Give Your Tuna Casserole The Crunch It Deserves With A Trip To The Snack Drawer

Tender noodles, gooey cheese, and salty tuna always come together to make something pretty good, but texture can sometimes be an issue — it often ends up a little on the mushy side. However, with a simple crunchy addition, you can make a tuna casserole that is truly great by just reaching into your snack drawer for a bag of potato chips.

Make your favorite classic pantry preparation or go for something a little more homemade like this upscale tuna casserole recipe. Then, before you put the dish in the oven, crumble on some good old crispy potato chips. Since everything in the casserole is already cooked, you just need to bake it until it gets browned and bubbly, which is also the right amount of time for potato chips to toast without burning.

For a faster weeknight take, you can even upgrade your boxed mac and cheese with canned tuna, and just crumble some potato chips right on top for a textural hit. The result is comfort food with the volume dialed up. It makes for a more dynamic eating experience without sacrificing the simple pleasure of a down-home dish.

Plain salted potato chips keep the taste classic when you want to add a crispy topping to a tuna noodle casserole, but lots of flavors pair well with the creamy and cheesy dish. Cheddar, sour cream and onion, jalapeño, barbecue, or dill pickle potato chips are all fun avenues you can take. Go for kettle-cooked varieties for the ultimate crunch factor.

There is also no reason to stop at potato chips. Crushed-up pretzels, cheese straws, parmesan crisps, vegetable chips, Cheetos, bagel chips, buttery crackers, Cheese-Its, or matchstick potatoes (the same nostalgic snack that tops Puerto Rican hot dogs) are all delicious options. This is also a way to use those crispy fried onions that usually only come out for the green bean casserole at Thanksgiving. Really, your pantry and cabinets are full of options that can take tuna casserole to the crunchy place it wants to go.