As far as I can tell, any time “million dollar” is included in a recipe title,

it means there’s cream cheese involved,

which is totally fine by me.

That’s exactly what is going on with Million Dollar Chicken Casserole,

which features not only cream cheese but a bunch of other goodies that make for one extremely creamy and comforting bake that also happens to be very simple to make. (Oh, there’s an irresistibly crunch Ritz cracker topping too.)

You can thank sour cream, cottage cheese, cream of chicken soup, and cream cheese for the creaminess here. All you have to do is mix those guys together with a bit of garlic powder, onion powder, and dried parsley…

… before you fold in a few cups of shredded chicken. (Leftover rotisserie hanging out in the fridge, anyone? Make this!)

All of that creaminess and the easy preparation make this easy to boast about, but you can’t wax poetic about it without also mentioning the buttery, crispy topping.

See, that is made up of crushed Ritz crackers that have been mixed with melted butter, just to make sure they get perfectly golden brown and have no shortage of butter flavor. If there was ever a perfect way to cap off an indulgently creamy casserole, that is it.

On their own, the ingredients here certainly aren’t worth a million bucks – there’s a classic canned casserole shortcut, a few dairy items, some cooked chicken… nothing expensive or rare or fussy. But when you bite into this, and you taste the velvety creamy sauce and crunchy topping, it certainly feels like something you’d be willing to give up a chunk of change for.