Leftover Chicken Recipes are pretty popular in our home.
We make a lot of chicken recipes and whether from meals at home or from eating out, we always seem to have leftover chicken.
If you have ever wondered what to do with leftover chicken, we have just the answer for you. It’s simple, tasty, and super inexpensive to put together.
Leftover Chicken Recipe for Crispy Shells Casserole
This easy budget meal is the second act of our previous recipe, French Fried Onion Ring Baked Chicken.
This easy leftover chicken recipe is ready in less than an hour.
The great flavor and convenience of the first recipe carried directly over to the next, making this a popular meal with our kids and their parents.
Leftover chicken never tasted this good!
Ingredients for this leftover chicken casserole recipe
- 8-16 oz leftover chicken, coarsely diced
- 16 oz. pasta shells
- 8 oz. shredded cheese (we used Mozzarella)
- 1 10.5 oz. can cream of chicken soup
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
How to Make this Chicken Casserole using Leftover Chicken
Have you ever wondered what to do with leftover chicken?
You may not find this leftover chicken recipe on the menu of a Michelin-starred restaurant, and fortunately for me, our boys were O.K. with that.
The steps to making this popular and inexpensive chicken casserole are short and sweet.
1. Cook a pound of pasta shells according to the directions on the package.
2. Cut and dice up to a pound of leftover chicken and add to the cooked and drained pasta shells.
3. Stir in 8 oz. of shredded cheese.
4. Add a can of cream of chicken soup.
5. Stir in a cup of milk.
6. Add a cup of breadcrumbs to the mix.
7. Stir it together.
8. Put it in a greased casserole dish and bake at 350° for 35 minutes.
Leftover chicken never tasted so good. It’s combined and then baked with cream of chicken soup, cheese, milk, breadcrumbs, and pasta.
Our whole family loved this comfort food creation that was made from a dinner that we loved a couple of nights earlier.
Have you ever made oven-fried chicken? We’ll show you how!
The real purpose of this leftover chicken recipe is to show that you can use almost any leftover chicken or turkey and achieve a similar and great tasting result.
It’s not only good tasting and convenient, but it’s also darn affordable too.
This recipe that uses leftover fried chicken is a great way to get more bang for a buck by not wasting tasty leftovers.
The real purpose of this leftover chicken recipe is to show that you can use almost any leftover chicken or turkey and achieve a similar and great tasting result.
It’s not only good tasting and convenient, but it’s also darn affordable too.
This meal costs well under a single greenback per serving. On top of everything else, its affordability helps to make it hard to beat, especially on a chilly winter day.
Grab a bite of comfort and enjoy!
See some of our other leftover recipes, including leftover beef roast pot pie, steak and beef enchiladas, and leftover pork tacos.
Do you have any great leftover chicken recipes? We would love to hear from you. Drop us a comment below!
If you’re looking for more leftover chicken recipes, you might light these!
Try these three easy steps for using Leftover Chicken!
Putting leftover fried chicken to good use is as easy as 1, 2, 3!
- Grab you leftover chicken and the shortlist of other ingredients.
- Cut and dice the chicken.
- Stir it all together and bake.
Additional hints for making this chicken casserole
- Use whatever kind of chicken that you have leftover.
- Leftover fried chicken
- Leftover rotisserie chicken
- Leftover barbecued chicken
- Use your favorite cheese in this chicken casserole, or whatever you have on hand.
- Mozarella cheese works great for a mild and light cheese flavor.
- Cheddar cheese will add a little more savory flavor to this chicken casserole.
- Parmesan cheese will give it a bit of an Italian flare.
- If you don’t have cream of chicken soup, use any of the following:
- Cream of mushroom soup
- Cream of celery soup
The final step, of course, is to savor every bite of this chicken casserole.
PS: Give our Cornell Chicken Barbecue a try and use the leftovers in this Leftover Chicken Casserole!
Have you made this Leftover Chicken or another recipe on Platter Talk? Leave a comment or question below; we love hearing from readers! FOLLOW US on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, and PINTEREST to see what we have cooking!
