading about it made me hungry – I’m a BIG casserole fan. We never have any leftovers either…
I didn’t know they HAD French fried onions with Jalapeño!! I have to run to the store and get some ASAP!!
Thanks for letting me know how it came out!!!!!
If you’re talking pantry food delight, this is it! The ingredients are things I have in the house most of the time and it looks wonderful.
Oh, yeah, I’m a freak for the french-fried onions, too, I could probably eat em over ice cream!
I plan on doing this w/ some variations like ground turkey, I’m sure it’ll be most shovel-worthy!
Thanks.
A ground turkey variation sounds GREAT!!!! I am a sucker for ground beef and turkey, I like to add it to everything- I’m sure it would be superb in this! 🙂
This is make-my-tummy-happy kind of food! I bet it smells incredible warmed up. I can see how the co-workers would be so jealous!
THANKS THAO! Man.. it’s a dangerous recipe for me to have on hand. I love casserole-type food WAY too much… (and cheese. haha!)- I had to freeze some of it just to get it out of the fridge because I WILL eat it cold! 😉
Give me a fork, I’m with you this looks delicious.
THANKS Suzanne! OMG.. it’s dangerous I don’t think I can even make this again, lol