This chicken and rice casserole recipe is a one pan meal that’s full of tender chicken and creamy rice, all baked together to golden brown perfection. A classic dinner that the whole family will enjoy.
Casserole recipes always hit the spot, and my family enjoys favorites such as pierogi casserole, King Ranch chicken, chicken enchilada casserole, beef noodle casserole and this creamy chicken and rice dish.
This easy chicken and rice casserole is actually a family recipe that comes from my mother-in-law. It was my husband’s favorite dish growing up, and his mom always made it for company. It’s pretty old school with the canned soups, but sometimes you just need a little classic comfort food, and this casserole definitely fits the bill. How can you go wrong with tender chicken and rice in creamy sauce?
Table of Contents
Chicken And Rice Casserole Ingredients
This dish is made with simple ingredients that are easy to find in any grocery store.
- Chicken Pieces: I find this recipe works best with bone-in, skin-on chicken such as drumsticks and/or chicken thighs. You can also use bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. Boneless chicken does not work as well, as it may dry out before the rice is done cooking.
- Rice: This recipe calls for long grain white rice. It will not set properly with minute rice. If you choose to use brown rice, you’ll need to add more water and possibly increase the cooking time.
- Cream Soup: I use cream of chicken, cream of celery and cream of mushroom soups for maximum flavor. It is ok to use low sodium or light versions of the cream soups. You can also just use one or two types of soup if that’s what you have on hand, so long as it still amounts to three cans.
- Water: This ingredient is to hydrate the rice. I do not recommend substituting chicken broth because you could end up with an overly salty casserole.
- Butter: I add butter to this dish to give it a little richness, it also helps to ensure the chicken will brown nicely.
- Seasonings: The chicken is seasoned with a blend of salt, pepper and paprika.
- Parsley: A little fresh chopped parsley adds extra flavor and a bright color to this dish.
How Do You Make Chicken And Rice Casserole?
Place the rice, water and cans of soup in a casserole dish and stir to combine. Add the chicken pieces on top of the rice, and season the chicken with butter, salt, pepper and paprika. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Uncover and bake a little longer until the rice is tender and the chicken is browned. If you prefer chicken with a crispy skin, you can broil the casserole for a few more minutes. Add a sprinkle of parsley, then serve and enjoy.
Tips For The Perfect Dish
- It’s important to use bone-in, skin-on chicken for the best results. Boneless skinless chicken can get dry during the longer cooking time.
- This dish can be assembled up to 4 hours before you plan to bake it. Store it covered in the refrigerator until you are ready to put it in the oven.
- Leftovers will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. I do not recommend freezing this dish as the rice will change texture when it’s thawed.
- Serve your casserole with a veggie or a salad on the side. Some of my favorites include mandarin orange salad, asparagus salad, mustard greens, sautéed mushrooms and onions and fennel salad.
Quick Tip
Cream soups contain plenty of sodium, so add extra salt to this dish sparingly!
Recipe FAQs
Yes, you can cook raw chicken and rice together. This is best achieved in casserole form, so that the two can cook together in the even heat of the oven, and be done at approximately the same time.
Generally speaking, a chicken casserole will bake at 350 degrees F. For this particular recipe, after the initial baking time, the temperature is increased to 400 degrees F to give the chicken a chance to brown.
In this casserole, the cream soups add all the flavor to the rice. Generally speaking, when making rice, you can amp up the flavor with additions such as broth, sauteed onions, fresh herbs or minced garlic.
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Chicken And Rice Casserole Flavor Variations
You can add other flavors into this dish to make it your own, I often add other ingredients that I have on hand to spice things up a bit.
- Vegetables: Add 1 cup of vegetables such as sliced mushrooms, green beans, carrots or broccoli to the dish before it goes into the oven.
- Cheese: Sprinkle 3/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese over the top during the last 10 minutes of the baking time.
- Herbs: Add extra flavor with additional varieties of herbs such as thyme, dill, green onions or fresh basil.
My husband is thrilled that our kids love this casserole as much as he does. Add a green veggie on the side and you’ve got an easy dinner for those times when nothing will do except comfort food!
More Great Chicken Recipes
Roasted Chicken with Garlic and Herbs
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Cajun Chicken Pasta
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Bacon Wrapped Chicken
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Honey Mustard Chicken
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Chicken Santa Fe
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Chicken And rice casserole video
Love This Recipe?
Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Chicken and Rice Casserole
Ingredients
- 6 bone-in skin-on chicken pieces such as legs, thighs or drumsticks
- 2 cups white rice
- 2 cups water
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1 can cream of celery soup
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon paprika regular or smoked paprika
- 3 tablespoons butter melted
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9″x13″ baking pan with cooking spray.
- Add the rice, water, and 3 cans of soup to the pan. Stir to combine.
- Place the chicken pieces on top of the rice mixture. Drizzle the butter over the chicken and rice.
- Season the chicken with salt, pepper and paprika.
- Cover with foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees.
- Uncover and bake for an additional 20-30 minutes until all of the liquid is absorbed and chicken is browned. If you like extra crispy chicken skin, broil the casserole for 3-5 minutes after it's done baking.
- Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
Notes
- It’s important to use bone-in, skin-on chicken for the best results. Boneless skinless chicken can get dry during the longer cooking time.
- This dish can be assembled up to 4 hours before you plan to bake it. Store it covered in the refrigerator until you are ready to put it in the oven.
- Leftovers will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Look very good
We’re older and just two of us so we eat small portions. I have this in the oven with 1/2 cup of long grain rice, 1 cup home made broth and a ladle of cream of mushroom soup. We cook in a toaster oven due to the small portions. I set the timer for 1 hour. When I check it, I’ll give it a stir and decide if more liquid needs to be added. I’ll then cook uncovered for 30 minutes at 400.
I’ll update my review with the results as I know there are many others out there cooking for just two. I’m confident this will turn out delicious.
Years ago, I used to make this all the time. I had to search for the recipe again. I’m very glad I found this one. It’s perfect. It mixes the soup flavors of chicken, celery, and mushroom. FYI, the instructions say 9″ X 13″ pan. Do not try to use a smaller pan. I did. Big mess. I would definitely take the foil off for the last 30 minutes, to brown the chicken skin a bit.
So I grew up on this dish. My Mom would make this at least 3 to 4 times a month. We all loved it and being a family of 6 it was a cheap and easy meal. So the difference in the recipe you have and what my Mom does was she cuts 3/8 inch thick slabs of onion and layers that on top of the rice and sets all the bone in chicken thighs on it, this reduces the water per your recipe by a 1/4 C (this being due to the amount of water coming out of the onions). It imparts all that onion flavor into the rice and it gives separation so the chicken does not sink into the rice and you get all these sweet and chicken flavored onions as a bonus…
Mom also split the liquids into 1c water and 1c milk and always added canned mushrooms to the soup rice slurry along with broiling the casserole for about 5 minutes to get the thigh skin extra crispy at the end…
This and Aunt Martha’s casserole is and will always be my favorite..
If you would like Aunt Martha’s casserole recipe let me know. It is from a PA Dutch Lutheran Church pot luck that has been passed down forever. It is a layered casserole of sliced potatoes, ground beef, stewed tomatoes, rice , green bean’s and topped with canned diced tomatoes, bread crumbs and cheddar cheese and baked.
beyond phenomenal….
HI, Making your recipe but is it 400 degrees or 350?
It’s 350 degrees f!
I’ve always used skinless chicken breasts and they never dried out. My family only likes chicken breasts so bone in chiclen is out for us. Sometimes we use brown rice I stead of white rice also.The chicken breasts are covered in water and soup and
covered in foil so there’s no reason for the chicken breasts to dry out. You use thighs and they are a moister part if the chicken meat but not everyone like the darker meat. I just wanted to let you know chicken breasts work just fine in this recipe and dont dry out like you said they do. I’ve been making this recipe since the 1970’s and the chicken breasts was all that was recommended in the recipe back then.
Great basic recipe ,we have it regularly.Only thing is we find it a bit bland so I add some onions and a very light sprinkle of curry powder.I know not everyone likes curry but just a touch works great.
Super easy and delicious. Had to mine uncovered about 45 mins but everything tasted so good and chicken didn’t dry out. I used frozen drumsticks
Bone in chicken is better indeed! Perfect balance of flavors
I’m in awe of how easy this chicken and rice casserole comes together. This is a perfect meal on a busy weeknight.
Love this comforting and easy casserole!! Made it for dinner tonight along with some roasted veggies and it was the perfect meal!
So freaking good and simple to make! I love that you used bone-in-skin-on meat. It definitely took this casserole over the top!
The chicken came out PERFECTLY and the creamy rice was soooo good! I will be adding this to my regular recipe rotation for sure.