Diced chicken in a creamy sauce topped with seasoned cornbread dressing. You’ll love this recipe from Mamaw.
I originally got this recipe from my mother-in-law, Marie – or as all the grandkids call her, “Mamaw.”
Now she makes this with the classic cans of cream of celery soup and cream of chicken soup. But in all honesty, I haven’t bought those cans of soup in years. I make a quick, homemade version to replace those in my recipes.
See: How to Make Cream of Chicken Soup (celery/mushroom)
To Make this Recipe You will Need:
- chicken breasts
- water
- salt
- onion
- celery
- butter
- flour
- chicken broth
- milk
- thyme
- ground black pepper
- dry sage
- 1 package dry cornbread dressing mix, 14 ounces (Such as Pepperidge Farm)
- sauce pan
- baking dish
It simply starts with simmering diced onion & celery in butter. Don’t all great recipes start that way?
Those are then divided and used to make the creamy sauce.
Cornbread dressing is mixed up.
The instructions below include cooking the boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but you can make this with leftover chicken or turkey from another meal, or even a rotisserie chicken from the store.
These are all layered into your baking dish and popped into the oven.
This recipe continues to be a family favorite to this day and the leftovers the next day are just as good!
Enjoy!
You May Also Like: Chicken Tortilla Bake
Did you Make this Recipe? I’d love for you to give me a 5 star rating in the recipe card below. If you share it on Instagram, please tag me! You can also post it to my Facebook Page.
Mamaw’s Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
- 3 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
- water
- ½ teaspoon salt, divided
- ½ c onion, finely diced
- 2 stalks celery, finely diced
- 6 Tb butter, divided
- ¼ c all-purpose flour
- 4 c chicken broth, divided
- 1 ½ c milk
- 1 teaspoon thyme, divided
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, divided
- ¾ teaspoon sage, divided
- 14 oz dry cornbread dressing mix, Such as Pepperidge Farm
Instructions
- To begin, place the chicken breasts in a saucepan.
- Cover with water and add 1/4 teaspoon salt to the water.
- Bring this to a boil over medium high heat.
- Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and tender. When it is done, transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let it rest.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Finely dice the onion and celery.
- In a saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons of the butter.
- Add in the onion & celery and simmer over medium low heat until they are tender.
- Scoop half of the mixture into a mixing bowl. Set aside for a moment.
- To the saucepan, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Over medium low heat, melt the butter.
- Sprinkle in the flour. Whisk it in and let it cook for just a minute.
- Pour in 1½ cup of the chicken broth and the milk. Add in ½ teaspoon each of thyme & pepper and 1/4 teaspoon of sage and salt. Stirring continually, bring it to a gentle boil and it will thicken nicely. Remove from heat.
- Dice or shred the chicken.
- To the onion mixture in the bowl, add the cornbread dressing, ½ teaspoon each of thyme, sage, and pepper and ¼ teaspoon of salt.
- Pour in the remaining 2½ cups of chicken broth and stir to combine.
- Spread your cooked, shredded chicken in the bottom of a 9×13 or similar baking dish that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Pour the gravy over the top.
- Spread the dressing mixture over all. Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes or until the dressing on top is golden and crisped.
- Enjoy!
Equipment Used
Notes
Nutrition
If nutritional values are provided for this recipe, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands of ingredients you use. The values do not include optional ingredients or when ingredients are added to taste or for serving. If nutritional values are very important to you, I suggest using your favorite nutritional calculating tool with the brands you use.
Unit Conversions:
Unit Conversion for measurements (if displayed), going from US to Metric is an auto-generated conversion. If you are using the metric measurements, please double-check to confirm that these are accurate with your favorite preferred conversion tool.
This post was originally written in 2017, updated in 2024.
This sounds amazing! I love how comforting this would be on a cold winter day. I’ll pin for later.
This is a great comforting food for the whole family. Thanks for sharing.
OOh what a wonderful recipe to share and so perfect to make for cold weather!
I could eat all that by myself! It looks so good! I have not tried any types of chicken casseroles yet but maybe I should. It looks super easy to make!
This is just so amazing! I love the cornbread topping on the casserole, this must be such a good dish to have on cold winter days and evenings!
Family recipes are a wonderful thing, something like this would be so comforting and will bring back so many warm memories to your kids when they grow up!
Oh wow! I love that cornbread dressing topping. Such a delicious comfort food. Definitely perfect for this time of year.
I’m sure my kids will love this too!
I love the photos in this post! Looks like a great hearty dish for a weeknight dinner with the family :) Will have to try it!
I can see why this recipe has become a family favorite. It looks so nutritious and so filling, making it ideal for the entire family. Thanks for sharing this recipe
Oh my this looks wonderful, I have been looking for something like this….I used to make one similar to this but used Stove Top Stuffing…but no longer use it because of all the added ingredients that are so bad for you…..so quit making it…..but now I can start making it again….thanks so much for this recipe……and thank your Mother-in-law for this recipe too, and you for sharing it with us…..