Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

The whole point of a casserole, in my mind, is that's it makes cooking easy! Everything is in one pan, and prep should be easy. Bonus points if it can be made ahead and its freezer-friendly. This casseroles is all of those things. So what are the secrets to making this delicious dish, super easy yet still delicious?
1. Starting with cooked chicken. Why cook your own chicken when you can get a fresh, hot rotisserie chicken at just about every grocery store for the same price as an uncooked chicken? Cooked grill chicken strips are also available in the meat section for a very reasonable price. This saves so much time not having to cook or worry about extra dishes.
2. Use cooked rice. Cooked rice is affordable and available at almost every store as well. Or if you have leftover white rice from say take-out night the other day, use that! I love to repurpose my Chinese food leftover to make this casserole.
You can use any type of rice you'd like. Plain white rice or chicken flavored rice go great with the classic Chicken Cordon Bleu flavors. But you could get creative and try some mixed flavors like a broccoli cheddar rice blend, chicken with broccoli, creamy chicken rice, or even wild rice. Anything that sounds yummy to you and has a chicken base, will probably taste great!
3. Layer everything in one pan. This recipe uses an 8x8 square baking pan and you simply layer in all the ingredients — cooked rice, then cooked chicken, ham, sauce, cheese and bread crumbs. Everything is cooked so all you need to do is cover and bake until everything is nice and hot and the layers blend together.
4. Use cream of onion, celery, chicken or mushroom soup for the sauce. My favorite is cream of onion but any of the cream soups work and will give you a unique flavor!
Now, if you're picky about your sauce, or you're not into canned cream of sauces, you can certainly make your own by simple making a roux with equal parts butter and flour then add cream or milk and chicken stock, celery, onions or mushrooms.
Get my recipe for homemade white sauce.
However, this recipe is designed to be very easy and convenient so you can use canned cream of chicken soup if you don't have time to make your own sauce.
We are doctoring canned soup to create a sauce by adding Dijon mustard and white cooking wine. These two simple additions can really elevate the sauce without a lot of extra effort.
Doubling the recipe? Then you can experiment with a combination of cream soup varieties to add some depth of flavor. Have fun with it!

Swiss cheese is one of those cheeses that not everyone likes. It has a bit of a sour taste and waxy texture so it's not for everyone. It's the traditional cheese of choice for Chicken Cordon Blue though and that's probably because Swiss and ham go together pretty well.
I'm personally not a huge fan of Swiss cheese but I do enjoy it in this dish. It has some sour notes that really help balance out the salty ham and enhance the cream sauce.
However, if you're adamant that you just can't do it, then there's a great substitution: Havarti cheese. Havarti is a white cheese with very mild flavor yet is a bit softer and is not as sour as Swiss cheese. It's a great substitute is you don't like Swiss cheese.

Serve this Chicken Cordon Bleu casserole with a side salad or a side of roasted veggies.
This dish pairs really well with Brussels spouts, green beans, peas, asparagus or broccoli.
You could also try layering your veggies right into this dish for a true one-pan meal. Just make sure your veggies are cooked.
You can cook the vegetables in the microwave with a bit of salt and butter for about 2-3 minutes, covered.
Fresh or frozen veggies both work here. Chop them up prior to cooking so they layer nicely and once cooked, add them after you layer in the chicken.

No worries. You can use egg noodles or pasta in place of the rice. You could also use quinoa for a healthier twist.