Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta Bake
This easy pasta bake recipe is a favorite of mine. It’s a lot like a mac and cheese and pasta casserole all in one! It’s made with a homemade creamy cheese sauce and baked with even more cheese on top, so you know it’s good. This is a dreamy dish for a weekend or week night dinner. If you have any leftover ham, this is a great way to use it up too.
When you have leftover chicken and ham in the fridge, this is the recipe to turn to! I first created it when I was staring at both leftover meats in my fridge and thinking, “what now?” Well, I tossed it all together with pasta and a cheese sauce and baked it beneath a generous layer of mozzarella. Now, I’ll go buy ham and chicken just to make this pasta bake!
My not-so-secret ingredient that really sends this pasta bake recipe over the top is the addition of Homemade Ranch Dressing. Store-bought ranch of course works just fine! It’s all about adding that touch of ranch flavor to compliment the other flavors at play and to add some moisture.
Lyuba’s Tips for the Best Pasta Bake
- Ranch Dressing – I highly recommend making homemade ranch dressing. It’s so much better than store-bought and you can keep leftovers in the refrigerator for a few days.
- Cook your pasta al dente. Since you will be cooking the pasta twice, you want it to have a little under-cooked bite right in the center. It will finish cooking in the oven with the sauce.
- You can use leftover chicken or rotisserie chicken to make the process even easier. That’ll also cut down on cook time.
- Feel free to use leftover ham from the holidays or get ham from your deli. If you’re getting ham from the deli, ask them to slice it in a dinner cut. That way, you can easily cut it into cubes at home.
- For the best melted cheese consistency, you should grate the cheese off the block yourself. You don’t want any separators or additives affecting the texture.
- Feel free to add veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, onions or green beans. Make sure to cut them into smaller bites. If you prefer softer vegetables, sear them for a few minutes first before adding.
Storing and Reheating Suggestions
- Storing: It’s very important to let the pasta bake cool down completely to room temperature before you store it. You can store this pasta bake in the very same dish it was baked in! Be sure to cover it airtight with plastic wrap, foil, or a fitted lid. It’ll stay good in the refrigerator for about 3-4 days.
- Reheating: You can reheat individual portions in the microwave until heated through. Or, you can reheat the entire casserole in the oven at 350°F. Make sure you cover the casserole dish with foil when reheating in the oven so it doesn’t dry out. Note that you may need to add a little milk to reinvigorate the pasta if it’s dried out.
- Freezing: Unfortunately, this chicken and ham pasta bake is not a good one to freeze! The creamy sauce will not stand up well to freezing and thawing. I’ll break down while thawing and will no longer have a smooth consistency.
- Make Ahead: The only elements you can make ahead here are the chicken and ham. You can cook the chicken and ham and store them in the refrigerator, in separate airtight containers. Don’t assemble this pasta bake ahead of time because pasta will soak up most of the liquids.
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Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb uncooked rotini pasta
- 1 boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked
- 8 oz ham
- Salt fresh cracked black pepper
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 8 oz Monterrey Jack cheese preferably block
- 1 cup Mozzarella cheese
- 1/4 cup ranch dressing
Instructions
- Cook pasta al dente, drain and place in a large mixing bowl. (Note: al dente means mostly done but had a little firm bite in the middle.)
- (While pasta is cooking) Cut chicken breast in half, widthwise, to create two thinner chicken breast filets. Cook chicken with a little salt until completely done. Let cool until it can be handled.
- Dice cooked chicken breast and add it to the bowl with pasta. Dice ham and add it to pasta as well. Mix until evenly combined. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350℉ and lightly grease a 1.5-2 quart casserole dish.
- In a small sauce pot, melt butter and add chicken stock and heavy cream. Stir well and heat through.
- Grate Monterrey Jack cheese into the sauce pot and slowly stir until melted. Season with some salt and pepper.
- Pour cheesy sauce into the bowl with pasta and mix thoroughly. Transfer the mixture into prepared casserole dish and spread evenly. Spread mozzarella cheese evenly over the top.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes.
- Let casserole cool for a few minutes and drizzle with some ranch dressing if desired.
Video
Notes
- Cook your pasta al dente. Since you will be cooking the pasta twice, you want it to have a little under-cooked bite right in the center. It will finish cooking in the oven with the sauce.
- You can use leftover chicken or rotisserie chicken to make the process even easier. That’ll also cut down on cook time.
- Feel free to use leftover ham from the holidays or get ham from your deli. If you’re getting ham from the deli, ask them to slice it in a dinner cut. That way, you can easily cut it into cubes at home.
- For the best melted cheese consistency, you should grate the cheese off the block yourself. You don’t want any separators or additives affecting the texture.
- Feel free to add veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, onions or green beans. Make sure to cut them into smaller bites. If you prefer softer vegetables, sear them for a few minutes first before adding.
- You can easily make this dish gluten free by using gluten free twisty pasta! Make sure to check the box label on remaining ingredients but they should already be gluten free.
Nutrition
More Comforting Pasta Recipes To Try
Originally published on Will Cook For Smiles in December 2015.
All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
I added flour and it made it too thick. I’d follow recipe as written. Sauce seems thin but noodles will soak up the fluid.
Thanks for sharing your experience! Yes, the sauce may seem thin at first, but as you mentioned, the noodles soak it up beautifully. Hope you wull givve it another try!
Can you meal prep this, throw everything into a bowl, of course without the pasta and cook pasta when ready to make?
Yes, you can. Just warm up everything before adding pasta so it will be easier to mix it up.
I made this tonight. I accidentally got pepper jack instead of monetary jack, so i went ahead and used that, doubled the sauce, because i made too much pasta and decided to top it with some butter soaked panko with a quick broil at the end to brown it. It is cheesy perfection
Thanks, Dani! I am glad you liked it!
Thank you, Tazbear!
So how much flour should be added?
i thank to gives your Creamy Chicken Casserole recipe.
I made it! So great- but I used Swiss cheese instead of Monteray Jack and I sprinkled Italian seasoned breadcrumbs on top! Thanks for a keeper!
Sounds great! I’m so glad you liked it, Natali 🙂 !
look so delicious. i like it
Thank you 🙂 !
Excellent idea, thanks for posting this.
Thank you, Amy!
I hope you will give it a try 🙂