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This baked Chicken casserole is exactly the kind of weeknight dinner that earns a permanent spot in your rotation. Five ingredients, one dish, and a Creamy sauce topped with buttery crackers that come out of the oven golden and crackling. It’s old-fashioned in the best way — the kind of recipe that’s been quietly working for decades because it just works.
Why You’ll Love This One
Only 5 ingredients cream of Chicken Soup, sour cream, crackers, butter, and chicken. That’s it, no tricks.
The cracker topping is everything golden and shatteringly crunchy on top, just slightly softened underneath from the sauce. That contrast is what keeps everyone coming back for seconds.
Truly hands-off ten minutes of prep, then the oven does the rest. No browning, no stirring, no babysitting.
Endlessly adaptable swap the soup, tuck in some vegetables, add a little seasoning to the sauce. The base recipe holds up to whatever you throw at it.
Comfort food that reheats beautifully maybe even better the next day once the sauce has had time to settle.
A Few Notes on the Ingredients
The chicken tenderloins are the right choice here. I’ve made this with boneless breasts cut into strips and it’s fine, it’s really fine, but the tenderloins are a little more forgiving in the oven and the texture stays nicer. They cook faster, which I’ll come back to.
For the soup — condensed cream of chicken is the classic call. But cream of mushroom works in a pinch and is genuinely different and also genuinely good. Cream of celery is another option worth trying if that’s what you have.
Sour cream. Full fat. This is not the place to substitute Greek yogurt. I’ve done it. The texture goes a little strange and you can tell and no one says anything but you know.
The crackers — I use Ritz, always Ritz, because that’s what feels right for this recipe and also because they’re what I grew up with. But Town House works too. Saltines will do if that’s what’s in the pantry, though the flavor gets a little more neutral, a little less buttery. You want a full sleeve, crushed — not pulverized, just broken into rough pieces so you get some crumb and some chunk in there.
And butter. Real butter. Don’t overthink this part.
Ingredients
– 1 ½ to 2 pounds raw chicken tenderloins
– 1 can (10 ½ ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup — don’t add water
– 1 cup sour cream, full fat
– 1 sleeve buttery round crackers, crushed (about a cup and a half, give or take)
– ½ cup melted butter — I use a full stick, which might be a little more than half a cup, honestly I don’t measure exactly
How to Make It
Start by heating the oven to 350 degrees. While it’s warming up, butter a 9×13 glass casserole dish — the clear Pyrex kind that you can see through the bottom when you’re checking if things are browning.
Lay your chicken tenderloins in a single layer in the dish. Don’t pile them. You want them flat and relatively even so they cook through at the same rate. If a few overlap a little at the edges it’s fine, but try not to make a stack of them in the middle.
In a bowl — I use a medium bowl, the kind that just barely fits the two cups of things you’re stirring — mix the condensed soup straight from the can with the sour cream. Stir until it’s smooth. The soup is thick and the sour cream is thick and together they make something that looks a little alarming, honestly, but trust it. Spread this over the chicken in an even layer.
Then the crackers go on top. I crush mine by putting the sleeve on the counter and pressing down with my palm, then breaking the bag open and scattering them. You want some variation in the size of the pieces — fine crumbs will pack together and not get as crispy, and you want crispiness. Spread them across the whole surface.
Drizzle the melted butter over all of it. Try to get it fairly even — I use a spoon and go back and forth. Every part of that cracker layer should have some butter on it.
Into the oven, uncovered, for 35 to 45 minutes. Here’s where I want to remind you about the tenderloins: they cook fast. Faster than you’d expect if you’re used to making this with breast pieces. Start checking at 35 minutes. If you have an instant-read thermometer — and I really think everyone should, mine is nothing fancy, I got it at the grocery store for twelve dollars and it has Changed My life — you want 165 degrees in the thickest piece.
If the topping starts getting very dark before the chicken is done, just lay a piece of foil loosely over the top. Don’t press it down. Just let it sit there.
When it comes out, let it rest. This is the part I always used to skip because everyone would be hovering and I’d be trying to get everything else on the table, and then I’d spoon it up immediately and the sauce would run everywhere and it would look a little messy. Give it five, ten minutes. The sauce settles. The topping holds together better. It’s worth it.
Variations Worth Trying
If you want to stretch this into more of a one-dish meal, tuck a layer of drained canned green beans under the chicken before you add the sauce. I’ve done this with broccoli too — just quickly blanched so it’s not raw going into the oven. Either way it bakes right into the dish and saves you a pan, which on a weeknight is not nothing.
I mentioned the cream of mushroom swap already, but I’ll say again — that version has its own thing going on, a little earthier, a little more savory. Some people like it better. A little onion powder stirred into the sauce is also worth trying — it rounds out the flavor in a way that makes the whole dish taste more intentional somehow.
Leftovers
This keeps well. I store it covered in the refrigerator and it’s fine for three, maybe four days, though honestly in my house it’s usually gone faster than that.
Reheating — the microwave will soften the topping completely, which I personally don’t mind but some people care about. If you want to keep the crunch, reheat it covered with foil in a low oven, maybe 300 degrees, for fifteen minutes or so. I almost never bother with this. It tastes just as good either way and I am not a person who has ever once reheated leftovers in the oven on a Tuesday.
I usually serve this over white rice, which soaks up the sauce in a way that feels almost designed. Egg noodles also. Soft rolls on the side. Some kind of salad if you’re ambitious. Fruit salad if it’s summer and someone brought peaches.