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Just 10 minutes of prep time and you have a delicious creamy concoction of chicken, celery, and cheese topped with crispy fried onions!
If you think you don’t like casseroles, then you probably just haven’t tried the right one. We have several favorite chicken casseroles, like a chicken crescent roll casserole, chicken and broccoli casserole, and this French onion chicken casserole!
A casserole for even the pickiest eaters
I really don’t like being a picky eater, but I am. Yes, it’s true… I can’t stand onions. They gross me out. BUT, having said that I actually like french fried onions… maybe the fact they’re breaded and fried makes them okay. 😉
This next recipe I’m sharing is topped off with those delicious french fried onions and filled with all sorts of goodness like chicken, cheese, sour cream, mayo and almonds. It is DELICIOUS!
The best thing about this French Onion Chicken Casserole is that it takes little prep time. Literally, it takes minutes to throw together if your chicken is already made. You can buy cooked, chopped chicken, but I like to bake my chicken earlier in the morning.
10 minute prep
Although it takes awhile to bake, it really only takes about 5 minutes of prep work. Add that with the 5 minutes it takes to put this casserole together and you’re looking at about 10 minutes of work.
PREP. Preheat oven to 350 and coat a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.
BAKE. In large bowl, stir celery, cheese, sour cream, mayo and cream of chicken. Add chicken and almonds. Spoon into dish. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.
TOPPING. Sprinkle fried onion and cook another 5 minutes. Let stand 5-10 minutes. Enjoy!
Tips + variations
Here are a few ideas to tweak the recipe to make it a little more healthy:
- Use a low fat Mayo and sour cream
- Substitute all or a portion of the Mayonnaise with a low fat Greek yogurt
- Add veggies—sliced carrots, peas, broccoli florets, and shredded zucchini are all good choices
- Make it even more keto friendly and sprinkle cooked chopped bacon bits on top
- Serve over white or brown rice, pasta, cauliflower rice, or zucchini pasta
Serve French onion chicken casserole with any of the following:
Storing info
To make ahead of time, assemble and cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for a day. If freezing, then add another layer of aluminum foil and freeze for 2-3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before baking. Do not add the fried onions until the last 5 minutes of baking time.
To STORE, divide the leftovers into single serve portions. Store the portions in airtight containers and keep in the fridge for days. To reheat quickly, use the microwave. If you have a little more time reheat in the oven.
The fried onions may become mushy as it sits in the fridge. To crisp them back up simply stick the casserole under the broiler. Watch carefully as they can go from soggy to burnt really quickly.
For more great chicken casseroles, check out:
- One Pan Chicken Parmesan
- Chicken and Green Bean Casserole
- Parmesan Chicken Bake
- Chicken Tetrazzini
- Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
- Chicken Stuffing Casserole
French Onion Chicken Casserole Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked chicken chopped
- 1 cup celery chopped (or french style green beans)
- 1 cup cheddar cheese shredded
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1 can cream of chicken
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
- 6 oz French’s fried onions
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and coat a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, stir celery, cheese, sour cream, mayo and cream of chicken. Add chicken and almonds. Spoon into dish.
- Bake uncovered for 30 minutes. Sprinkle fried onion and cook another 5 minutes. Let stand 5-10 minutes. Enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Added onion, subbed sour cream w/ table cream. Didn’t use celery or almonds. Turned out pretty good 🙂
I wonder if we could add fresh chicken thighs and drumsticks with all the other ingredients cover with foil for about 1 hour cooking slow on 350• then uncover adding the crispy onions😊What do you guys think.
For me it’s not the ads that are blocking the screen, it’s the pink banner with the “featured in” bubbles. I understand you need the ad revenue – that’s fine – but please find another way to display “featured in”. I’m sure it’s a turnoff to many and it’s a shame because this site has great recipes/content otherwise!
Agreed…I really like this dish but its such a hassle to need to go back to the recipe and have to get 2 lines of text because the “Featured in” section is blocking it. I don’t care about what you’ve been featured in if I can even read your recipes.
You need to address the ads. I can’t scroll up because it triggers a drop down. Even if I refresh the page is keeps me at my location and if I attempt to scroll up same thing happens.
I want to make this but this post is ##%%^€# annoying. All kinds of pop ups for other recipes in the way of reading it. Waaaayy too many ads.
I mutilated the recipe, but it came out fabulous! I’m sure it would have been good as written. but I forgot cheddar and almonds, read reviews and just played with it. The celery added a nice crunch factor, as did the green beans and the (few) FF onions that I mixed in. I also added onions, mushrooms, and carrots that I sauteed in bacon drippings. I put in a layer of raw rice and a cup of bouillon (BTB), but the rice was not fully cooked even after 45 min. Might par-boil it next time. Overall, it was a very forgiving and flexible recipe, and very tasty! Thanks. We enjoyed it.
I’m about to try this recipe. However, it has been a BIG struggle to use your website. The “Featured in” screen overlays your blog/recipe, covering OVER 3/4 of my screen. I can only read a maximum of 5 lines of text, or see an inch or so of a picture (on a big laptop screen). It will retract if I scroll down, but if I scroll up it just drops down again. This is not helpful, and is very discouraging. It just makes me want to give up and go to a website where I can actually read the recipe! I suspect you are losing a lot of readers because of it. I like your recipes, but this is a PITA. (Pain in …)
My apologies – the ads are preventing me from getting back to my comment to reply to it. I see that the ad comments were recent, not from several years ago.