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.
4 Ingredient Chicken & Rice Casserole
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 9×13 pan with cooking spray. 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
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
I made this with boneless, Skinless chicken thighs and it turned out fabulous!
No other changes to recipe or execution.
It took my oven 1 hour and 10 mins.
I do wish I had mixed the onion soup mix with the liquids, as I think that might have distributed the soup mix better than my sprinkling. Lol.
The first time I made this, the rice would not cook, no longer how long I left the casserole in the oven. What I do is, I precook the rice, use shredded chicken from the whole chicken they sell at Costco, and it turns out perfect every time! I only bake it until it is nice and bubbly, not for the full time indicated. I even add some cooked broccoli if I have it on hand, and it is absolutely delicious!
I had the same issue. The rice did not cook despite an hour and 35. i can’t figure out why it works for some people and not others. My rice was definitely submerged in liquid. The only thing I can think is that it didn’t get hot enough.
is the chicken cooked before putting in casserole?
The chicken is added raw.
I made this and added some fresh mushrooms. I sautéed them a bit before putting it all together. I also added a bit more rice and water…because we like rice. It turned out great! It’s a satisfying comfort meal when you are short on time! Making it again today.
I didn’t rate this, because I have not made it yet – but could you tell me if this can be made with cubed, canned chicken breast meat?
Hi Christine, this recipe calls for uncooked chicken breasts. If using cooked chicken, the rice won’t have time to fully cook before the chicken is heated through. I haven’t tried this so I can’t say for sure how it will work but you could try baking this recipe and then adding the chicken at the end.
Hello!
Do you think fresh broccoli could be added? Or would that take too much room and not allow everything to properly cook? Or would the broccoli become too mushy in the oven that long? Or maybe use frozen broccoli?
Hi Mindy, I would probably cook the broccoli on the side and serve it alongside the rice casserole. We also have this delicious chicken broccoli rice casserole that sounds perfect for you!
Hello,
I was wondering if you could make this with frozen cooked chicken. I am not wanting to run to store and that is all I have right now.
Hi Rebecca, we recommend using thawed or fresh chicken breasts but other readers have used frozen with good results. You will want to make sure you cook it for an adequate amount of time to reheat the chicken and fully cook the rice without drying out for your chicken. I hope that helps!
Are you using instant rice? I tried this recipe it has great flavor but the rice was hard.
Hi Sam, we use long grain white rice for this recipe. Make sure the tin foil is on tight to keep all the steam in to cook the rice.
It would be helpful if that was added to the instructions. I had this same issue and had no idea why. I have re-read the entire page and I don’t see anything about covering the dish with aluminum foil.
The dish is covered in step 5 of the recipe. Hope that helps!
Chicken and rice still are not done after 2.5 hrs ( still pink and rice is hard) I used 4 large chicken breasts and did add 2cups of water and 2 cups of long grain rice. I added cream cheese to the tops of chicken . Everything else was the same as written. Foil was sealed tightly.
I upped the temp to 400 hoping it will actually cook. Maybe it’s my oven? Lol I’m not a beginner in the kitchen.
I have only made this recipe as listed so I am not sure what happened, Lindsey. Thank you for trying this recipe, but I am sorry it didn’t turn out as expected.
Could you freeze this and reheat it? We love this dish and I’m wondering if I could do one to have on hand for a postpartum meal.
I haven’t tried freezing this casserole but I do think this would freeze perfectly once cooked.
I’ve been making this for years but I use 6 – 8 boneless chicken thighs. For freezing, I bake the casserole, then cut the thighs up into pieces and mix them in with the rice. After everything is cool, I put it all in a gallon freezer bag and lay it flat on the freezer shelf. For reheating, I thaw it out completely, put it in a casserole covered with foil and put in 325 oven for 30min
Can I bake at 350
Hi Kathy, we always bake this recipe at 325°F but others readers have baked it at 350°F with good results. We would love to hear how it turns out for you!
Made this last night. Used envelope onion soup and chicken drumsticks, also added extra 10 mins baking time. Served with home canned cranberry sauce and corn on the cob. DELICIOUS! I recoommend the drums.
Made this tonight. Rice was tasty but the chicken breast were very dry. Only thing I did differently was to mix the onion soup water rice and cream of chicken soup together then pour over the chicken. I covered it as tightly as possible backed 1 hour and 15 minutes. I’m very disappointed after reading all the good reviews.
Oh no, I am sorry that happened Maggie. We haven’t had that issue with this recipe however we do pour the sauce over the chicken which could be why. Did you bake it in a 9×13? A smaller but deeper dish can affect the cooking time?
what do i do if the dish turns out to be wetter than expected after cooking it for 1 hr and 15mins?
It should be saucy Eileen, but I haven’t had an issue with it being soupy! If at the hour mark you think it’s too wet, you could try baking uncovered. And it may thicken as it cools
My package of chicken weighs 3.39 lbs. Can I still follow same instructions?
I estimate 6oz per chicken breast so you’d want about 1.5lbs of chicken. This is about double the amount of chicken so I am not sure how it would turn out. If you try it I would love to hear how it turns out!
This was really good!! The only changes I made were: adding about 1/4 cup of spurn cream and mixing all of the ingredients except the chicken in a bowl beforehand. The chicken was a tad dry but I would def make again and cut down a few minutes on cooking time. Thanks for the recipe!
How would you substitute with the gravy packet like your friend used? Thanks!
I would directly substitute the soup mix and follow the recipe as written. If you try it I would love to hear how it turns out Lisa!
Could this be made ahead? I’d like to take it to a friend who’s having surgery tomorrow.
Hi Teresa, I haven’t tried making it ahead. Let us know how it works for you if you do make it ahead.
my chicken breast is not thawed,can I cook from frozen?
We recommend using thawed or fresh chicken breasts but other readers have used frozen. I would plan for additional cooking time to ensure the chicken is fully cooked before serving.
Hi –
Confused about the 1.5 cups of water. Do you just use half of what is listed in the ingredients?
Thanks
You will add the full 1 ½ cups of water to the soup.