King Ranch Chicken Casserole
King Ranch Chicken Casserole is a simple meal that goes together quickly! Layered like lasagna, this has delicious southwestern flavors that you and your family will love. This is also a perfect way to use up leftover chicken and tortilla chips. Give this a try today!
Gotta Love Southern Cooking
I’ll just say it, my wife is a great cook. She doesn’t have the training and experience that I do, but she knows how to make awesome food. When we got married, her sister gave her this cookbook. It had handwritten recipes from her family and friends. To this day, I thought that was such an awesome idea and one of the most thoughtful gifts we received.
In this cookbook was a family recipe that she loves – King Ranch Chicken. I never heard it, let alone have it. But, her family is from Texas, so I knew it had a great chance it was going to be good. My mother is from Tennessee so I grew up eating a lot of southern food my grandmother would make. Still, I couldn’t believe just how good this was!
King Ranch Chicken Casserole
This is not my normal meal, but, then again, it isn’t really mine, as I’ve mentioned. I personally don’t use condensed canned soup all that much, but I had a lot of it growing up. This recipe uses canned soup and I can’t think it would taste at all the same without it.
My wife made some adjustments to her family’s recipe. I love this so much! Several years ago, we made a huge batch of this because we love the leftovers. We had a friend over for dinner and a movie. He kept going back for more, and more, and more. He polished off the whole thing! So much for our leftovers . . .
Pro Tip –Don’t throw out the tortilla chips at the bottom of the bag!!! Save them and use them for this meal! We will deliberately not eat the chips at the bottom of the bag just for this purpose. Store the broken chips in a large gallon size ziptop bag. After doing this for 3 or 4 bags, you may have enough chips!
Ingredients for King Ranch Chicken Casserole 
- Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast (about 4)
- Cream of Chicken Soup
- Petite Diced Tomatoes
- Sliced Black Olives
- Sweet Onion
- Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
- Sour Cream
- Corn Tortilla Chips
- Fresh Diced Tomatoes
- Green Onions
Ingredient Notes
Cream of Chicken Soup – we use Campbells
Sliced Black Olives – we like to buy the cans of sliced olives but you can buy whole and slice them yourself.
Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese – we use 2 bags of a shredded 4 cheese Mexican blend or sharp cheddar. Although I’m usually picky about the ingredients I use, this is one of those meals that a number of choices taste awesome.
Corn Tortilla Chips – we keep the crumbled chips at the bottom of the bags for this, but you can certainly use whole chips.
Optional – sometimes we add jalapenos either to the onion layer of the casserole or as a topping. We haven’t done that since we’ve had children, but feel free to experiment a little with things you like.
Cooking Instructions
You will need to use the oven twice and 2 different temperatures, 1 to cook the chicken, and 1 to cook the casserole.
- Set the oven to 400° F. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and place the chicken in the oven. Roast for 25-30 minutes. Once you remove the chicken, lower the temperature to 350°.
- Once the chicken is cooked, use a standup mixer with the paddle attachment or 2 forks to shred the chicken. We use the standup mixer method.
- In a mixing bowl, mix the soup, petite diced tomatoes, and half the olives. Pour 1/2 cup of the mix in the bottom of a casserole dish. Begin layering as follows:
- Add a thin layer of chips, 1/2 of the remaining soup, 1/2 of the chicken, 1/2 of the onion, 1/3 of the cheese, and sour cream. Repeat.
- Top with the remaining 1/3 cheese and the remaining 1/2 of the olives.
- Place the casserole dish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
- Garish with fresh diced tomatoes, sliced green onions, hot sauce, or whatever else you desire.
Pro Recommendations
You might notice my Mason Casserole pans in several of my posts. I love using them! They are not a sponsor, but I absolutely love them. There are heavy-duty like everything else Mason. That’s great when it comes to cooking in these. They conduct the heat evenly and, in my opinion, cook the food faster than other casserole dishes I have.
Other Amazing Recipes That You’ll Love!
Chipotle Chicken Burrito Salad
King Ranch Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast (about 4)
- 2 10.5 ounce cans Cream of Chicken Soup
- 1 14.5 ounce can Petite Diced Tomatoes
- 1 6.5 ounce can Sliced Black Olives, drained & divided
- 1 medium Sweet Onion
- 2 8 ounce packages Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
- 32 ounces Sour Cream (2 - 16 oz containers)
- Corn Tortilla Chips
- Fresh Diced Tomatoes
- 2 Green Onions, sliced
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
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Set the oven to 400° F. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and place the chicken in the oven. Roast for 25-30 minutes. Once you remove the chicken, lower the temperature to 350°.
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Once the chicken is cooked, use a standup mixer with the paddle attachment or 2 forks to shred the chicken.
-
In a mixing bowl, mix the soup, petite diced tomatoes, and half the olives. Pour 1/2 cup of the mix in the bottom of a casserole dish. Begin layering as follows:
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Add a thin layer of chips, 1/2 of the remaining soup, 1/2 of the chicken, 1/2 of the onion, 1/3 of the cheese, and sour cream. Repeat.
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Top with remaining 1/3 of the cheese and the remaining 1/2 of the olives.
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Place the casserole dish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
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Garish with fresh diced tomatoes and sliced green onions.
