Chicken Noodle Casserole

Chicken Noodle Casserole

Ready in: 1 hour    Servings:6

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

6 oz egg noodles

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

1 cup sour cream

Salt to taste

Ground pepper to taste

1 cup crumbled buttery round crackers

½ cup butter

(I also add a cup of shredded cheese, whatever I have on hand)

1. Poach chicken in large pot of simmering water.  Cook until no longer pink in center, about 12 minutes.  Remove from pot and set aside.  Bring chicken cooking water to a boil and cook pasta in it.  Drain.  Cut chicken into small pieces and mix with noodles
2. In separate bowl, mix together mushroom soup, chicken soup, and sour cream, (and cheese).  Season with salt and pepper.  Gently stir together cream soups mixture with chicken mixture.  Place in a 2 quart baking dish.
3. Melt butter in a small saucepan, and remove from heat.  Stir in crumbled crackers.  Top casserole with buttery crackers. 
4. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until heated through and browned on top. 

***I just mix the soup mixture in the dish I am cooking it in and they add the chicken and noodles and mix in the pan to save on clean up.  I also melt the butter in the microwave…

Savings tip:  We are not a huge meat/chicken eating family.  So when making recipes with large amounts of chicken, I use half of what it calls for, or even sometimes less.

Time saving:  This would also be a great recipe to double and freeze the second one for later.

Picky Eaters!  My three year old is very picky right now.  So last night I made extra noodles and held them out before I mixed all of the noodles together.  I put some butter on them and some Parmesan cheese and she was happy. 

My little helpers:  My five and three year old love to help.  However, there is not always something for them to do...  Last night, my three year old crumbled the crackers in the bag and they both helped with the crescent rolls we had with dinner.  Crescent rolls are one of my kids favorite things.  We have them a lot; they are fairly inexpensive and they can make them on their own.