Fridays are for freezer cooking! Each Friday I’ll be sharing a recipe to add to your freezer. I find the easiest way to fill my freezer is to make double or triple what I’m making that night for dinner. It’s an easy way to work freezer cooking into your regular routine. This past week I made this chicken rotini casserole. It was so delicious!
In my quest for new recipes, I ran into a roadblock when it came to cream of chicken. I really like cream of chicken but I’m starting to prefer meals without it. I’m not really sure what’s totally in it. Do you? When I’m going to take the time to cook, I want to know each and every ingredient. That’s the point, right? So, this chicken rotini casserole, was one just like that. I knew each and every ingredient and it was simple to throw together.
Below are the ingredients make TWO casseroles. There’s no point in making one, especially because it will leave you with half the ingredients to put back into the refrigerator. It makes more sense to use them all.
24 oz. rotini pasta
4 Cups half and half
1 Cup butter
1 1/3 Cups parmesan
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp fresh chives (Note: I bought the whole plant. That’s not necessary. 🙂 )
1 tsp fresh parsley
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
The first thing I did was cook the chicken the night before. You could do this easily in the crockpot. During the summer, I like to grill all the chicken we have so that I have it ready to go in the freezer. I cut it up and freeze it in ziploc bags. All I have to do is thaw it over night and it’s ready to add to a recipe like this!
Once your chicken is cooked, boil some water. A lot of it. Add the rotini and following the box directions, cook the pasta. Drain.
While the pasta is cooking, add a pat of butter to a saucepan. Once hot, add the chopped peppers and let soften. Once they are soft, add the rest of the butter to melt. This may seem like a lot of butter, but remember it’s for two full casseroles.
Once the butter melts, add the half and half. Bring to a gentle boil while stirring regularly. Let the sauce reduce until it thickens. It won’t be traditionally thick, but you’ll notice at least 1 1/2 cups reduced from the sauce.
Stir in the rest of the ingredients except for the chicken and the noodles.
Once the rotini is drained, add it back to your large sauce pan. Add the chicken.
Add the sauce and mix. This is when it gets hard to not start eating it! In fact, you can. This is a great dinner to serve up. Whatever you don’t serve, you can add to the casserole dish to bake later.
This is a perfect freezer meal to serve up at night and also save for later. We enjoyed ours from freezer to dinner table this week and it was delicious! My husband said that this was a keeper! Enjoy!
Here’s the printable recipe.
- 24 oz. rotini pasta
- 4 Cups half and half
- 1 Cup butter
- 1⅓ Cups parmesan
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp fresh chives
- 1 tsp fresh parsley
- 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, chopped into ½ inch pieces
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- Cook the chicken. Remove from pan. (I cook it the night before.)
- Boil water and cook the Rotini pasta. Drain.
- While the past is cooking, saute the peppers in a pat of butter.
- Once sautéed, add the butter. Once butter is melted, add the half and half.
- Bring to a simmer and let reduce about 1½ cups.
- Add the basil, oregano, chives, parsley and parmesan. Stir.
- Add the rotini back to the large pot and stir in the chicken and sauce mixture.
- You can serve it right away or place into casserole pans. If freezing, let thaw when ready to eat. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
Looking for another delicious casserole? Easy Recipes With Ground Beef: Million Dollar Casserole or this Spinach Rice Casserole recipe.
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I just tried this out because I was looking for easy freezer meals for my order of Zaycon chicken.
Turned out great! I ended up adding some fresh minced garlic and red onion to the sauce and a little salt and pepper to taste and it was sooooo good! Bought a bunch of foil loaf type pans from dollar tree and stashed away 6 of them in the freezer. Thanks for the great recipe!!!