Healthy Chicken Broccoli Casserole Recipe with chicken, mushrooms, rotini pasta and sauteed yellow onions. So Delicious!
This Healthy Chicken Broccoli Casserole is the perfect comfort food meal.
It is a healthier version of your typical cheesy broccoli casserole because it does not contain condensed mushroom or chicken soups.
The rotini pasta mixed with a sauteed onion/mushroom sauce, and chicken pieces, then topped off with freshly shredded sharp cheddar cheese is such a warm and cozy meal.
This was perfect for my fam on this cold and rainy day today. It's also one of those dishes that works great as leftovers.
Ingredients you will need:
- 8 oz (3 cups) dry rotini
- 4 cups of broccoli florets
- Butter
- 1 Yellow Onion
- 8 oz container of sliced cremini mushrooms
- Minced garlic
- Chicken Stock
- Milk
- 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
How to Make Chicken Broccoli Casserole?
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a large stockpot or dutch oven, cook rotini to al dente, then add in broccoli florets. Cook for an additional 3-4 minutes. Drain the pasta and broccoli in a strainer and set aside.
- In a dutch oven, saute the chopped yellow onion in 2 tablespoons of butter for 5 minutes, until browned. Add in mushrooms and garlic and cook for an additional 5 minutes until softened. Sprinkle flour over the mixture and cook for 1 minute.
- Add stock to the mixture and cook for a minute, dissolving any clumps that may form. Add in milk, dijon mustard, salt, and pepper. Cook sauce until it starts to simmer. Remove from heat.
- Stir in one cup of the shredded sharp cheddar cheese.
- Add the pasta, broccoli, and sauce to the baking pan, and stir until combined.
- Place in oven, uncovered, and cook for 15 minutes.
- Sprinkle rest of shredded cheese on top of casserole and cook for an additional 10 minutes.
- Serve and Enjoy!
What to serve with chicken broccoli casserole?
Since this dish has protein, veggies and carbs, there really is not a need for a side dish. Having said that, my family loves berries, so I sliced up some fresh strawberries and put them in a bowl in the center of the table. The berries disappeared by the end of the meal. They were a nice light side dish that complemented the casserole well.
Tips for this Chicken Broccoli Casserole with no soup:
- You can turn this into a Rotisserie Chicken Broccoli casserole for a quicker meal prep time. Simply shred the chicken from a fully cooked rotisserie chicken from your local supermarket's deli.
- Be sure to only cook the rotini to al dente, since it will cook more in the oven, and you want to avoid overcooking.
- Use fresh broccoli. It just tastes better, I promise. Frozen broccoli has too much water in it and could lead to a soggier casserole if you do not remove the excess water well enough.
- I love freshly shredded cheese. It tastes so much better in a dish like this one. The sharp cheddar is so perfect for this casserole.
- You can swap out the chicken for tuna and make this a Tuna Broccoli Casserole.
- You can also omit meat from the dish and turn it into a vegetarian noodle casserole.
This is an easy chicken broccoli casserole recipe that can serve a crowd and will warm them up on cold fall/winter days. We really enjoyed it and think you will too!
Recipe
Chicken Broccoli Casserole
Healthy Chicken Broccoli Casserole Recipe with chicken, mushrooms, rotini pasta and sauteed yellow onions. So Delicious!
Ingredients
- 1 large head of broccoli (4 cups of bite size florets)
- 2 tbsp butter
- 8 oz uncooked pasta
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 8 oz sliced cremini mushrooms
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup chicken stock or vegetable broth
- 3 tbsp flour
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ¼ tsp freshly ground pepper
- 2 cups freshly shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 2 cups diced cooked chicken
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
-
In large stock pot or dutch oven, cook pasta. At 5 minutes before it is al dente, add in broccoli florets to cook with pasta. Drain pasta and broccoli in a strainer and set aside.
-
In the same pot, heat the butter and cook the chopped onions for 5 minutes, until they are browned. Add mushrooms and minced garlic and cook for 5 more minutes.
-
Sprinkle flour over onion/mushroom mixture and stir for 1 minute to help removed any clumps of flour. Add in chicken or vegetable stock and stir to dissolve any clumps that form.
-
Add in the milk, dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Remove from heat.
-
Stir in one cup of shredded cheddar cheese. Add more pepper and/or salt if needed.
-
Add pasta, broccoli, and onion/mushroom mixture to a 13x9 baking dish and stir so that the ingredients are all fully incorporated.
-
Place in preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes uncovered. Sprinkle remaining cheese (1 cup) on top of casserole and bake for additional 10 minutes uncovered.
-
Serve and Enjoy!
There is chicken stock in the ingredients but not in the instructions. Where does it go??
Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. I added it into the recipe in step #4 after the addition of the flour. Hope you enjoy it!
The Head Spoon recently posted...Butter Toffee with Pecans and Milk Chocolate