Main Dishes
Easy Leftover Chicken Casserole with Stuffing
Prep
10 minutes
Cook
45 minutes
Yield
6 -8
This easy Chicken Casserole with Stuffing uses leftover veggies, chicken (or turkey) and stuffing from your holiday dinner to make an easy dinner to use up your leftovers.
This Chicken Casserole with Stuffing is the perfect meal with leftover chicken (or turkey). It’s a great recipe to have on hand with the holiday season approaching because you can use up any leftover meat, veggies, and stuffing to make a delicious and nutritious second dinner when you’re tired of cooking during the holiday season. Whenever we make a holiday meal it’s always WAY more food than we need and we end up eating leftovers for days, easily getting sick of having the same thing over and over. This casserole is a great alternative to bring a new life to your leftovers.
❤️ Why You’ll Love Chicken Casserole with Stuffing
- Quick Prep: This recipe only takes 10 minutes to prep as it’s just putting your leftovers into one big casserole dish with a few new additions to make the perfect leftover dinner.
- Zero Food Waste: The best part of this casserole is that it uses up all those holiday leftovers in your fridge, so they don’t go to waste.
- Comforting: Nothing is more comforting than slow-cooked meat, stuffing, and roasted veggies. This casserole combines everything in a delicious (and nutritious) casserole.
🍲 Ingredients
Vegetables – For this casserole you’re going to use up all the leftover veggies you have in your fridge from your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Carrots, potatoes, brussel sprouts, beans, whatever you’ve got. This is a fantastic way to use up those leftovers. If you don’t have any, you can easily roast up whatever fresh veggies you have in your fridge first before assembling this casserole.
Chicken – Chicken is a lean source of protein and is versatile. I especially love making a whole roasted chicken and then using the leftovers in other recipes like to shred on salads, in bowls, tacos, or in casseroles like this Chicken Casserole with Stuffing. A whole chicken gives you such a good bang for your buck because you can do so much with the leftovers.
Better Than Bouillon – Ya’ll. I screeched when I received an email from Better Than Bouillon asking to work together, I was so excited! These products have been in my kitchen/fridge for years and if you’ve ever made a FoodByMaria you’d know because I put Better Than Bouillon in several of my recipes (psst, the also have a vegan and vegetarian range too).
I could go on and on about why I use this product but to make it the most digestible I have put together a nice little point-form list for you:
- It makes it easy to add just the right amount of flavor to your dish!!! It’s perfect for soups, sauces, and gravies, but I also love using it in my stir-fries, casseroles, pasta dishes and SO MUCH MORE!
- Better Than Bouillon bases are great-tasting and very high quality – I love their organic range!!! Psst, they also have a vegan range!
- Better Than Bouillon products are made with premium ingredients – the first ingredient across varieties is real meat and vegetables, unlike competitors with salt as the first ingredient.
- It is versatile, convenient, and affordable to have on hand – and will last in the refrigerator for up to two years – helping to cut down on the waste that can often result from trying to keep fresh ingredients and cans or cartons of broth/stocks around.
👩🍳 How to Make Chicken Casserole with Stuffing
- Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease a 9×13 baking dish and set aside.
- Note: If you don’t have leftover stuffing, make our Stuffing Recipe.
- In a large high-sided skillet or pot melt the butter over medium-high heat. When melted, turn to medium heat and add the onion and celery (if using uncooked carrots and/or 1 cup other fresh vegetables, add them at this point too). Cook for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened and slightly browned.
- Add in the minced garlic, dried thyme, dried rosemary, salt, ground nutmeg and pepper and cook for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant.
- Add flour and stir to coat the vegetables. Add the Better Than Bouillon Roasted Turkey Base or Roasted Chicken Base and Roasted Garlic Base and Garlic Base, stir and then add the mustard and slowly pour in the water and whole milk, whisking until combined.
- Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil, once boiling, turn to medium-low heat and keep at a simmer, stirring often, until thickened, about 6-10 minutes.
- Once the sauce has thickened, turn the heat off and stir in the leftover carrots (if using) and other leftover vegetable of choice (if using) and shredded turkey or chicken.
- Spoon the pot pie mixture into the prepared baking dish and top with dollops of cooked stuffing.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the filling is bubbly and the topping is golden brown. Let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.
