Olive’s Chicken Noodle Casserole – Vintage Recipe

A chicken noodle casserole recipe that is worth handing down through the generations, this side dish is good enough to stand on it’s own.

This is the sort of recipe made by church ladies all over the MidWest for Sunday potluck dinners. It’s hearty, inexpensive and will feed a lot of people! Yet, it’s simple to prepare.

Grandma Olive made this dish often and it is fondly remembered by my cousin, Joann. This is a chicken noodle casserole that is easy enough to make for a weeknight. The prep time is relatively minimal and the baking time can be used to prepare a main dish.

Like so many vintage recipes, this one relies on some tried and true ingredients of the 1950s and 1960s: cream of something soup and crushed cereal topping.

I’m sure many readers remember those classic, if not exactly high cuisine ingredients. Canned soups were a great time saver for busy cooks during the mid-century years. In all honesty, they still are today.

As for the crushed cereal topping, what is a better contrast to a creamy casserole dish than a crispy topping? Cereal, a mainstay in most kitchens, makes a quick topping that crisps up wonderfully!

My grandparents lived in Vermont, so visiting with them was a big deal for us. I grew up in Ohio and that 10-12 hour drive was a significant undertaking. Especially when the family included five children, some under school age and a station wagon.

My mom used to say she spent twenty-five years carrying either a diaper bag or at least a change of kid’s clothes in her purse. I’m not sure that math is exact, but I’m positive it felt like twenty-five years!

Trips to Vermont were a big deal for us and we did them only once every few years. My grandparents would make the trip to Ohio in the years we didn’t travel to Vermont.

Joann, my cousin, grew up in the same Vermont town as my grandparents. She spent lots of time visiting with my grandparents and I imagine was treated to this chicken noodle casserole dish at dinner often.

Recently, Joann and I were discussing recipes grandma used to make. I have one traditional holiday dish of grandma’s that I make annually, her Corn Pudding.

I love it because it’s creamy and warm and comforting and Grandma made it for the holiday dinners we shared with her. Grandma moved to Ohio about the time I entered high school, so holiday meals became more frequent.

When Joann told me about this chicken noodle casserole dish, I didn’t remember it. The more she talked about it, the more I felt like I had missed out! I asked her for the recipe and made up a dish the very next week.

Make It a Meal:

As a side dish, this chicken noodle casserole works well with Roasted Chicken, Slow Cooked Pork Roast or even Beef Stew. Put it on the table beside Cheesy Potatoes and Green Bean Casserole.

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Tips:

Joann shared some special instructions with me, so I could make the recipe exactly as grandma had:

Grandma always used Mueller’s fine noodles for this dish. Never the curly or wide noodles.
She typically used cream of chicken soup, but sometimes used cream of mushroom.
Joann only remembers the minced bits of dark chicken meat in this dish. She presumes the “better” portions of white meat were used for other purposes.
The fat grandma used to cook the carrots and celery was chicken fat, saved from the roasting pan.
The carrots and celery were the end bits left from when grandma made sticks for grandpa’s lunchbox.
The most important part of the recipe is the pan. Use a 9×13 Pyrex dish. This is not a deep dish casserole.

Olive’s Chicken Noodle Casserole Recipe

Ingredients:

Chicken, noodles, carrots, celery, cream of chicken soup, corn flakes

Recipe Directions:

Dice the cooked chicken. Prepare noodles then saute carrots and celery, mix. Top with crushed corn flakes. Bake.

5 from 8 votes