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.
4 Ingredient Chicken & Rice Casserole
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts
- 1 cup long grain white rice uncooked
- 1 ½ cups water
- 1 package onion soup mix or use homemade
- 10 ounces cream of mushroom soup condensed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Spray 9×13 pan with cooking spray. 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.
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Been making a version of this for many years. Do you use boneless chicken, if so, how do you keep it from drying out?
Hi Victoria, I do use boneless skinless chicken breasts and have not had an issue with them drying out.
Can you use cream of chicken soup instead?
Absolutely! Any cream of soup should work just fine!
Great longstanding recipes. Easy and affordable!
I made your “4 Ingredient Chicken Rice Casserole), and all five of us loved it. I did add two things. I took my nine cups of rice and sautéed it in butter until a little brown and added a can of chicken soup. Two of our grandchildren are very finicky about what they eat, but one came back for seconds. I’m 75 years old, and I still love to make tasty meals for my gang.
Thanks so much for posting your recipes. I’m sure I’ll try more of them.
I am so happy to hear this recipe was a hit Steve!
Made this tonight with the only changes being an extra half cup of water, a bit of dried garlic and Italian seasoning, and some frozen broccoli. Delicious and simple. Mine took about 1h20m and fed 2 adults and 4 kids!
Came out delicious! Some things to remember. Use a large casserole dish, about a 13 x 8. Smaller baking dishes may allow the soup/water mixture to be to “deep” and take longer for the rice to cook. The larger baking dish allows for the soup/water mixture to be more shallow and heats and cooks the LONG grain rice much more quickly. It is also VERY IMPORTANT to wrap the baking dish very tightly with heavy duty aluminum foil. Regular aluminum foil is too thin. I baked mine at 350 degrees for 80 minutes in a PREHEATED oven. If these important steps are not taken the casserole may not cook correctly, like undercooked rice. Hope these suggestions help.
Thank you for sharing your tips David!
I made this the first time and it was great. I added cheese to it the second time. I’m hoping it comes out just as good.
I made this again. It is my husband’s favorite. So easy and delicious. I use chicken broth instead of water but otherwise make as written. For dessert I made your zucchini bread. Fantastic meal! Thanks
Do you rinse the rice prior to cooking?
No I don’t rinse the rice. Enjoy Joy!
This recipe was absolutely delicious!!
You need to make sure that you cover it tightly so the steam doesn’t evaporate.
I used boneless pork chops that were extra thick. I did add onions, and fresh broccoli.
Served with fresh, crusty, garlic bread!!!
Much too salty. Would reduce the onion soup to 1/2 pack. Not my favorite
Made the recipe as listed but whisking the dry onion soup mix in with the cream of mushroom soup and water then poured over the chicken breast and rice. Covered and baked perfectly but the chicken breast was really dry. I tried the recipe again with boneless chicken thighs…that’s it right there. Perfect juicy chicken. Delicious!
Pro tip: Marinate your raw chicken with a garlicky and/or citrusy marinade for at least 12 hours before putting in the casserole dish.
dry. followed recipe exactly except added a bit of chopped onion and a few frozen peas.i found it ok but really dry.
Can you use frozen chicken breast?
We recommend using thawed or fresh chicken breasts but other readers have used frozen. I would plan for additional cooking time to ensure the chicken is fully cooked before serving.
This was super yummy! The only thing I changed was I added a bag of frozen broccoli to it to round the meal out.
To those saying the rice was crunchy: make sure you cover TIGHTLY with foil. You want to trap the steam inside to cook the rice. If it’s still not done, pop it back in for 5-10 mins at a time. In all, mine took about 1 hour 35 minutes to fully cook the rice. Don’t worry about drying the chicken out because it won’t. That’s the wonderful thing about cooking it in liquids!
I wonder if you could do this with minute rice. My chicken dried out before the rice was done. It was a flop.
Hi Melisa, other readers have made it with minute rice and seem to have good results. I have not tried it with minute rice though and I worry that the rice will become overcooked and mushy before the chicken finishes cooking. If you try it I would love to hear how it turns out!
Everyone’s a chef according to the internet, just another recipe that didn’t work out. Rice was not done even after the time dictated by the recipe. Had to put it back in the oven for 20 minutes while 5 adults waited patiently.
Hopefully after the additional 20 minutes you enjoyed the recipe Joe!
5. Cover and bake 1 hour 15 minutes or until rice is tender.
Step 5 does indicate that you will need to bake until the rice is tender, this can sometimes take longer depending on your oven or even the material of your baking pan. Hope that helps!
I followed the recipe exactly, and the casserole was perfect. The people whose rice is uncooked after 75 minutes are not covering the pan completely with foil. The instructions say “Cover and bake …”, but they must not be doing that, so a lot of the water is evaporating from the open pan instead of steaming the rice.
This turned out really good!!! I used basmati rice with mine. My family really enjoyed it and it was super easy to throw together!!!
I’m trying the chicken and rice casserole as we speak. So as soon as it gets done I will let you know