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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Delicious – so easy!!!! I put some frozen broccoli in and it was amazing
I loved the ingredients used for this recipe. only thing I did different was instead of breast, I used chicken thighs. I also used a metal baking dish and I doubled everything to feed our large family. I had issues with baking at 325 degrees because rice and chicken was not cooked at all. Wasn’t sure what I did wrong. So I bumped up the oven to 350 degrees for the hour and 15 minutes and the chicken was falling off the bone juicy and rice was cooked and fluffy. My husband who is not a cream of anything fan, didn’t even notice that I used cream of mushroom. He ate two plates! Even our picky toddler ate the whole plate and asked for more rice. The only reason I gave this dish a 4 star instead of 5 stars is because the temperature didn’t work out so well for us but we were able to save it with bumping up the oven and cooking it at the suggested time. The flavors were amazing! Thank you
I love this easy, flavorful casserole. To make sure my rice cooked I :
– Used a glass cooking dish as suggested-NO METAL PANS
– Soaked my rice for 30 minutes in water then drained and added to recipe
– Since I wanted to add some frozen broccoli I cooked it halfway done before adding-
(don’t add frozen vegetables or cold ingredients)
Turned out perfect, thanks for an easy version of this classic dish!
I’m not one for a lot ingredients & I have to say with only four ingredients it was delicious. The chicken was moist and the rice was cook with purfection. It was the first time in doing a casserole, & have left overs for another day or two. I will definitely make it again.
Love your site! It’s a go-to for me.
I noticed the x2 and x3 recipes don’t accommodate for an increase in the soup or the onion soup mix packets. I’m guessing just x2 and x3 for those also???
The total ounces increases however the light grey writing sadly doesn’t. Yes, you’ll need to x2 or x3 for those as well.
Chicken was good but rice was not cooked all the way like others mentioned. I was really disappointed about that. I even cooked in 350F for 1 hour and 25 minutes. Maybe use cooked rice next time.
So sorry this recipe didn’t turn out as expected for you, Asami!
Thank you for sharing! It was a hit, and so easy to put together!
Baked this at the recommended temp for 10 minutes longer than noted. Still ended up with undercooked rice and chicken.
The flavor was good because there’s lots of room to add spice or veggies. But I would not recommend at this temp. I had to rebake because everything was so undercooked.
Giving it 1 star is too much. Followed recipe as directed and ended up with cream of mushroom soup with uncooked rice over chicken. The pictures posted are misleading. Rice was still not cooked after 1 hour and 20 minutes. I can respect oven cook times may vary, but my oven is accurate. My opinion, don’t make it. You’ll be disappointed.☹️
I’m sorry this didn’t work out for you Michael, I’ve made this countless times and have not experienced the same issue. The photos are not misleading as they’re photos of this dish exactly as written.
I have had some other readers with a similar issue although it works perfectly for most and I cannot recreate the problem to troubleshoot. It’s certainly disappointing when a recipe doesn’t turn out as expected—and I’ll continue to try to figure out why it didn’t work for you.
We make this recipe regularly because of how easy and tasty it is! We make just as the recipe says and works perfectly every time.
Tonight I’m using already cooked & shredded rotisserie chicken, because it’s what I have on hand. I’ll be curious if it still turns out!
Putting the rice on top of the chicken instead of covered with soup caused it not to be cooked. I had to take the chicken out and cook the rice longer.
Okay, but nothing special.
Thanks for trying our recipe, Jeanne! So sorry this recipe didn’t turn out as expected for you.
Do i brown the chicken before i bake?
I do not brown the chicken first.
I bet they both used frozen breasts and didn’t preheat their ovens
Made this tonight for the first time. Followed directions explicitly. One hour and 15 minutes, came out of the oven soupy and the rice was still hard as it was when it went in the oven. Flavor seems to be OK. Doubt I will make this again. I had to take the chicken out and cook the rice on the stove with the soup otherwise the chicken would be super dried out. Not happy about this one.
So sorry to hear that, Karen! Thank you for trying our recipe.
Used this recipe for meal prep and it went very well. Cooked green beans on the side to have some veggies. I needed something easy and hands-off with minimal dishes that I could do in the morning before work as I work nights and this fit the bill. I found that the listed cooking time worked fine for me, in fact I cooked it a little longer because I was nervous about the rice looking soupy but I should’ve had faith in how things would firm up! Had a little extra rice left over after it was doled into four portions, so I put that to the side and plan to slap an over-easy egg on top for a simple breakfast some morning. Thanks.
So glad this recipe worked well for you, Ariella!
Has anyone done this with wild rice yet?
I use this casserole with wild rice.
Wow! So I just made this casserole dish tonight and its just delicious! I did 2 cups of rice though and used Chicken Broth instead of water for flavour! I got a ‘thumbs up’ from my mom so will definitely make this again!
Do you rinse the rice first?
I do not rinse the rice.
This was a hit! I made it for my son and husband and they ate almost every bite. They also said we should add it to our regular rotation! Win!! Thank you for such a simple, inexpensive, delicious recipe!!!
I will bet that that recipe would be just as good with pork chops! I’ve had the chicken and it was delicious… Now for the pork chops! Thank you for the recipe…
I have never tried it with pork chops but would love to hear how it turns out for you!
I am making this for the second time! My husband loves it :)
Holly
The Chicken Thighs with mushrooms was a great hit. I’m 89 yrs old and hope to live long enough to make it often.
Thanks for sharing.
So glad you enjoyed it, Joy!
The dish is very tasty. The chicken cooked perfectly (I had no chicken breasts on hand and used skinless boneless chx thighs instead. I only gave it 3 stars because the rice was hard at 75 minutes cooking. I added some boiling water and cooked longer. Rice was still chewy but ok.