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This chicken and rice casserole is the ultimate comfort food!This is the best chicken and rice recipe because it’s easy to make with simple ingredients that you can switch up depending on your tastes.
This is a cozy comfort food dinner that is always a hit when I make it.
Why We LOVE This Recipe
This chicken rice casserole is one of my family’s favorite dinners. It’s comforting, cozy, and hearty with all of the flavors of a classic chicken and rice casserole: tender chicken, rice, a creamy sauce, and lots of vegetables and cheese. It’s so easy you can make it on a weeknight!
It’s what I consider a “leftover” recipe because I use leftover chicken and rice to make it. I love repurposing our leftovers into brand new dishes so whenever I have left over cooked chicken or a rotisserie chicken from the store, this is the recipe I make. All you have to do is combine the leftovers with a few more ingredients, pop it in a baking dish and bake the casserole until it’s bubbly and hot.
Ingredients for Chicken and Rice Casserole
- Chicken: you’ll want to use shredded (or cubed) already cooked chicken
- Cooked rice: learn how I make brown rice in the instant pot
- Cream of chicken soup: but you can also use cream of mushroom
- Spices: Salt and pepper, smoked paprika, onion and garlic powder
- Frozen Vegetables: I used peas but you could use a mixed vegetable or green beans
- Shredded cheese: I love using cheddar. Be sure to shred it yourself so it melts better.
How to make Chicken and Rice Casserole
- Add the chicken, soup and spices to a large bowl.
- Add the peas and some of the cheddar, then stir it all together.
- Spread the mixture in a 9×13-inch casserole dish that’s been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
- Sprinkle the reserved cheese over the top.
- Bake the casserole for 20 to 30 minutes at 350°F or until it’s hot.
Doesn’t get any easier than that!
How to Use Raw Chicken
If you only have uncooked chicken, you’ll need to cook it before adding it to the recipe. Here are some tips/ways to cook it:
- You can use chicken breasts or chicken thighs (boneless or bone in, but time for cooking will be different).
- Thaw chicken if frozen.
- Cook boneless chicken in crockpot with herbs for about 2-3 hours or until it reaches 165°F.
- Put your chicken in the air fryer and cook at 380°F until cooked through (time dependent on thickness and bones, etc).
- Make instant pot shredded chicken or oven baked chicken breasts.
Tip From Dorothy
Expert Tips
- This recipe is a cooked rice casserole – so be sure to precook your white rice or brown rice, either long or short grain, or minute rice, prior to adding it to your casserole.
- To keep the casserole warm, cover it with aluminum foil. You can also do this during baking if the cheese melts too quickly.
- Store leftover in an airtight container. Casserole can also be placed in the freezer for up to a month. Reheat in oven or microwave.
FAQ about this Easy Chicken Rice Casserole
It depends on the recipe! For my chicken and rice casserole you will want to use cooked chicken. It’s my favorite way to use up leftover chicken.
This really is the easiest comfort food dinner! It’s great for weeknights or anytime you have a craving for a cheesy chicken casserole.
Yes you can substitute any frozen vegetable – broccoli is great!
Chicken and Rice Casserole
Recipe Video
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked chicken shredded or cubed
- 3 cups cooked rice
- 21 ounces cream of chicken soup (2 10.5 ounce cans) (may substitute cream of potato or mushroom)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon ground onion powder
- ½ teaspoon ground garlic powder
- 2 cups frozen peas
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Stir together chicken, rice, soup, spices, peas and 1 cup shredded cheese in a large bowl. Spread in a 9×13-inch casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.
- Bake until hot all the way through, about 20-30 minutes.
Recipe Nutrition
Easy Chicken and Rice Casserole is a cheesy, creamy baked casserole with condensed soup, peas and chicken. Use rotisserie chicken to make it super easy – and substitute broccoli if you like!
SO good!! It was a nice easy dish to use the oven on this chilly day! I just mixed everything except the meat in the 9×13 pan. Since I didn’t have enough leftover chicken, I mixed one side of the casserole pan with the chicken and 1/2 with 2 cans of tuna (in water). It turned out GREAT! Me & hubby ate almost all, with enough leftover for our lunch on Monday.
Made it. Delish!! Hit with the fam too! Thanks 😊
I happened to have all the ingredients on hand, so making it now using leftover chicken from last night. For the 3 cups of rice I used 1 cup dry cooked in 2 cups water. I hope I did that right… Looking forward to this!
Very tasty! I adapted a bit using what I had on hand, frozen broccoli, cauliflower, carrot mix cut in smaller pieces. I used 1/2 cup less rice and added 1/2 cup half and half because I like it a little more saucy than dry. Last I added 3/4 cup Frenchs french fried onions on top of the cheese before baking. It really took it over the top with that little bit of crunch. Great recipe! Thank you for sharing it!
What kind of rice works best with this meal? Sticky rice? Basmati? I’m sure either will work but I’m wondering if one is better than another.
Usually we use long grain.
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