Chicken Mac and Cheese Recipe
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Chicken Mac and Cheese is a delicious, comforting meal featuring everyone’s favorite mac and cheese!
Chicken Mac and Cheese. What is it about it that with just one bite, it immediately feels like you are getting a great big hug from your Grandmother? Or like your snuggling up with the coziest of blankets on the coolest of evenings. Chicken Mac and Cheese is one of those comforting meals that makes you feel better no matter what the situation. It also seems like one of those dishes that I make to take to friends and family on so many occasions.
Sick member of the family? Chicken Mac and Cheese will surely make them feel better – or at the very least help them so they don’t have cook for their family.
New baby? A casserole dish full of Chicken Mac and Cheese is great for them to keep in the freezer until just the night when they have no idea what’s for supper. It definitely happens when new babies arrive, doesn’t it?
New neighbor? Nothing welcomes them to the area like a pan of this stuff. They will never want to move away so use it with extreme caution.
Chicken Mac and Cheese just works, y’all. I promise.
The wonderful thing about this recipe, in addition to its pure comfort, is it easily makes enough for two 9×13 casserole dishes. In other words, it even makes enough for a family reunion or church covered dish, to have one for yourself and one to share, to eat tonight and have one ready made in the freezer for another busy evening.
Since it’s already fully cooked, you just have to remove it from the freezer the night before and allow to thaw in the refrigerator. If I’ve not planned that far in advance, I’ll place it in the oven while the oven is preheating and then just cook it until it is well-heated throughout, an extra 10 to 20 minutes or so.
You can also shorten the total initial cooking time of this Chicken Mac and Cheese recipe by using store-bought rotisserie chicken for a quicker-cook meal.
Here’s the recipe for my Chicken Mac and Cheese. I hope you love it!
Chicken Mac and Cheese Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 chicken breasts
- 1 (16-ounce) package elbow noodles
- 1 (16-ounce) package monterey jack cheese, grated
- 2 (10 3/4- ounce) cans cream of mushroom soup
- 2 cups chicken stock or broth
- 1/2 cup onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 3/4 cup pimento pepper, chopped (large jar)
- 1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cook chicken, covered with water, in a large stockpot over medium heat until tender, about 20 minutes. Remove chicken from stockpot with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool.
- Pour elbow noodles into stockpot over medium heat and cook until al dente, about 10 minutes. As the noodles are cooking, chop chicken into bite sized pieces. Once noodles are cooked, strain them from chicken stock, reserving the chicken stock for later use.
- Add noodles and chicken to a large mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients and stir until well-combined.
- Pour into two 9×13 casserole pans.
- Cover with Ritz Crackers on top. (optional)
- Bake at 350º degrees for 30 minutes.
- Place in preheated oven and cook for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and serve.
Freezing instructions:
- For freezing, prepare with the exception of baking. Wrap tightly with aluminum foil and store in the freezer. The night before ready to serve, place in the refrigerator to allow to thaw before cooking. Then cook as normal. If planning to bake frozen, place in the oven while it is preheating and add about 10-20 minutes to the cooking time to make sure heated throughout.
- Preheat oven to 350º.
- Mix all ingredients except Ritz Crackers in a large bowl. Pour into a baking dish.
- Cover with Ritz Crackers on top.
- Bake at 350º degrees for 30 minutes.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
It is an absolute hit in my house and for potlucks at my husband’s work! A keeper in my house for sure.
So great to hear this, Celeste! I’m glad it’s a recipe your family will enjoy as well! xo
Do you have any idea about how many cups of chicken that would be? I’m pinning this for later. Thanks!!
Quick question… the instructions say to strain the noodles from the stock. I assume I am boiling them in the stock then? And then adding the strained and set aside stock to the rest of the ingredients when I do the final mix before baking? Thank you!
You can ignore the question…just made my own adjustments. I halved the recipe and made only 1 9×13 pan. I definitely needed more chicken stock to boil the noodles. I used 3 cups of stock for 8 ounces of noodles. Strained out the 1 cup of stock needed for the recipe and mixed it in with the other ingredients. Turned out delicious! Will definitely make it again and next time try the Ritz topping.
Yummy! I’ve made chicken mac and cheese before but it never looked as good as this!
Honestly, if someone had passed by with a pan of mac & cheese after I had Clara, I would have loved them forever! This looks like the perfect postpartum meal. 🙂
This really is the ultimate versatile dish. This is especially perfect for when it (hopefully!) starts to cool down outside, and you just want to stay nice ‘n’ cozy under a blanket watching TV. We’d love for you to submit a similar recipe to The Search for the Ultimate Weeknight Meal, offering a grand-prize to one lucky blogger who will tape a segment to air on national TV!
Two of my favorite things….casseroles and Ritz Crackers. Put’em together and you have one fantastic meal!!! Thanks for sharing this recipe, and I will be sharing it this week.
Thanks so much, Mary. It is definitely a classic Southern combination, isn’t it?
I love this already – I have been majorly craving mac & cheese lately!
Me, too!!! Do you think it’s because we’re longing for Fall so much?