Broccoli cheese casserole with crunchy Ritz Cracker Topping is a family favorite and a staple on every holiday.
Broccoli Cheese Ritz Casserole
Looking for the perfect broccoli cheese casserole with Ritz crackers? Look no further!
No one will turn down the greens once they taste this cheesy, melty broccoli cheese Ritz casserole topped with the perfect amount of Ritz cracker crunch.
Scroll to the bottom for a printable version of this post, including all measurements and instructions, so you can follow along in your kitchen without being on your phone.
Here is what you need to gather to get started:
- 3-4 crowns fresh broccoli
- mayonnaise
- cream of chicken soup
- butter
- diced white onion
- eggs
- salt
- pepper
- sharp cheddar cheese
- Ritz crackers
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Broccoli Casserole Preparation
With all cheese casseroles, they tend to stick to your pan. Make sure you thoroughly spray your pan with cooking spray so you do not have a big sloppy mess of broccoli cheese casserole at the end.
There is nothing worse than stuck on food that will only come off with an hour of scraping.
This before hand step will make sure its a rinse and go situation.
While not totally necessary, I personally always like to have my ingredients ready and measured before I get started, that way I do not have to open the fridge or reach into the vegetable drawers with sticky messy hands grabbing for more jars or spices.The smudges on my fridge handles are a tell-tell sign of what happens every time I am under-prepped for cooking!
Pre-measuring also helps when you cook with kids so they can just dump and stir.
Both of my kids love the experimentation of cooking and I don’t mind having two perfect helpers in the kitchen (which also gives them some life skills) but if they have to measure it can quickly go insane in the space.
Broccoli Casserole Recipe
Preheat oven to 350 and grab a prepared baking dish ( grease a 9 x 13 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray)
Break down your broccoli crowns into bite sized pieces and steal or boil broccoli until soft.
Spread already cooked broccoli into bottom layers of casserole dish.
In a mixing bowl, pour melted butter, mayonnaise, cream of chicken soup, and diced white onion and mix well.
Stir in both eggs, 1 cup of shredded cheese and salt and pepper and mix well.
Spread mixture over broccoli in pan and mix well to evenly coat.
Sprinkle remaining shredded cheddar cheese on top of broccoli casserole and then cover top layer with crushed Ritz crackers.
Bake broccoli casserole for 30-40 minutes or until heated through for a side dish the whole family loves.
Serves 6-8
Broccoli Casserole Variations
While this side dish is focused on delicious broccoli florets, you can alter flavors by using cauliflower or green beans or substitute the cream of chicken with cream of mushroom.
Additionally do not be afraid to experiment from the original broccoli cheese casserole recipe to a totally different veggie cheese casserole.
Last but not least, many people like rice in this dish and if you choose to do that, you will need to cook your rice prior and perhaps double up your soup ingredients. I haven’t experimented with that one yet, so proceed with caution.
The truth is, with all this cheese (and you can never have enough cheese), it doesn’t matter what your end game is on the vegetables, your casserole will be perfect and should hold up under some fun changes.
And at the end, the ritz cracker crunch (or bread crumbs if you prefer) finish off the meal with a buttery taste.
Frozen vs Fresh Broccoli
Fresh isn’t required (I hear you sighing with relief) !
If you do not like the muss and fuss of steaming before hand, you really could just use frozen broccoli. Simply pop those steamers into the microwave to cook and drain any excess water prior to the rest of the recipe.
If you do use frozen over fresh, make sure you grab 2-3 16 oz. bags to make sure you have enough for a full sized broccoli cheese casserole
Once your broccoli are cooked up, you can continue to prep them by cutting off and losing any of the “tree” ends on the stalks.
Using fresh veggies? No problem! As far as fresh broccoli, same thing! Just pre-cook your broccoli prior to your next steps as they wont steam enough in the casserole.
More Side Dishes you will love:
Before you go, you may want to check out a few other great recipe ideas here!
- How to Cook Spaghetti Squash (a favorite of mine!)
- Cucumber Tomato Feta Salad
- Cherry Tomato Balsamic Salad
- Roasted Carrots
- Stuffed Mushrooms
Broccoli Casserole Ultra Easy and Ultra Cheesy
Ingredients
- 3-4 crowns fresh broccoli - cooked and drained NOTE: You will need 3-4 crowns (not stalks)
- 1 cup real mayonnaise
- 1 can - cream of chicken soup
- 4 tablespoons butter - melted
- 1/4 cup diced white onion
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1-1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 sleeve - Ritz crackers, crushed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and grab a prepared baking dish ( grease a 9 x 13 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray)
- Break down your broccoli crowns into bite sized pieces and steal or boil broccoli until soft.
- Spread already cooked broccoli into bottom layers of casserole dish.
- In a mixing bowl, pour melted butter, mayonnaise, cream of chicken soup, and diced white onion and mix well.
