Tender and juicy white meat chicken topped with broccoli and a cheesy sauce with Ritz crackers. This Cracker Barrel copycat is easy to make and will become a family favorite.
Every time a craving for comfort food hits me and I don’t feel like cooking, we head to Cracker Barrel. And next to the Chicken Fried Chicken, the Broccoli Cheddar Chicken is my favorite thing on the menu.
I decided this needed to be something I could make at home. For those cold winter nights when I don’t dare leave the house. I searched the internet for recipes and found them to all be pretty much the same with slight variations.
This casserole can be assembled in just minutes and popped in the oven to bake for 45 minutes. I love that you don’t need to precook anything. I used frozen broccoli that I had defrosted overnight in my refrigerator. There’s no need to cook it or even warm it before adding it to the dish. You could use fresh broccoli instead, but you should at least partially cook it or it will most likely not get soft enough.
Instead of putting the Ritz Cracker crumbs on top, I put a thin layer of the cheese sauce on top of them. The crackers blend into the sauce and thicken and flavor it. But if you want a crunchy topping, mix them with a tablespoon or two of melted butter and sprinkle them on top of all the cheese sauce.
Buttery crackers, broccoli, and cheese are a hard to resist combination. Your kids are going to ask for this Broccoli Cheddar Chicken again and again.
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Broccoli Cheddar Chicken (Cracker Barrel Copycat)
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup milk
- 1 can cheddar cheese soup
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 6 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
- 8 ounces frozen chopped broccoli, defrosted
- 1 1/2 cups crushed Ritz crackers
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a casserole dish.
- Season chicken with salt and pepper and place in prepared dish.
- In a medium bowl, mix together milk, soup, paprika, and cheddar cheese.
- Pour half of cheese mixture over chicken.
- Scatter broccoli pieces over cheese mixture.
- Top with Ritz cracker pieces and remaining cheese mixture.
- Place in oven and bake for 45 minutes. (I look for small chicken breasts for this recipe. Larger ones I cut in half horizontally. You will need to increase cooking time by at least 10 minutes if your chicken breasts are larger and you do not cut them into 2 thinner pieces.)
Notes
Nutrition
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This dish was very tasty.
I intend to make it more often.
Instead of cheddar cheese soup I substituted cheese wiz.
I was so happy with this! Usually I don’t make alterations to a recipe the first time I try it, but because of the comments, I did use only half the amount of milk called for (I used 1/2 cup milk). The consistency was perfect with this ratio. Flavor was amazing and I served it with mashed potatoes. This is definitely going in our regular rotation!
Good comfort food and so easy
Why don’t most of the recipes I like tell whether to cover when baking or not? That should be added in any recipe.
If the recipe doesn’t say to cover it, you bake it as is, which is uncovered.
We thought this was really good! After reading the comments, though, I cut the milk in half, which turned out to be the right thing to do since otherwise I think it would have been too soupy. I also doubled the amount of paprika for a bit more flavor, and used both garlic powder and onion powder on the chicken for the same reason. Finally, I used a 3 quart casserole, which was just perfect (somebody had mentioned using a 13×9 baking dish, but I think that would have been the wrong size and shape for this).
I cut 4 raw chicken breast into cubes then seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, poultry powder, parsley, black pepper, paprika, minced onions, and some mustard powder. Used frozen 10os bag and added a little bit of fresh cut broccoli. For the sauce I used One can of broccoli cheese, one cup of heavy cream, 4oz habanero shredded cheese, 4oz sharp cheddar cheese and seasoned with Italian seasoning, black pepper, cayenne pepper, oregano powder
Easy and delicious recipe!!
Outstanding!!!!! Definitely keeping this in the rotation with 3 teenage boys!
Made this tonight. Very good. Husband said it’s a keeper for sure.
This is the best chicken dish I have ever made. I find that cutting the chicken breasts in half length wise not only helps them bake quicker, but keeps them from being tough and too chewy. They really bake up nice and tender by cutting them. If your looking for comfort food this dish is the one. I serve this with white or brown rice and honey glazed carrots. I’m getting hungry just talking about it. A MUST MAKE!!!
I haven’t made this recipe yet but for me I think I would pre cook the chicken chicken before adding the other ingredients. I don’t like the idea of adding all this to raw chicken.
This is my favorite dish at Cracker Barrel, but it’s only available on Wednesdays. Now I can have it whenever I want. Thank you.
Very easy and delicious recipe my husband wants it once a week
Made this today,but used Turkey left from thanksgiving…it was Awesome! Very East to make,try it,you will love it…
Instead of using cheddar soup. I used cream of chicken. And 2 different kinds of shredded cheese. It’s baking now. So hopefully this will be a dish to add to my book and my family to love
How about using boneless thighs instead
Not sure what everyone is complaining about, then again, I season my chicken regardless of what a recipe says. I lightly seasoned mine with LongHorn grill seasoning, pink Himalayan sea salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. The sauce was a little runny, but that’s what rolls are for. LOL! I will definitely make this again.
Needs some work. I wish I would have read the comments before making this. It is very soupy. I added 1/2 tsp or garlic and onion powder and it still didn’t have enough flavor.
Like many others have said, it’s way too runny and more like a soup. Even with reducing the milk by a whole cup (I tripled the recipe), adding extra shredded cheese, fresh broccoli instead of frozen, and baking it an extra 20min, it was still too runny. Luckily, I made some rice to put this over so dinner wasn’t ruined. Also for people that want more flavor, I add onion powder and extra salt/pepper to the cheese mixture. Plus from what I remember, the cracker barrel one had a bit of onion in it. Hope this helps! Next time I’ll probably forego adding any milk
Ok so my question is where is the recipe for the cheese sauce that is supposed to be drizzled on top of the broccoli cheddar chicken when you plate it up? That’s how cracker barrel does it and I’m making this dish now but I don’t see the recipe for the cheese sauce
It’s the one can cheddar cheese soup that is the sauce
When I worked at cracker barrel I asked my manager what the cheese sauce was and he said cheese wiz! So thats what I use!
It is not cheese wiz it is made at their corporate factory. It’s a bagged cheese sauce.
Can I use chicken tenders