Tex Mex Chicken Noodle Casserole
Tex Mex Casserole is a hearty meal featuring rotini pasta, sweet red bell peppers and onion, tender, juicy seasoned chicken, topped with melty cheese and, crunchy, crushed Fritos corn chips.
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I love the various textures throughout this casserole, just like my One Pot Mexican Rice Casserole and the Tex Mex combination of flavors you get from this meal is delicious just like my Mexican Pizzas.
Why This Casserole Works
Every scoop of this easy casserole is exploding with flavor and the fact that you can have this casserole on the table in only 45 minutes, makes it the perfect dinner to whip up for your whole family on those busy weeknights.
It's so simple to customize if you need to, making it a no-brainer even if you have picky eaters!
Ingredients Needed
- Pasta: dried rotini pasta about 3 cups
- Dairy: Butter, half and half, and shredded cheese like Pepper Jack and cheddar cheese.
- Vegetables: Red bell pepper, diced onion, corn, canned green chiles, and green onions for garnish.
- All purpose flour: Helps to thicken the sauce.
- Chicken stock: Low sodium
- Herbs and spices: Salt, black pepper, paprika, and taco seasoning
- Chicken: diced cooked chicken. This is an easy way to use leftover chicken from another meal or use rotisserie chicken.
- Chips: Crushed Fritos corn chips
- Step 1: Heat an oven-safe skillet and melt your butter. Add red peppers and onions to the skillet and cook until soft.
- Step 2: Whisk in flour and cook a few minutes in the large skillet.
- Step 3: Next, whisk in chicken stock with your half and half and bring to a low simmer to thicken.
- Step 4: Add salt, pepper, paprika, and taco seasoning. Whisk to combine.
- Step 5: Add cooked pasta, chicken, corn, green chiles, and shredded cheese and fold to combine together.
- Step 6: Sprinkle with crushed chips on as the top layers before baking.
Recipe Tips
- When cooking pasta for this Tex-mex casserole, be sure to cook to al dente as it will continue to cook a bit more in the oven.
- In addition to the green onions, you can garnish each serving with a dollop of sour cream.
- No Fritos? Try crushing up tortilla chips instead.
- The best part is the leftovers taste just as good the next day! Be sure to transfer leftovers to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 2-3 days. The chips may start to turn soggy over time.
- For the ultimate Tex-Mex experience, serve this casserole with some homemade tortilla chips and homemade Fire Roasted Salsa- it will quickly become a new family favorite meal to add to your weekly meal plan rotation, especially on Taco Tuesdays!
Recipe Faq's
Yes, this can be assembled earlier in the day to help with meal prep, minus the corn chips, and then can be covered and refrigerated. When ready, pull this from the fridge 30-60 minutes ahead of time to bring to room temperature, add crushed chips before baking as normal.
If you want to swap out the chicken, browned ground beef, ground chicken, or even ground turkey works great.
If you don’t have an oven-safe skillet, just transfer everything to your trusty 9x13-inch baking dish. Place everything in a 9x13 baking dish sprayed with non stick cooking spray.
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Tex Mex Chicken Noodle Casserole
Ingredients
- 8 ounces dried rotini pasta about 3 cups
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1 large red bell pepper diced
- 1 large onion diced
- 6 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 2 cups chicken stock low sodium
- 1 cups half n half
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoons black pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 3 teaspoons taco seasoning
- 2 ½ cups cooked chicken diced
- 1 ½ cups corn
- 1 (7 ounce) can green chiles
- 2 cups shredded cheese I use pepperjack and cheddar
- 1 ½ cups Fritos corn chips crushed
- Green onions for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Cook pasta to al dente according to the package instructions. Drain and set aside.
- Heat a large oven safe skillet (see notes) to medium high heat and melt the butter, add in the red peppers and onions and cook 3-4 minutes just until soft.
- Add in the flour and cook another 2-3 minutes to cook the flour a bit.
- Whisk in the chicken stock and half n half until smooth and bring to a low simmer for 1-2 minutes to thicken. Whisk in the salt, pepper, paprika and taco seasoning until combined.
- Once the sauce is thickened, fold in the cooked pasta, chicken, corn, green chiles and shredded cheese and mix until combined.
- Sprinkle the crushed corn chips on top and bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes.
- Garnish with green onion and serve!
