Chicken baked with noodles in a homemade marinara sauce, and topped with a breadcrumb parmesan topping. This Chicken Parmesan Casserole is pure comfort food!
Casseroles for Freezing
I mentioned in my Lemon Thyme Chicken Casserole post that recently I’ve been working on stepping up my casserole game. Soon, I’ll have a day of preparing lots of casseroles and slow cooker meals that I freeze. It’s something that I like to do every fall – spend a day preparing freezer meals that I can pull out on busy nights, or give to friends who could use a homemade meal.
I’ll be honest here, it’s kinda hard to make up casserole recipes from scratch. For cooking, I can change as I go, so it often takes less attempts to get it ‘right’. For cakes and cookies, I have ‘base recipes’ that I’ve worked with for some time. But for casseroles, I have to serve my family a few subpar meals before the recipe is ready to share.
Meals That Work for Freezing
If you’re looking for meals to prepare in advance and freeze, check out this list. For each of these, I prepare everything right up to the point of baking, but instead of finishing the dish, I cover it in plastic wrap and aluminum foil, and place it in the freezer. When it’s time to cook, I let the dish thaw and bake as directed.
Emily’s Baked Ziti
Chicken and Roasted Vegetable Enchilada Casserole
Sausage and Beef Lasagna
Chicken Mole Enchiladas
Chicken Parmesan Casserole
This Chicken Parmesan Casserole took a few tweaks to get it just right. At first I didn’t use enough liquid, then I used too much. For one attempt the chicken was too dry, and at one point I used way too many breadcrumbs … you get the point. But finally, it turned out perfectly.
Here are a few tips to help ensure success when you make this recipe:
- Cut the chicken into small chunks, about 1″ sized cubes. Don’t skip this step – if you leave the breasts whole or in large sections, they will likely turn out too dry.
- Use Italian seasoned breadcrumbs. The additional seasonings listed below are intended to compliment and add to already seasoned breadcrumbs. If you use plain breadcrumbs, the topping will be a bit bland.
- Break up the pasta. It helps prevent the pasta from clumping and makes it easier to cover with liquid while baking.
- Don’t skip the water. When I started working with this recipe I didn’t want to use water because I thought it would dilute the sauce and taste weird. Nope. It’s absorbed into the noodles so that they cook properly in the oven.
- If you’re in a hurry, you can use jarred spaghetti sauce. I have not tried this myself, but if I were to do it, I would use two 24 ounce jars of my favorite spaghetti sauce.
Chicken Parmesan Casserole
Ingredients
Sauce
- 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 15 ounce can tomato sauce
- 6 ounce can tomato paste
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 tbsp marjoram
- 3 tbsp sugar
Chicken and Pasta
- 2 large chicken breasts cut into about 1″ sized chunks
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 12 ounces spaghetti noodles noodles broken into fourths
- 2.5 cups water
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Topping
- 1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
- 2/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 tbsp dried basil
- 1/2 tbsp dried parsley
Instructions
Sauce
- In a large pot over medium heat, stir together crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, marjoram, and sugar. Bring to a simmer, then reduce to low and let simmer for 30 minutes.
Chicken and Pasta
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spread 1 cup of sauce into bottom of a 3 to 3 1/2 quart casserole dish.
- Cut chicken into 1″ sized cubes. Season with the 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.
- Stir together chicken, remaining sauce, broken spaghetti noodles, water, and mozzarella cheese. If any noodles are sticking up over the top of the liquid, use your fingers to press them down (you want to make sure all noodles are covered).
Topping
- Stir together breadcrumbs, both cheeses, pepper, garlic, onion, basil, and parsley. Sprinkle evenly over top of casserole.
- Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
Disclaimer: All nutritional information provided on this website is an estimate only and is not guaranteed.
If you enjoyed this Chicken Parmesan Casserole, you might enjoy these other SugarSpicesLife recipes:
Instant Pot Spaghetti
Greek Meat Sauce with Spaghetti
Meatballs in Marinara Sauce
Sausage Stuffed Shells
Stuffed Chicken Parmesan
Links to items used to make this recipe:
” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Le Creuset 3 1/2 Quart Baking Dish
Extra Large Wood Cutting Board” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Wooden Serving Spoons
