Cheesy Baked Chicken & Bacon Casserole
Baked chicken, bacon, & cheese casserole
If you have hungry people, this recipe will feed a crowd! It’s very few ingredients, and if filling and delicious. If you don’t want to roast chicken, grab a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. I like to buy the packs of pulled chicken from Costco because the work is already done for you. One of my kids likes to drizzle ranch dressing on top of this, but it’s completely optional. Add in other ingredients that you love; do you like spicy, add jalapenos? Need something green? Add broccoli. This meal is done and on the table in less than forty-five minutes!
Ingredients
3 cups chicken, cooked, cooled, and diced
2lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2-3/4 C sour cream
1/2-3/4 C plain yogurt
1/2 stick butter, melted
4 slices bacon, cooked, cooled, and chopped
1 C cheddar cheese, shredded
3 scallions, sliced (chives work great too!)
Salt & pepper, to taste
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 375
Make your mashed potatoes. I use the Instant Pot for mine, but you can do it on the stovetop. The trick with that is to add your potatoes to the cold water and bring them to a boil together, and salt your water! Once boiling, it should take about ten minutes for your potatoes to be done; check with a paring knife. If it slides through easily, they’re done.
In the Instant Pot, add the potatoes, 1 C of water, and salt. Cook on high pressure for 7 minutes, release immediately
Drain potatoes, add butter, sour cream, and yogurt. I mash mine with a disc masher. Check the seasonings, you’ll likely need more salt & pepper. Adjust the sour cream, yogurt, and butter to your taste.
Add potatoes to an oven-safe skillet.
Top the potatoes with you diced chicken, then cheese, and finally the bacon.
Place in your oven for fifteen minutes, checking at ten minutes.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle scallions over top.
Serve with a salad, and dinner is done!
*The leftovers reheat wonderfully and is a perfect on-the-go meal. Pop it in a thermos and your kids can eat dinner on the way to or from practice.