Love Chicken Cordon Bleu? You’ll love this Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole with pasta, chicken, ham, bacon, and a creamy cheese sauce.
I love a good chicken and pasta meal! If you do, too, you can also try this Chicken Tetrazzini or this Chicken Pesto Pasta.
I am an “everything in moderation” kind of girl.
I’m not big on diets or deprivation, but I do try to watch my portion sizes and eat fairly healthy. But for some reason, when the first of the year comes around and everyone else is preaching healthy eating, I am still gravitating towards the comforting winter food. Don’t get me wrong – I’ll still try to eat healthy-ish most of the time, but sometimes, you just need all that pasta, butter, cream and cheese!
And this Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole? This recipe is not diet friendly. Not even close. But it was absolutely decadent and delicious. Totally worth every calorie. It’s not one that you will have on a regular menu rotation, but it’s so good that you’ll be craving it!
Ingredients in Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
- Penne Pasta – you could use any short cut pasta that you want. I love penne because the ridges hold onto that sauce.
- Butter – I always use unsalted.
- Heavy Cream – I have not tried this with milk or half and half to see if it works. I always just use cream. If you’re going big, you might as well go big, right?
- Garlic – I wouldn’t recommend skipping the garlic unless you really don’t like the flavor. It adds a lot to this recipe.
- White Pepper – the flavor profile for white and black pepper is slightly different, but if you don’t have white pepper on hand, you can sub in black pepper.
- Mozzarella cheese – I always recommend buying cheese in a block and grating it yourself as it will melt better.
- Parmesan cheese – same as above!
- Chicken – this is another recipe that takes advantage of cooked chicken. You can add it shredded or cubed.
- Ham – this is a great recipe to make when you have leftover ham from Christmas or Easter.
- Bacon – because it’s always better with bacon, right?
- Green Onion – for garnish and a bit of fresh flavor to top it off. You could leave this off if desired.
How to Make Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
This Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole comes together pretty easily!
- Start by cooking your pasta until al dente.
- While the pasta is cooking, make the cheese sauce. Melt the butter, then add in the heavy cream, garlic and white pepper. Bring it to a simmer.
- Add 2/3 of both of the cheeses (reserving the rest for topping the casserole) and stir to combine. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Spray a baking dish with nonstick cooking spray, then add the drained pasta, chicken, ham and bacon and toss to combine.
- Pour the cheese sauce over and stir to combine everything. Sprinkle the reserved cheese on top.
- Bake until heated through and the cheese is melted. This doesn’t take very long since the ingredients were already warm.
- If desired, sprinkle on some sliced green onions before serving.
More Chicken Cordon Bleu Inspired Recipes
Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu
Chicken Cordon Bleu Wraps
Chicken Cordon Bleu Nuggets
Tools Used to Make this Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
You’ll need a couple of different pots and pans – a pasta pot to cook the penne, a skillet to make the cheese sauce, and a casserole dish to bake the whole thing in.
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Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta
Ingredients
- 10 oz penne pasta
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 1/4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese divided
- 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese divided
- 8 oz boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked and cubed or shredded
- 3/4 cup diced cooked ham
- 4 oz bacon cooked and crumbled
- Sliced green onion for garnish
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt generously. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain and reserve.
- Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the heavy cream, garlic and white pepper. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add 2/3 of the Mozzarella and 2/3 of the Parmesan. Stir to combine, then simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Turn the oven to 350ºF.
- Spray a 9×13-inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- Pour the cooked pasta, chicken, ham and bacon into the baking dish and stir to combine. Pour the cheese sauce over and stir to combine. Sprinkle the remaining Mozzarella and Parmesan our the top.
- Bake in the preheated oven until warmed through and the cheese on top is melted, about 15 minutes. Turn the heat to broil to brown the top, if desired.
- Garnish with sliced green onion before serving.
Merrell Meads says
I’m going to take this to the beach 🏖️ on girls week. I’ll let you know how it does. Thanks
Deborah says
I hope you love it!
Julie says
Could you use shredded Swiss cheese instead of mozzarella?
Deborah says
Yes – that would work!
Aubrey says
Holy Moly!!!! This was a fan favorite and WILL be made again. Thank you so much. So glad I found your page. Excited to try more recipes.
mary ellen says
I made this casserole. It was delicious and a keeper.
Deborah says
So glad you loved it!
Kay says
Tried this . . .very good! Thanks for posting. Have you ever made it with pork instead of chicken? We do a version of Cordon Bleu (not the pasta one, but it should work with pork) that’s really good. The pork somehow just adds more flavor.
K