Chicken Noodle Casserole

Total Time: 1 hr 5 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
• 6 ounces egg noodles
• 1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup sour cream
• salt
• ground black pepper
• 1 cup crumbled buttery round cracker
• 1/2 cup butter

Recipe

• 1 poach chicken in a 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 a separate bowl, mix together mushroom soup, chicken soup, and sour cream. season with salt and pepper. gently stir together cream soup mixture with the 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 the buttery crackers.
• 4 bake at 350*f. for about 30 minutes, until heated through and browned on top.
• 5 my note: i couldn't help but tweak it a little since there was such great opportunity for flavor enhancement. sometime i added a couple of cloves of garlic, 2 stalks of finely diced celery, and 1/2 of a small onion, also finely diced. i also added about 1/2 teaspoons of thyme, and about 1/2 bag of frozen mixed vegetables. i increased the cooking time to about 45-50 minutes, so that the added vegetables would get cooked. the last thing i changed was i added about 3/4 can of milk to the soup mixture to give it a little moisture so it wouldn't dry out.
• 6 update: i sprinkled the chicken w/kosher salt & fresh ground pepper and spinach & herb seasoning that i get from tastefully simple -- but you could use any herbs you like. then i browned it over fairly high heat in butter and olive oil, removed the chicken and set aside. added about 1/2 cup chicken broth to the pan and scraped up all those yummy bits, then added the chicken back to the pan and covered & cooked till done. remove chicken and reduce broth by half (1/4 cup). i cooked the noodles in water and the remaining chicken broth from the can, drained & added the cut chicken to the noodles. mixed cr. of chicken w/ herbs soup & mush soup w/ sour cream & added the reduction. mixed that w/ a little more herb seasoning. added chicken & noodles & combined well. topped w/ shredded cheddar and cracker crumb mixture. wow! my son ate 3/4 of the casserole and my grandchildren loved it! a definite add to the rotation!