🪄 Tips and Tricks
- Stuffing: If you don’t have leftover stuffing, make our Stuffing Recipe. Stuffing is seriously the best part of the holiday season. If you’re in a pinch, you can also buy the boxed stuff and whip it up before assembling this dish. However, homemade stuffing is always going to be best!
- Prep: Prep this meal as you’re cleaning up your leftovers on Thanksgiving night and then all you’ll need to do is pop this into the oven the next day when you are overcooking for the holidays.
- Veggies: Use ANY cooked veggies you have leftover for this recipe. Have fun with it and make it your own!
- Meal Prep: If you have LOTS of turkey leftover, you could totally make two batches of this and freeze it, and bake (after thawed) for an easy, make-ahead dinner.
🗒 Substitutions
- Chicken Stock Paste: If you don’t have chicken stock paste, use chicken stock instead of water and add 1/2 tsp more salt.
- Garlic: You can add more garlic to this recipe if you prefer a more intense garlic taste.
- Chicken: You can use leftover turkey in this recipe instead of leftover chicken if it’s what you have on hand. You also can use any leftover chicken – leftover from a whole chicken, chicken breast, thigh, etc.
- Vegetables: Use any veggies you cooked for your holiday meal. Potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrots, parsnips, anything goes here and you can make it your own.
- Stuffing: You can always use mashed potatoes instead of stuffing for this recipe if that’s what you have as your leftovers.
🗒 Best served with
👝 How to Store Leftovers
Store leftovers of this casserole in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Note that storage time will vary depending on how old the leftovers are that you are using in this recipe.
🤔 Common Questions
Leftover turkey lasts in the fridge for up to 4 days. You can also freeze leftover turkey in a freezer bag in your freezer to take out to use in soup or other recipes like this casserole.
There is so much that you can make with leftover turkey or chicken. You can shred it to add to salads like this Healthy Chicken Salad, use in bowls like this Power Bowl, or in soups like this Avgolemono Soup.
Easy Leftover Chicken Casserole with Stuffing
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 small onion, diced
- 3 celery sticks, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground pepper
- 4 tbsp all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp grainy mustard
- 1 1/2 tbsp Better than Bouillon Chicken Stock Paste
- 1 tsp Better than Bouillon Garlic Base
- 2 cups water
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 cup leftover cooked carrots, diced If you don't have leftover carrots, use 2x medium carrots, diced
- 1 cup other leftover vegetables (like chopped beans, chopped brussels sprouts or green peas) If you don't have other leftover vegetables, use 1 cup chopped fresh vegetables like beans, brussels sprouts or broccoli)
- 4 cups cooked shredded chicken
- 4-5 cups leftover cooked stuffing Note: If you don't have leftover stuffing, make our Stuffing Recipe.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease a 9×13 baking dish and set aside.
- Note: If you don't have leftover stuffing, make our Stuffing Recipe.
- In a large high sided skillet or pot melt the butter over medium-high heat. When melted, turn to medium heat and add the onion and celery (if using uncooked carrots and/or 1 cup other fresh vegetables, add them at this point too). Cook for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened and slightly browned.
- Add in the minced garlic, dried thyme, dried rosemary, salt, ground nutmeg and pepper and cook for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant.
- Add flour and stir to coat the vegetables. Add the Better Than Bouillon Roasted Turkey Base or Roasted Chicken Base and Roasted Garlic Base and Garlic Base, stir and then add the mustard and slowly pour in the water and whole milk, whisking until combined. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil, once boiling, turn to medium-low heat and keep at a simmer, stirring often, until thickened, about 6-10 minutes.
- Once the sauce has thickened, turn the heat off and stir in the leftover carrots (if using) and other leftover vegetable of choice (if using) and shredded turkey or chicken.
- Spoon the pot pie mixture into the prepared baking dish and top with dollops of cooked stuffing.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the filling is bubbly and the topping is golden brown. Let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Video
Notes
- If you don’t have leftover stuffing, make our Stuffing Recipe.
- If you don’t have chicken stock paste, use chicken stock instead of water and add 1/2 tsp more salt.
- If you don’t have the garlic base, add another minced garlic clove.
