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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I used a glass 9×13 and my rice was perfect in an hour and 15 min. Easy and flavorful. Added in some peas for a veggie. I will make this again.
I followed the recipe exactly except at 75 minutes I removed the cover and gave it another 15 minutes. I have an electric oven and I think its age makes it a little less precise. It came out perfect and looked identical to your photo. It is delicious, comforting, and super easy to throw together. This one is going to make the rotation. Thanks!
I add the rice first, then chicken broth instead of water, and onion soup mix, stir it up until all the rice has been saturated then add seasoned chicken. I’ve found adding the rice this way cooks it more quickly and easily. Very flavorful and delicious
Can you use Minute Rice or Rice a Roni wild rice?
For this recipe we use long grain white rice.
This dish is very salty due to the canned soup and dry soup. Also some of the rice was dry. In order to fix that I suggest mixing the rice soups and water together prior to pouring it over the chicken to make the sauce even and the rice immersed in the sauce.
Thanks for the suggestion, Vicki!
Looks awesome, going to make tonight, anybody add actual mushrooms, maybe mini bella to this at some point in the process?
Sounds great Mark, let us know how it goes!
Tasty, but took waaay longer than what the recipe says. I have a perfectly normal oven, it’s not old and I have 0 issues with it for other dishes. My rice took over TWO HOURS to cook and I had to add more liquid. I could have potential made a mistake, but I have no idea where that mistake would have been made, especially with how simple the recipe is. I highly suggest making this well ahead of dinner and reheating, unless you want to be hungry at 8pm like I was.
Did you use a casserole dish, glass dish, or a metal pan?
Same issue with this recipe taking way too long and I followed the recipe to the letter. I used the glass pan, covered and the exact ingredients. I have a top end oven and have never had issues with other recipes. If anything I have to turn it down for certain recipes as it can be too hot! I have turned the oven up to 340 because It’s been an hour and a half, it wasn’t even bubbling, rice is only beginning to cook and the chicken is nowhere near being done. Hopefully it turns out tasty when it is finally done. Won’t make this again.
I tried the recipe tonight. I used a metal 13×9 pan lined with non-stick aluminum foil. I had the same problem as others with undercooked rice at 1 hour 30 minutes. Using a metal pan may have been the problem, as it appears you used a glass baking (casserole) dish. Otherwise, flavors were great and I would like to make it again.
Horrible, had to cook almost two hours, half the rice did not cook, chicken done but not tender. Who did the supposedly fantastic reviews?
Thanks for trying this recipe, Christine. I am sorry it didn’t turn out as expected for you!
Delicious and easy!!!
some of you guys and gals drive me nuts with your I used s metal pan and it took way longer! She clearly says don’t use z metal pan through rice doesn’t do well! Get it together, people, and start reading the recipe fully if you are going to rate recipes!
Super easy and tasty! I may add some additional veggies next time to make it healthier. Overall a good week night recipe. Thanks!
This turned out great. Very happy with the results for how easy it was! I had 4 very large chicken breasts (1kg total) so I doubled the remainder of the recipe and added some minced garlic, mushrooms and broccoli. Also subbed the water for chicken broth as others mentioned. Will definitely be making again!
The recipe was a hit, but things didn’t go exactly as planned. First, I forgot to buy LONG-grain white rice. So, I used what I had on hand: Arborio Italian-style rice for risotto dishes. The chicken breasts had been marinating in a Italian salad dressing to help keep them moist. I’m not sure if that helped or not. They seemed slightly overcooked, because I thought the rice had too much “tooth” at 1 hr 15 min. So, the additional 10 minutes didn’t really help soften my rice, and it might have overcooked my chicken. I was excited to use the packaged onion soup mix, but the full package was too much for me. I would advise only using half of one packet. You can always add more. I also added 8 oz of sliced Baby Bella mushrooms. THAT, was a good move. I love mushrooms. Two adults had plenty for leftovers, so after dinner, I dumped my “lightly roasted” Brussel sprouts into the casserole dish. I enjoyed the added greens when I continued to crave this casserole for lunch the next two days. I used chicken broth to add more fluid, as needed.
I will definitely be doing this casserole again. It’s very easy. I will cut down on the onion mix, make sure I have the correct rice, and add mushrooms… perhaps twice as much as before! And, I won’t cook over 1 hr and 15 minutes. I can’t wait.
This is a great and easy recipe. I did replace the water with 1/2 cup of extra dry vermouth. Turned out great
I made it how you said and my rice is hard…
Oh no, I am sorry this recipe didn’t turn out as expected!
Made this with brown rice instead and after 1.5 hrs of 350 oven and rice is still rock hard.
Brown rice is not the same as white rice, it requires extra liquid and extra cooking time.
How long should I add to the cooking time and how much extra liquid, for brown rice?
Kristen, I would not recommend making this recipe with brown rice. If you do use brown rice, I would suggest precooking it partially or completely.
This recipe is easy and delicious. It has the perfect amount of spice. I will definitely make it again!
Easy recipe and very filling. Super simple to add a few veggies, use chicken broth instead of water, and add a little butter on top to make it more flavorful. I did cook covered for almost 90 min. Family loved it.
Easily adapted to low sodium with homemade soup mix recipe and so quick to prepare for the oven. A new “go to” as it is as delicious as it is easy!
I really wanted this recipe to be successful bc it looked easy, tasty, and quick for last minute meals. I read the reviews, noted concerns with rice, and compared to other similar recipes. I chose to increase temp to 350 and used medium grain Nishiki brand rice (the best!). After 1hr 15 min with tight foil and lid covered dish the rice was hard as a rock. I increased temp to 400, cooked for another 20 minutes and all was good. I did use chicken broth vs water, chicken breasts cut into about 2″ cubes marinated in EVOO, wine, and aminos resulting in a bit saltier than we like, but still very tasty. I will not use both marinated chicken and dehydrated onion soup in the future. Very curious why so many had problems with the rice?!