Crispy Leftover Chicken and Shells Casserole Recipe
Ingredients
- 16 oz. fried chicken coarsely cubed
- 16 oz. pasta shells
- 8 oz. shredded cheese
- 1 can cream of chicken or mushroom soup
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F°
- Grease a 9 x 13 casserole pan.
- Prepare pasta as directed, drain.
- In large mixing bowl, cube leftover chicken. Add grated cheese, soup, milk, breadcrumbs and pasta.
- Stir mixture thoroughly then evenly distribute in prepared casserole dish.
- Bake for about 35 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
Video
Nutrition
This recipe has been updated from the original post of March 3, 2016.
Amanda Draper says
Just made this hopefully my family will love it we also had some leftover broccoli that I added in.
Dan from Platter Talk says
Sounds like a great addition to this leftover chicken recipe!
Maria says
This must be a silly question as no one else asked it, but the cream of chicken soup–is it the condensed or ready to serve kind?
Dan from Platter Talk says
Maria, You’ll want to use condensed cream of chicken soup for this easy leftover chicken recipe. Thanks for the question!
Veena Azmanov says
Such a great way to use up leftover chicken. We love casseroles in our home, especially in winter. This sounds like something I wanna try. Saving for later
Marisa Franca says
What a great way to use chicken! Everyone loves pasta so stick some chicken with it and add some cheese and you’ve got a delicious meal everyone ties into. I’ll be saving this recipe.
Kylee from Kylee Cooks says
Such a yummy way to repurpose leftovers! This could be good for thanksgiving turkey too!
Lauren Vavala says
This is a great idea for leftovers! Such a family friendly meal too – anything I can get my kids to eat without any whining is perfect!
Mahy Elamin says
Wow, this is a really great idea for my children. A simple and easy list of ingredients is what I love. Now I know how to use leftover chicken. This recipe looks super easy and full of ingredients my family loves. Looking forward to trying soon. Thank you for a great idea!
Claudia Lamascolo says
I love using shells in a casserole, the kids love them too, This is one the whole family will love what a great all in one meal!
Jennifer A Stewart says
I usually use my leftover chicken for chicken and rice but I am going to switch up with this next time!
Madi says
This sounds like the perfect comfort food! I can’t wait to make this for dinner!
Michaela Kenkel says
Repurposing leftovers is always a great idea!! Fried chicken in anything has GOT to be good!
Angela says
Oh how I am loving this one! Food waste is such a pet peeve of mine and I LOVE how you’ve used these leftovers! Plus… fried chicken is delicious!
Kathy says
What a great way to use leftover fried chicken. We always buy too much of it and end up wasting it. Thanks to this recipe that won’t happen again. I know my family would love this dish!
debi at Life Currents says
This is such a fabulous way to use up leftovers. I love a big casserole that gives us lots of meals. I think I’ll add frozen green peas when I make this.
Dan from Platter Talk says
Thanks, Debi. We never knew how many people face this dilemma (leftover chicken), until we put this leftover chicken recipe together. We hope you try it soon!
michele says
We don’t ever have leftover fried chicken (yes, we overindulge, but its fried chicken, but we do however have a LOT of leftover roast chicken… what a great way to use it up in such a comfort food that we’ll all LOVE!
Dan from Platter Talk says
Take my word for it, this leftover chicken works well for either version!
Diana says
What a wonderful idea! I never know what to do with leftover chicken, so I just throw it in pasta. Pinning to try later!
Dan from Platter Talk says
Thanks so much, Diana. Our boys really enjoyed this one!
Allison - Celebrating Sweets says
I love finding new ways to use up leftovers. Sounds great!
Dan from Platter Talk says
Our kids loved this, as did their dads – win/win!
[email protected] says
It’s all about the comfort foods. You’re right that good food can be affordable. Looks good.
Elaine @ Dishes Delish says
This looks super tasty. I don’t usually like shells but I can’t wait to try them like this because my hubby loves them. Thanks for sharing.
Jeff the Chef says
What a fantastic way to reinvent a leftover! For a home chef, those kinds of recipes are must-haves. Nicely done.
Jeff @ Make It Like a Man! says
I love these kinds of dinners! These soerts of recipies need to be in every home cook’s arsenal.