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Ready for an amazing casserole recipe? The classic tuna casserole recipe is all grown up with sautéed mushrooms, Colby jack cheese, fried onions and more. You’ll never turn your nose up at tuna noodle casserole again!
Does anyone else remember the days of tuna noodle casserole being served for dinner? It was that famous blue box, a can of peas and a can of tuna. I loved my Mom but God bless her she could not cook so needless to say, we ate a lot of blue box and tuna for dinner.
I can’t even eat the blue box by itself these days for this reason.
How to Make Tuna Noodle Casserole
Part of the reason why is that these days, my tastes are a bit more complicated. I love food and when I eat, I want plenty of flavor; especially when I make a tuna noodle casserole recipe.
Aside from that, when I found out that I am sensitive to the chemicals that we use everyday, I had to get rid of most boxed things period and realized that I needed to stop buying as much as we could and making things homemade instead (Six Dollar Family).
That’s perfectly okay with me though though because it means that the days of boxed mac and cheese and tuna are gone for good!
Is Tuna Noodle Casserole a Kid-Friendly Recipe?
In place of the canned peas and blue box place is this amazing homemade tuna noodle casserole recipe! I love that it’s so versatile in that I can use tuna, chicken or turkey! It has become one of our favorite casserole recipes hands down and I am sure it will become one of yours too!
And yes! If you have kids, this recipe is also kid friendly. You may need to pick out the mushrooms or friend onions if yours don’t like them, but they will eat the rest of it right up!
and that my friends, is a tried and true statement. My Emma has always considered this one of her favorite recipes that I make!
Can I make this tuna noodle casserole with chicken or turkey?
If you don’t like the taste of tuna, you can totally make this with chicken or turkey. I like to swap this yummy tuna casserole recipe with my chicken noodle soup recipe (Six Dollar Family) – that I use turkey for most of the time – on my menu plan (Six Dollar Family) quite a bit. They’re both amazing!
I hate casserole recipes that I can’t change up. Honestly, tuna is not one of my favorite foods so I love that this casserole recipe tastes just as great with chicken or turkey! It’s filled with yummy Colby cheese, tasty french fried onions (Amazon) and Bella mushrooms to really dress up the flavor and oh boy does it!
Can you freeze tuna noodle casserole?
Yes! This casserole recipe is freezer friendly too! If you’re planning on freezing it, use a 8 x 8 foil baking pan with lid like THESE (Amazon). Make the tuna noodle casserole recipe as written but stop before adding the french fried onions and freeze instead.
It’s super simple!
How to Reheat Tuna Noodle Casserole?
To cook your frozen tuna noodle casserole, thaw completely before you bake it. Add the french fried onions after it’s thawed and bake as directed. Whether you freeze it or not, this tuna casserole recipe really does come together for a cheap family meal very quickly!
Supplies Needed:
- Sharp Kitchen Knife (Amazon)
- Mesh Strainer or Colander (Amazon)
- 8×8 baking dish (Amazon)
- large fry pan (Amazon)
- medium/large stock pot (Amazon)
Grown Up Tuna Noodle Casserole Recipe
Equipment
- Kitchen Knife
- Mesh Strainer or Colander
- Large Fry Pan
- Medium or Large Stockpot
- 8×8 Baking Pan
Ingredients
- 1-2 cans tuna drained or 3 cups shredded chicken or turkey breast
- 3 tbsp. olive oil
- ½ large white onion diced
- 3-4 mini Bella mushrooms washed and sliced
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- 4 oz cream cheese
- ½ c sour cream
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 can mushroom soup 10.5 oz
- ¾ c milk
- 8 oz any pasta your preference
- 1 c Colby jack cheese shredded
- 1 c french fried onions
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees then slice the mushrooms and dice the onions. Lightly grease your baking dish with cooking spray.
- Start water for pasta. While the water is heating, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Once the oil is heated, add the onions and mushrooms and saute until the onions are translucent. After the onions are done, cook pasta until al dente (7 minutes or so).
- Add the mushroom soup, cream cheese, sour cream, milk and garlic powder to the frying pan and heat until it’s hot. Season with salt and pepper to your tastes once it’s all warmed up.
- Drain the pasta well and add to the pan and stir to mix. Make sure your pasta gets covered well.
