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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Can you make this recipe with boxed rice pilaf and its seasoning packet???
I haven’t tried it with boxed pilaf so I can’t say for sure.
Do you bake this uncovered? Thanks!
This should be sealed tightly with foil (step 5). Enjoy!
there are a lot of green flakes in your “4 ingredient” dish..,
Those are little bits of chopper parsley for garnish, which is completely optional but a nice touch if you like. Enjoy Kurtis!
I made this and it had to cook over 2 hrs. I watched the video and did exactly what you did. The rice around the edges of the chicken in my casserole dish cooked in an hour and 20 minutes but the rice that was on top of the chicken and in the middle took forever to cook. We haven’t eaten it yet and we ended up doing something else for dinner and I’m cooking it to have it the next day. I hope it’s good, just cooking uneven.
Love it! I made a few changes due to preferences. I only used 2 chicken breasts because ours were on the large side & I cut them in half. I doubled the rice (we like a lot of rice) & increased the liquid ingredients because of the extra rice. Came out yummy! 2 year old loved it.
Very good recipe! I will definitely make again.
Followed the recipe. Onion soup never integrated. Meh. Double meh
This has truly become a staple dinner at my house. It is so easy, so fast and SO delicious! I am asked to please make it all the time. I have only used chicken thighs so far, but maybe next time will try half thighs, half breasts, just to mix it up a bit!
Can you substitute chicken thighs instead of the chicken breasts?
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!
This was good! I subbed unsalted beef broth for the water and used her homemade onion soup seasoning. And used shredded rotisserie chicken since it was on the dry side and I know the sauce would give it some moisture. I would use another can of cream of chicken soup next time for extra creaminess (my preference) and a little less of the onion soup base to balance out the salt. Very simple and crowd pleasing recipe and my husband enjoyed it!
Did you use less cook time because of the rotisserie chicken?
To prevent the chicken from drying out I would add it towards the last 20 minutes to let it heat through without overcooking.
Forgive me I am new to cooking, but is there anything special I need to do to prepare the chicken before putting it into the casserole dish?
Thank you!
Jessica the breasts can be placed in the dish directly. Just make they are thawed.
Can you pre make this dish a few hours before baking??
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.