Jalapeno Popper Chicken Casserole

Spice up your life with this Jalapeno Popper Chicken Casserole. Tender chicken, zesty cheese, soft noodles and jalapenos team up for a fiesta of flavor in your mouth! 

Why You Will Love This Casserole

• EASY – With just a handful of common pantry staples for ingredients, this recipe takes just a couple minutes to throw together and get in your oven. Perfect for busy weeknight family dinners!
• VERSATILE – Along with family dinners, it’s also a great recipe for tailgating, potlucks or game day. Jalapeno Poppers are a classic appetizer, and this twist on that recipe is great to feed a crowd!
• LEFTOVERS TASTE GREAT! – Not feeding a crowd? Eat what you can and stick it in the fridge. This is one of those recipes that tastes great the next day!
• DELICIOUS – If you love Jalapeño Popper Appetizers, you are going to love this dish. Just like the appetizer, the nice heat of the Jalapeno Pepper is balanced perfectly with the cream cheese. Add some other goodies like pasta, chicken, cheese, butter and milk, and you’ve got a winning dish!

Jalapeno Popper Chicken Casserole Recipe

Like most of the recipes on our site, there are no crazy ingredients here and you probably already have most of them without having to make a special trip to the store. There isn’t too much prep, so you can get right to cooking! If you are looking for a lower carb version of this, you could try to sub out the pasta for cauliflower rice. But, come on! Live a little! A little pasta won’t kill you!

Ingredients:

• PASTA – We used Rotini Pasta for this recipe. But really any pasta shape will work! You will need to cook the pasta before adding it to the casserole. Don’t worry, this doesn’t really add too much time because you can be prepping the other ingredients while the pasta cooks.
• CHICKEN – Cooked. You can use chopped or shredded chicken. Cook a boneless skinless chicken breast in whatever method you prefer.  A great shortcut is to grab a rotisserie chicken at the store and use that!
• JALAPENOS – Fresh Jalapeños cut into round slices. Depending on the spice level you want, you can keep or clean the seeds out. More seeds equals more heat. You can use canned Jalapenos in a jam. But fresh is certainly better in this recipe.
• CREAM CHEESE – Softened and cubed. Let’s be honest, this isn’t a recipe for the health conscious. But if you want to trim some calories, you can sub for low-fat cream cheese. I wouldn’t use Fat Free cream cheese. It just doesn’t melt the same way.
• BUTTER – Unsalted butter. We will be melting this with our cream cheese to get that super creamy smooth consistency that really makes this dish!
• MILK – We used 2% milk. Either go with a lower fat milk if looking to lighten dish, or even go with half and half if you really wanna swing for the fences!
• CHEESE – We use both Monterrey Jack and  Cheddar Cheese in this recipe. They both work great, but certainly feel free to play around with the cheeses.
• BREAD CRUMBS – Regular bread crumbs work great, sprinkled on top of the casserole to give it a little crispiness! You can also use Panko Bread Crumbs, crushed crackers and melted butter, crushed potato chips, or crumble fritos or doritos would also be awesome!

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9×13 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Heat water in a large stock pot until boiling. Add pasta and cook until pasta is to your liking. Drain.
3. Add pasta, chicken and 5 sliced jalapenos to a large mixing bowl and mix well.
4. In a separate saucepan, add cream cheese, water, milk and butter. Heat over medium low heat, stirring frequently until melted. Stir in Monterey Jack cheese until melted.
5. Pour over pasta mixture and mix well.
6. Pour into a greased 9×13 baking pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and shredded cheddar cheese. Top with remaining jalapeno rounds.
7. Bake for 20 minutes or until center is warm.

Storage and Freezing

Leftovers can be kept in your refrigerator in an airtight container. We like to use this 9X13 casserole dish because it comes with it’s own lid and the leftovers can be kept right in there!

You can also freeze this recipe. Just allow it to cool and wrap it with freezer wrap in a freezer safe dish. It will be good for up to 4 months. Allow to thaw in your refrigerator overnight and bake as directed below.

You can bake it frozen by adding about 15 minutes to the bake time. If your topping starts looking too brown, cover loosely with aluminum foil.

Another great idea is to divide this casserole into two 8X8 casserole dishes if you don’t need a lot at one time. Eat one of them and freeze the other!

Can You Make This Ahead Of Time?

Yep! You can also make this ahead of time and keep it in the fridge or freezer so it’s ready to put in the oven whenever you need it! It would be great for potlucks, pitch-ins, tailgating or game day!

Notes and Alternative Versions

• USE RED JALAPENOS – Substitute green jalapenos for red jalapenos. Personally, I’m a fan of red jalapeno poppers. Red Jalapenos are a little hotter, but more sweet and more flavorful too! Or, you could mix both red and green for some fun color!
• ADD BACON – Adding some crispy, cooked bacon crumbles to this recipe would be amazing!
• SUB TURKEY – This recipe would also work fine with turkey. So that makes it a great use for your leftover turkey after Thanksgiving! Whip up this recipe to watch some football over the holiday weekend!

LOOKING FOR MORE FUN CASSEROLE RECIPES? CHECK OUT:

• EASY DORITO CHICKEN CASSEROLE RECIPE
• HOT DOG CASSEROLE
• EASY HOMEMADE BEEFARONI RECIPE
• TACO LASAGNA 
• BACON CHEESEBURGER TATER TOT CASSEROLE
• CROCKPOT MEXICAN CASSEROLE

Rate this Recipe

Jalapeno Popper Chicken Casserole

Course Main Course

Servings 8 people

Spice up your life with this Jalapeno Popper Chicken Casserole. Perfect for family dinners, tailgating, potlucks or game day, this twist on a classic appetizer is tons of fun and easy to make.

Print Recipe

Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 package 16 oz, rotini pasta
• 2 cups chopped chicken cooked
• 6 fresh jalapenos cut into rounds
• 8 ounces cream cheese cubed
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cups shredded monterey jack cheese
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9×13 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
• Heat water in a large stock pot until boiling. Add pasta and cook until pasta is to your liking. Drain.
• Add pasta, chicken and 5 sliced jalapenos to a large mixing bowl and mix well.
  
• In a separate saucepan, add cream cheese, water, milk and butter. Heat over medium low heat, stirring frequently until melted. Stir in Monterey Jack cheese until melted.
  
• Pour over pasta mixture and mix well.
  
• Pour into a greased 9×13 baking pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.
  
• Top with shredded cheddar cheese and remaining jalapeno rounds.
  
• Bake for 20 minutes or until center is warm.
  

Notes

This is a great dish for just about any occasion. You can make it for dinner on a weekday night and have leftovers for tomorrow. Or, you can put half of the mixture into an 8X8 baking dish and freeze the rest for a quick dinner when you need one! Another variation would be to substitute green jalapenos for red jalapenos. Personally, I’m a fan of red jalapeno poppers (although often it’s impossible to tell until after you bite into them). Before I order them at the restaurant, I always ask. Red Jalapenos are a little hotter, but more sweet and more flavorful too! Or, you could mix both red and green for some fun color!

Nutrition

Calories: 449kcal

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