- Once you’ve mixed the pasta well, add the tuna (make sure it is well drained) or cooked chicken to your pan and mix it all up again. Pour the mixture into your baking dish.
- Add the shredded cheese on top.
- Sprinkle the french fried onions on top.
- Bake at 375° F for 10 minutes or just until the onions are golden brown. Serve hot.
DELICIOUS. I added peas, and didnt use french onions
oooh YAAAAAS! I can FINALLY say
“Winner winner tuna casserole for dinner”! Never did like it with all them peas and or green beans. BUT this right here, this right here shed smiles for miles!! Thank you for sharing #ashwednesday #favorite
Absolutely my favorite recipe and I’ve tried quite a few. Thanks for sharing!!!
I’m so glad you liked it Ria!
Holy smokes BEST tuna casserole recipe ever!! We didn’t have French onions so I used crushed up Club crackers and it was divine. I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out amazing. This may be on my weekly menu until the fam tells me to stop…LOL. The only thing I would do next time is add more noodles. I used egg noodles and I think because they’re flat they didn’t seem to fill the recipe as much as I think your spiral noodles did….all in all amazing. Thank you!
So glad you liked it!
I added Ol Bay Seasoning and peas (cause hubby likes them), ommited mushroom soup, and added fresh shrooms, and made a white sauce.
I like the idea of using chips as well and will definitely try that next time too.
this is a delicious recipe and I make it regularly for myself and husband
I’m thrilled you love it Kathy! Thanks for stopping by!
This was really delicious! I used two cans of tuna, no onion or mushrooms, added peas, and panko breadcrumbs in place of french fried onions. Yummy easy dinner, we loved it!
This recipe was a great success! We made a few substitutes with what we had on hand (cheddar cheese instead of colby jack and breadcrumbs instead of fries onions) and it turned out great. I loved the baby bella mushrooms addition to the sauce. We also made roasted broccoli on the side which paired nicely. Super simple, quick, and flavorful! We’ll definitely make this again and again!
From what you have been through….and what you have done to overcome your past, you should be soooo proud of yourself and I hope that you are. I have not made this recipe as yet but definitely giving you 5 stars for just being YOU!!!
AMAZING!!!! I’m always trying to find recipes I can modify to be Gluten Free. This was over the top amazing. I love love loved this. No one (other than me) in my family likes tuna, so I’m going to try it again with chicken. Super YUM!!!!!
What kind of soup could I use instead of cream of mushrooms? I can’t stomach mushrooms. And I may throw in some peas instead. Lol. Thank you. Sounds yummy!!
Any “cream of” soup would work, but I would personally use cream of chicken since it would blend well with the meat you’re already adding.
Can I double the recipe and bake in a 9-13 dish?
Yes, it should double just fine.
This tuna casserole is the best! I tried your recipe and it has became our top favorite meal in our family of five. I do add peas, just because we need some green in out diet. I have also used the cream sauce with bow tie pasta and did it all on the stove top. I call it “homemade tunahelper”. It’s amazing! Thank you for sharing this.
Excellent recipe! We all (husband, adult son and myself) all went back for seconds! Thank you! I didn’t have French onions so used crushed sour cream cheddar potato chips. Making again tonight, will add some peas and use the French fried onions.
Added fine chopped celery ,red pepper . Peas.Fine sliced onions,sauteed til crispy as a sub in for french onions .Panko mixed with melted butter and parm cheese on top.
This casserole is so good! I used cream if celery soup instead of mushroom and added 1-1/2 cup of cooked peas. I used a 12 oz bag of wide egg noodles and used 1 cup milk instead of 3/4 cup. I added about 1 cup of broke up French fried onions to the casserole and put about a cup to 1-1/2 cops on top and baked it for 20 to 25 mins. My husband finally removed it from the table so he wouldn’t eat anymore and he’s a picky eater. It was delicious. Will make this again. Look forward to checking out your other recipes!
2 cans of tuna made it too fishy. I used white albacore tuna in water. I’ll try it again.
Laura, I am really sensitive to the fishy taste as well. Try it with tuna or chicken.
Please just put the recipe at the top. No one cares about your story. Literally no one! Secondly, this was absolute garbage.
Having a bad day, are we Gayle? Thanks for your comment. It made me laugh. Have a good one.