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This One Pot Creamy Chicken and Noodles recipe is a classic childhood favorite made easy. Full of tender noodles, chicken and veggies in a creamy sauce and cooked in one pan for easy clean-up. Ready in about 45 minutes, this comforting meal is a savior on a busy weeknight.
Be sure to try out other favorite weeknight meals, like One Pot Cheesy Smoked Sausage Pasta and One Pot Chicken Alfredo.
One Pot Meals have become a staple in our home that we especially enjoy. I love the easy clean up and my kids love them because they taste really good! Cooking the pasta IN the sauce creates a delicious, rich flavor for my One Pot Chicken and Noodles recipe that you just can’t get any other way.
Table of Contents
Ingredients for One Pot Chicken and Noodles
- Chicken Breast – I prefer boneless, skinless chicken breast in this recipe but if you like you can use chicken thighs instead. If you’re in a hurry, you could use pre cooked chicken, like from a rotisserie.
- Onions, Carrots, Celery – The base veggies for any good casserole or soup recipe.
- Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup – A small can of this creamy soup.
- Milk
- Fettuccine Noodles – I like long, thick noodles in this but you can alter to what you have on hand .
- Cheddar Cheese – Freshly grated off the block. Some for mixing into the noodles and a little for topping.
- Herbs & Spices – Thyme, parsley, and garlic.
How to Make One Pot Chicken and Noodles
- Heat a large, deep skillet or large pot over medium heat. Saute the vegetables until they’re tender, then add the chicken and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the chicken is mostly cooked through. A little pink is ok; it will continue cooking later.
- Add the cream of chicken soup, milk, chicken broth, dry pasta and seasonings. Bring to a boil then simmer for about 20 minutes until the pasta is tender. Make sure to stir a few times to keep the noodles from sticking to the bottom.
- Stir in shredded cheddar. You can omit the cheese if you prefer, but we love it.
- Sprinkle with more cheese and cover for 5 minutes to melt. You could also broil it for a couple of minutes. Garnish with fresh parsley.
FAQs
With one pot meals like this one, the starch from the pasta is actually the main thickener. This recipe includes one can of cream of chicken soup, which also helps to thicken the sauce.
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are my recommendation. However, if you want you could use shredded meat from a rotisserie chicken and just omit the browning step. Chicken thighs would work too.
When your leftovers are cool, place them in an airtight container and into the refrigerator for up to 4-5 days. Reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave.
Yes, you can freeze your leftovers. Cool them completely before placing into a freezer safe container. Freeze for up to 3 months and thaw completely in the refrigerator before reheating. I will note that pasta and cream based sauces do have a tendency to break down and become mushy if frozen too long, so keep that in mind.
Recipe Variations
This is the kind of comfort food dreams are made of. Seriously, so many yummy flavors melting together to create a rich, savory meal that the whole family will love. There are a few ways you could customize this recipe:
The Pasta: Swap out the fettuccine noodles for spaghetti or linguine, or a smaller pasta like rotini or farfalle. Using a smaller pasta would cut your cooking time by 5-10 minutes.
The Cheese: You could also swap out the sharp cheddar for something a little more mild like jack cheese or mozzarella. Adding some parmesan cheese would be fantastic! Or you could even leave out the cheese altogether.
The Vegetables: Stir in some peas or steamed broccoli during the last couple of minutes, before adding the cheese.
Serving Suggestions
This is a complete meal packed with protein, veggies, and starch, so you’re totally fine serving this as a complete meal.
If you want to stretch it a little further, just add a crisp Caesar Salad and some crusty bread. You could also prepare some quick and healthy Sauteed Asparagus or Roasted Broccolini.
- Cut the chicken into large, bite-sized pieces, and keep them as even as possible.
- Don’t worry about actually “browning” the chicken (in color). We just need to outer layer to be cooked – the middle can still be pink because it will cook with the sauce.
- Use dry, uncooked noodles. If the long noodles don’t fit in the pot, you can break them in half.
More One Pot Meals to Discover
- One Pot Cheesy Chicken Pasta
- One Pot Chicken Spaghetti
- One Pot Chicken Cacciatore
- One Pot Beef Stroganoff
One Pot Creamy Chicken and Noodles
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small yellow or white onion diced
- 3 medium carrots peeled and sliced
- 2 celery stalks sliced
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 10 ounces cream of chicken soup
- 1 1/4 cup nonfat milk (fill the chicken soup can)
- 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 8 ounces dry fettuccine pasta about ½ of a regular box
- 1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese divided
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a 5 quart pot or deep saute pan. Add chopped vegetables and minced garlic. Saute over medium-high heat for about five minutes, or until vegetables are just becoming tender.
