Easy pasta casserole loaded with chicken, tomatoes, corn, red onion, and lots of cheese! This chicken, cheesy goodness is baked with BBQ ranch sauce for a full flavor experience.
Preheat oven to 350℉ and lightly grease a casserole dish.
Cook pasta just until it is nearly done, al dente, but do not overcook. Drain and set aside.
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, chop and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine diced tomatoes, diced onion, corn, cooked pasta and chopped chicken. Add some salt and cracked peppercorn, mix well.
Whisk ranch and BBQ together and add it to the pasta mixture. Mix until evenly distributed.
Add 1 1/2 cups of Monterrey Jack cheese and mix well.
Transfer the mixture into the casserole dish and spread it evenly. Top with remaining cheese all over and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Video
Notes
TIPS:
Cook your pasta al dente. Since you will be cooking pasta twice, you want it to have a little undercooked 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.
Trust me – there’s not too much BBQ ranch sauce! After you mix the ingredients, it will look pretty saucy, but note that pasta will soak up quite a bit of it as it bakes. Then, it will soak up even more as it sits there and rests.
Remember that for the best melted cheese texture, you should grate the cheese off the block yourself. This way, there won’t be any separators or additives affecting the texture.
If you want to make this casserole vegetarian, you can omit the chicken and increase the amount of vegetables to supplement the missing meat.