Chicken Rice Casserole makes for a crowd-pleasing dinner that comes together in under 5 minutes of prep time.
Made with only 4 ingredients, this dish has juicy chicken breasts and tender rice in a deliciously creamy sauce. This is a casserole that meal packs a lot of flavor in a filling one dish dinner and a meal that everyone will love!
Enjoy!
There is nothing like Chicken Rice Casserole for dinner. This dish is deliciously easy, creamy and totally satisfying and you’ll never believe it needs just 4 ingredients!
This is a special dish because the recipe comes from my BFF, Penny and she’s been making this for years. It’s her go-to, must have, favorite easy weeknight meal that I just had to try.
I have to admit, when I first made it I knew it would be tasty but… I had NO idea what I was in for and it’d definitely become a regular in our rotation!
This easy dish comes together in under 5 minutes, it’s one of the quickest dinner preps on my whole site (along with One Pot Pizza Tortellini Bake).
This dish is belly warming and comforting while being simple and easy to make, it’s like serving a nice warm hug from your Mom!
The chicken comes out incredibly tender and juicy, the rice is perfectly cooked in a rich and creamy sauce and the whole thing is loaded with flavor!
This easy Chicken Rice Casserole takes about an hour to bake (depending on your oven, you may need a few extra minutes but for me it’s about an hour), but that is one of the things that make it kind of the perfect dish.
We’ve made this just as written over and over but I’ve also added a little bit of onion to the bottom of the pan or a couple of handfuls of fresh mushrooms.
With very little minimal prep time, you can slide this casserole into the oven and relax, or maybe help with homework without feeling the usual dinner time rush!
5 minutes of work, and then perhaps a glass of wine or read your book for an hour? I feel like that’s a good idea for ALL weeknights!
I use homemade onion soup mix in this recipe, but you can use the kind in the envelope if you haven’t had a chance to mix up a batch yet. The flavor will be amazing either way!
My friend Penny also said she sometimes replaces the onion soup mix with a packet of gravy mix depending on what she has on hand!
If you are lucky enough to have leftovers, this makes for a delicious lunch the following day.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 cup long grain white rice uncooked
- 1 ½ cups water
- 1 ounce dry onion soup mix 1 packet or use homemade
- 10.5 ounces condensed cream of mushroom soup 1 can
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Spray a 9×13-inch casserole dish or glass baking pan with cooking spray (the rice doesn't cook well in a metal pan). Add chicken breasts and season with salt & pepper.
- Pour uncooked rice over chicken. Sprinkle with onion soup mix.
- Combine mushrooms soup and 1 ½ cups of water. Pour over chicken.
- Cover and bake 1 hour 15 minutes or until rice is tender.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Casserole, Main Course
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Really good, and actually easy compared to what most recipe blogs call easy. I have chronic fatigue issues and this was a great accessible meal
I’m planning on making this dish with brown rice and boneless chicken thighs which takes longer to cook, this is concerning me since many reviews say the chicken comes out dry. Any suggestions? Thanks!
I haven’t tried it but chicken thighs have worked well for other readers with no changes, and even tends to hold up better with longer cook time. Let us know how it goes!
I made this tonight and tweaked it a little… cooked it at 350,added cheese,used skinless boneless chicken thighs,milk instead of water,mixed soups and rice in a bowl than poured it over chicken.oh and added some mixed veggies to it as well. It was soooo good.😋
I am making the chicken and rice dish as we speak.
I can’t wait for you to try it!
Today is the second time I made this. I added a bag of frozen vegetables (broccoli and cauliflower) and around 20 min before done I added shredded cheese. I cooked around 15 min longer than recipe called for so at least 1.5 hr.
It is delicious and leftovers are even better.
Came out perfect!! I love all your recipes.
I made this with a few moderations. I used bone in chicken thighs with skin removed and seasoned. I used your recipe for onion soup mix but used a no sodium beef bouillon blend fron Knorr.
I also added fresh sliced mushrooms and gluten free mushroom soup. I.used 1/4 cup white wine and chicken broth instead of water. It took about 20 minutes extra to get the rice tender and I finished it with a little bit of heavy cream and fresh parley. it was delicious.
I’m making this for a family in need. So I would rather use a disposable metal pan. Can I partly cook the rice then add everything to the metal pan to finish baking? or would you suggest do it all in the glass and transfer to the metal to take it to them?
I don’t know how the disposable pan would work as this recipe can be finicky with that. I would make it in a glass container and transfer. That is so thoughtful Clayton, I am certain they will love it.
This recipe did not work for me. Cooked at 325 for an hour and 15 mins and the rice was not done. I upped the temp and left in longer to get the rice cooked.
Super easy + super yummy! I added fresh mushrooms & chopped boneless ckn breasts. Excellent!
Super easy + super yummy! I added fresh mushrooms & chopped boneless ckn breasts. Excellent!
the onion soup made it more delicious, but it also made it very salty.
This is so delicious!! However, the amount of time in the oven makes the chicken very dry. Next time I made it, I upped the oven temp to 375 and cooked it for 45 minutes. Chicken was perfect; rice was crunchy. I then realized the lower temp and longer cooking made the rice perfectly. Any suggestions on what to do to make the chicken less dry? Would it be possible to cook just the rice without the chicken in it, maybe cook the chicken a different way? Thanks and I really enjoy your recipes.
What kind of pan are you cooking it? That can make a difference as to how it turns out!
Cannot recommend this recipe. I read many of the reviews and adapted temperature accordingly. Ended up with some good tasting, done rice, but horribly dry chicken. Just find another recipe where there aren’t so many comments on how to fix it to make it good.
Hi Cathy, I’ve only tried this recipe as written and it has always turned out. I can’t recommend adapting the temperature because I haven’t tried it.
Thanks Cathy, I adjusted cook time to 30 mins. Worked out great!
This is fantastic! Is it possible to make ahead? I was hoping to make it the night before. Should I cook it and reheat or just put it raw into the fridge?
I haven’t tried making it ahead, so I can’t say for sure. But I would probably bake it and then just reheat the portions you are eating. Let us know how it works for you if you do make it ahead.
it sure was easy to put together. I added real mushrooms and chopped celery also and 2 small cans of mushroom soup and dill and touch of garlic.
Can’t wait to taste it.
How long would you suggest baking it if you use thin boneless/skinless chicken breasts?
Your baking it until the rice is cooked through so you’ll want to cook it for the same amount of time.
This is my very FAVORITE recipe for Chicken and Rice. So easy to make!!
I am waiting…tick tock…it has been in the oven for almost 2 hours and the chicken is cooked but the rice + mixture is still like soup. I’m gonna take the chicken out and make a different side. Not the quick and delish dish I was hoping for, it was actually a mess. But I love lots of your other recipes. xo
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear this didn’t turn out the way you expected Jen. We’ve had other readers express the same issue and I have tried to recreate it with no luck, as every time I make it it turns out just fine! What type of pan did you use? We’ve had best success in a glass pan and if you used another type of pan I wonder if that could be the issue?
I saw comments about how it was still soupy. I was wondering if some folks accidentally used cream of mushroom soup and not the condensed version. I did that once making a different casserole and I ended up with a soupy concoction.
I was thinking of making this tonight! Looking for quick and easy….now not so sure. Thanks for your feedback 😀