- Add chicken and season with salt and pepper. Continue to saute over medium heat until chicken is no longer pink on the outside. It does not have to be cooked through since it will continue to cook in the sauce.
- Stir in cream of chicken soup, milk (fill the chicken soup can), chicken broth, pasta and dry seasonings.
- Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to low. Simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes or until pasta is tender, stirring every five minutes to keep pasta from sticking together.
- Once pasta is cooked to al dente, remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of cheddar cheese until melted. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover pot and let rest for 5-10 minutes to thicken the sauce.
- Sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley for garnish.
I just made this and it was amazing! Although I had to substitute the fettuccine for normal spaghetti cause thats all I had, but it was really good.
I even accidentally burnt my tongue I was so excited to eat it. lol
I am making this recipe for dinner tonight but I completely forgot to buy the cheese for it so I will be making it without the cheese. Hope it still turns out as good as everyone is saying it is.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe. I made it for dinner tonight and it was a huge hit. I was in a pinch and needed to use some carrots that I got from the farmers market before they went bad. I starting searching Pinterest for a Chicken and Noodle idea and came across this. I will definitely be sharing this. Can’t wait to check out the rest of your blog. 🙂
Can you use frozen egg noodles instead of dry noodles? I would use the precooked kind…….
The beauty of this recipe is that the noodles cook in the sauce. That being said, if you wanted to add precooked noodles, I would add them during the last five or so minutes; just long enough to heat them up.
This sounds great…….how many people does it serve.
Thank you.
I would say 4-6, depending on appetite. 🙂
I made this recipe tonight and it came out amazing. I made a boo boo and added some canned veggies to add some more veggies to it. Piece of advice use fresh or frozen, the canned ones are too mushy and fall apart in this. Now i remember why i stopped buying canned veggies! 🙂
I think if you added the canned veggies at the very end, it would be ok!
This is the best meal….I love pasta and we both really enjoyed this. Will make again for sure. I cut my meal short of the veggies not sure why…Added mushrooms … Come visit I posted on my page.. Thank you for a great comfort meal Andi
http://thewednesdaybaker.blogspot.com/2013/12/one-pot-creamy-chicken-noodles.html
Looks AMAZING. One question: do you think this would work in a slow cooker?
Made this for dinner tonight and my family LOVED it, and even went back for seconds and my toddler couldn’t get enough! Thanks for such a good, rib-hugging meal! It is going to be made often as the weather continues to get colder! 🙂
This looks really yummy, but I try to avoid canned foods. Do you have any suggestions for what I could use instead of canned cream of chicken soup? Thanks!
You can certainly Google a recipe for homemade cream of chicken soup. I haven’t tried it myself, but here is a recipe from a source I trust: http://www.bunsinmyoven.com/2011/05/04/cream-of-chicken-soup-substitute/
Made this tonight, it turned out great and was pretty easy, paired with biscuits. Made with 99% fat free cream of chicken, 2% milk, and 2% cheddar and it was still awesome!
THANK YOU for posting this recipe! I made it last night and it is FABULOUS!! I tweaked it just a little: I didn’t have an onion so I added a bit of onion powder to the veggies as they were sauteing and I used heavy cream because my son drank up all the whole milk. This is definitely on the “make again” list!!
This looks delicious. Is the can of milk evaporated milk? Thanks!
It’s filling the empty cream of chicken can with regular milk. 🙂
By can of milk do you mean a can of evaporated milk or after you dump the soup in ,fill can with milk?
No, it’s filling the empty cream of chicken can with regular milk. 🙂
This looks delicious and I know my husband will love you for posting it! 😉 Seriously – we love comfort foods like this and I am going to put it on next week’s menu – thanks!!
Kristin–I don’t know how I found you to follow you on Pinterest (probably a giveaway 🙂 ), but I’m so glad I did. I’m finishing my second helping of this–it’s delicious! The whole family loves it, and that’s no small fete around my house. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. 🙂
Yum this looks so good! I’m trying this next week, crossing my fingers my picky eaters will go for it 🙂
“small” can of chicken soup???? ounce please.
I believe it’s a 10 ounce can.
I’m gong to try this — looks wonderful and easy! I rarely have cream canned soups on hand and instead make my own white sauce from scratch. Super simple. My recipe has 3 ‘thicknesses’ depending on the flour content and how it’s used. I make the medium thick, works really well by halving the milk/cream with the appropriate broth (in this case, chicken) works great to substitute for the canned soup. Thanks for putting out for us all to try!
This looks delicious, Kristin! I’m pinning it to my Yummy board. Thanks for sharing.