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
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 had cream of chicken in my cabinet, so I tried it with that. Sooooo, my husband, who HATES rice…said…He Could Eat This Meal At Least 3x Per Week! It was amazing! Thank you for the recipe!
Thank you Lisa, I’m so glad that your husband (and you!) loved this casserole! We love it too.
I used a can of coconut milk instead of cream of mushroom and my daughters thought I had added cheese. They also didn’t notice it was brown rice. So yummy!
Yum!
I am so glad you mentioned using cream of chicken soup as I have 2 boys who dislike mushrooms…I know, right? They must be aliens :)
Tried this tonight! Rice was amazing but the chicken was a bit dry. Any suggestions? Thank you!
Sorry to hear it was dry. I have made this many times and it worked for me. Other readers suggested using larger chicken breasts. Hope it works for you!
I’ve been making this for years and absolutely LOVE it. We always called it “Ugly Chicken” because it is definitely not the prettiest dish you’ll ever see LOL
HOWEVER, I found that using Instant rice instead of long-grain regular ensures that the rice is completely done.
Also, I use milk instead of water with the soup which seems to make it much creamier (I tried it with water and preferred the milk)
AND, I also cover it with aluminum foil while it’s baking.
Thank you so much for your great tips Cindy! LOL, I love your and and I agree, it’s not the prettiest … a sprinkle of parsley fixed it :P
Hi Cindy,
I am going to try this recipe over the weekend. You said that you used milk instead of water. How much milk did you use?
Thank you
Hi Penny I have made this receipe before its fabulous one question. How can I double the rice? How much extra soup and water can be added to make 2 cups of rice instead of 1?
I have only made the recipe as written. To double the rice, you may want to do a separate dish with a second recipe of the rice.
what temp do you bake at?
We bake this at 325F
I actually made this again and i doubled the liquid. I did use a bigger baking dish cooked it at 350 for about 1hour and like 30min. I did use chicken strips of whole. Breasts and it was perfect. I was scared that the rice was not going to cook through but it was perfect. And had extra juice. My family loves this recipe
Thank you for sharing Erika. So glad your family loves this recipe as much as mine does!
Great and simple casserole. Thanks for sharing this.
I was wondering if anyone has tried this using cauliflower instead of rice? I can’t have the rice but this looks delicious.
I haven’t tried it but if you do, I’d suggest eliminating most or all of the water. The rice soaks up the water and cauliflower may produce a little bit of liquid as well. I would think you may want to use approximately 3 cups of cauliflower rice. If you use cauliflower rice, please let us know how it works out for you!
Loved it. Made it by the recipe the first time. With broccoli and mushrooms. The second time, I had all of the ingredients except the condensed soup so I improvised with 2c. chicken broth+ 1c. Greek yogurt+ Italian seasoning (no extra water) and I loved it even more. Thanks for sharing!
Great changes Kirsten! Thank you for sharing and so glad to know you loved the casserole.
This has to be the best chicken & rice cassrole I have ever tasted. My honey went back for seconds, telling me do not lose this recipe. This will be put in my recipe book for future use. (He said it was better than his Mom’s!!)
It MUST be great if it’s better than Mom’s! So glad you both loved it!
I’m so sad! I put this together per the directions, I did add mushrooms and peas… and it was not done after 1 hour 25 minutes, put it back in for 20 more and still not done. I’m doing another 30, but at this point it’s too late for dinner tonight :( I am really looking forward to it though…
Oh no, how disappointing, I can’t say for sure why this didn’t work out for you. :( Did you add the full amount of water? Was your pan sealed very well? What type of rice did you use?
when i made this my family raved so much about the rice they wanted me to make more of it next time. if i made another pan and used all the ingredients, amounts,cooking time etc from the recipe without the chicken breasts would that work to give me a seperate pan of the same rice as it comes out in the original recipe?
I haven’t tried it, but think that would work Jonny. Let us know if you try it!
I have not made this yet – I am making it tonight.
I would think it might not be as flavorful without the juices from the chicken. I would do it as you stated – 2 separate pans and all the same ingredients but I would put 2 of the chicken breasts in each pan so the juices from the chicken can flavor the rice also.
I made this for my beef-loving family and am relieved to have a new chicken dish to add to our recipe repertoire.
One question: when using condensed cream soup, do you add water to the soup plus 1 1/2 cups of additional water, or just the thick condensed soup and the 1 1/2 cups of water? (It came out a little less creamy than I hoped, but it is a very forgiving recipe.)
You use only the 1½ cups water listed in the recipe. Glad you enjoyed it!
I am trying this recipe for the first time tonight. But I was not sure whether the recipe called for an ordinary can of cream of mushroom soup or the condensed variety. Based on these comments here, it seems that the original author does intend for condensed soup to be used. Can you please make that clear in the list of ingredients above? Thanks so much!
I do use condensed soup for this recipe. I have updated the recipe.
What is the green it isn’t garnished with?
I added a little bit of parsley as garnish, mostly for color. :)
Do you think using 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth instead of water is a good idea? I’ll be making it for the first time tomorrow. Thanks!
I have only tried the recipe as written, but I am sure it would add some flavor! Let me know how it turns out!
Renee, I was thinking of using chicken broth too. How did it turn out?
Thanks,
Kat
I am making this now and I used chicken broth and onion and garlic powder and Italian seasoning because I didn’t have the onion soup like I thought I did.
I made this completely as is and it came out amazing! the whole family raved it was so delicious and so easy! I also made the blueberry cobbler for dessert and it also was to die for thanks so much! these are both in my regular rotation now and im sure more from this site will be, love it!!
I am so glad everyone loved it!
If I want to just make 2 chicken breasts, should I use half the ingredients and a smaller dish? Or still 9×13 and same cooking time?
I haven’t tried it but think it would work. I would suggest a smaller pan and no adjustment to the cooking time. Let us know how it works out for you!
Hi there! Love this recipe, have made it many times! If I were to try this with brown rice instead, do I up the cooking time or temp?
I’m sure it would work however I’ve only tried this with white rice. Please let us know how it works out for you if you tried it!
Is frozen chicken breast ok? Or should it be thawed??
I’ve only tried this with thawed.
My family love’s it and it’s easy and fast
That’s awesome Beth!
OMG this was so good, oh so tender breasts of chicken. This was the first meal I have cooked in so long, my brother was here and he loved it. Thanks so much, I must sign off as I am so full I should feel ashamed.
I’m so happy to hear that you and your brother loved this casserole!
Hi Holly! We tried this tonight, and it was awesome! The only change I made was that I used 4 bone-in thighs instead of 4 breasts. You were right about the timing; I did 1 hour and 15 minutes and the rice was still a little bit chewy, so I put it back in for another 10 minutes and then the rice was perfect and the thighs were almost falling apart and they were really tender and full of flavor. Everyone loved it, so I’ll be making this again for sure!
I’m so glad your family loved this as much as mine does!