- Stir in both eggs, 1 cup of shredded cheese and salt and pepper and mix well.
- Spread mixture over broccoli in pan and mix well to evenly coat.
- Sprinkle remaining shredded cheddar cheese on top of broccoli casserole and then cover top layer with crushed Ritz crackers.
- Bake broccoli casserole for 30-40 minutes or until heated through for a side dish the whole family loves.
- Serves 6-8
Video
Recipe Notes
- 9 x 13 casseroles are a typical size for most recipes and can certainly feed more than 6-8 people if there are other side dishes (like holidays, thanksgivings). Serving sizes are more approximately and do not take into account if everyone just takes a scoop or two. You may be able to easily feed this side dish to 10 if there is other food available.
Marie says
What size can of soup do you use? The recipe isn’t specific.
Trisha says
Just a regular size can of soup
Marie says
can I prepare this the day before and then bake it the next day?
Trisha says
hi Marie! So I havent prepared it the night before cause my fridge is small, BUT I would say it would not be an issue. Just wait to add the cheese on the top and give it a quick stir the morning to mix everything one more time before you plan on putting it in oven (just in case your mayo or eggs have settled at all) add the cheese topper and pop in the oven. Nothing in the ingredients should give you any issues on make ahead preparation.
Niki says
Sour cream??? Not listed in ingredients.
Trisha says
Oh, haha, I didnt mean to say that. I was just answering someone else that asked if they could substitute sour cream in the recipe so my fingers typed it again. So sorry!
Suzanne Zaralban says
Can I use 1 cup sour cream to replace 1 cup mayo and add some lemon juice?
Trisha says
Yes, it should work just fine that way. I dont see any reason that it wouldnt be a good substitution.
Mary Beth says
Can you double the recipe to feed a crowd?
Trisha says
Hi Mary beth, I do not believe there would be an issue with doubling this recipe. I would just try to make sure I didnt pile it high but rather used a longer and wider casserole dish. The only caution I would say is anytime you double a recipe, its hard to know the exact timing on it and you may have to adjust to a longer cooking time if you have a thicker depth to make sure everything gets cooked evenly. Ill have to double this recipe before Christmas to test it for sure and update the post. Its a little late for me to do it for Thanksgiving since thats in a few days, but Ill make sure I alter it soon.
Mary Beth says
Thank you!
Terry says
Do you cover when baking
Priscilla Wigham says
I added 4 small cans drained mushrooms and switched in mushroom soup and it looks like it will work fine. My grandchildren love broccoli and mushrooms so I want to reward them for that. Thanks for an easy recipe, my favorites.
Trisha says
Thanks for sharing your awesome recipe additions!!
Laura says
Any guess as to an approximate CUP measurement of the fresh broccoli? (I bought a bag of fresh florets from Costco and have no idea how that translates to crowns, lol). I’d dofrozen but need to use these before they go bad. #bulkprobs 😁
Nicole says
Do you think there is anyway to omit the eggs in this receipe?
Trisha says
Hi Nicole, so Ill be honest – I have never done that before so I always have a hard time answering a big recipe change without testing it. That being said, looking over the recipe, I don’t see any real reason that this casserole cannot be made and still taste great without eggs.
Janet Shafer says
I made it the first time I forgot the onions everybody I liked it, I made it again and I made it with Asparagus and Brussel sprout this time I put the onions in red onion it is so good next time I make it I’m going try greens
Trisha says
I love that you are experimenting with the casserole with other veggies – thats a great way to get some variation! I am a HUGE fan of brussel sprouts AND asparagus both!
Den says
Can Sour cream or Philadelphia cream (whipped type) be used in the place of Mayo.
Can a cup of cooked Uncle Ben long grain rice be used in this recipe.
I have used 1/2 can of Cream of bacon mixed w/ real bacon.
1 can of Cream of Broccoli instead of the mushroom.
Have family members allgeric to all type of mushroom.
Found that Veleveeta cheese sauce does great w/ this recipe. I mix it up the cream of Broccoli soup w/ the cheese sauce.
After the layer of crackers crumbs, I will add shredded cheese & fresh bacon bits. Bake it.
I have gotten the dish baked until 1 or 2 before done add the shredded cheese & fresh bacon bits on top of the crackers. Bake until those last 2 minutes expires too.
Trisha says
It would alter the taste, but sour cream should be ok to alter. I personally think cream cheese would be too thick.
Wendy says
Used fresh cauliflower as well yum
Amy says
I added chicken to it to make it a full meal and served it with a side salad. I also steamed some frozen broccoli for 5 minutes and used that instead of fresh. I upped the temp to 375 and baked for 30 min. because I was running behind. Delicious recipe and a new go to for sure!
Dave Cearley says
We always made this with frozen chopped broccoli and cream of celery soup. Been gobbling it up for thirty years. LOL