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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.
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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. 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
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.
- 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!
Recipe Variations – Switch it Up!
What I love about this chicken and rice casserole is that you can swap out ingredients based on what you like or what you have on hand.
- I love peas in my chicken casserole, but you can swap them out, use frozen broccoli instead and call it chicken broccoli and rice casserole. It’s so delicious, too.
- You can adjust the flavor and use cream of potato soup or cream of mushroom soup instead of cream of chicken. That’s an easy way to put a new twist on it every time you make it.
- If you don’t have any leftover cooked chicken just pick up a store-bought rotisserie chicken and shred it. Rotisserie Chicken and Rice is DELISH!
- For the cheese, yellow cheddar is great but you can use white cheddar, too. Or try shredded provolone or Monterey jack cheese – pretty much any cheese that melts well will work.
What makes a Chicken Casserole?
Do you wonder about these things like I do? So, here’s a fun fact: a casserole is a meal where all of the ingredients are cooked in the oven in the same baking dish. There are usually three main parts of a casserole:
- The main ingredient can be pretty much anything like chicken, beef, pork or other type of meat. Or a vegetable like cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms… the list is endless. It can also be a combination of protein and vegetables.
- There’s usually a starch like rice, potatoes, or pasta.
- Casseroles usually have some kind of binder or creamy component, too, like condensed soup, white sauce or gravy that holds everything together.
Of course, there are a million variations and many casseroles have more components than that, but at a very basic level those are the three main parts. Casseroles usually have some kind of topping, too, like breadcrumbs or cheese.
FAQ about this Easy Chicken Rice Casserole
Yes, for my recipe you’ll want to use cooked rice. Since it’s a “leftovers” casserole both the chicken and rice need to be cooked ahead. Then they’re just combined with the other ingredients and baked until hot.
For other recipes, you may not have to cook it first – always read the recipe first to check! Rice that is added to a casserole raw will take 30 to 40 minutes to cook, but that time will vary depending on the other ingredients. For my recipe, there’s not enough liquid for uncooked rice to absorb.
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!
My other favorite casserole recipes:
- Creamy Chicken Pot Pie Casserole
- Pizza Pasta Casserole
- Leftover Turkey Pasta Casserole (use chicken!)
- Chili Tater Tot Casserole
- Cheesy Potato Casserole
- Hashbrown Casserole
- Easy Meatball Casserole Recipe
- All my Dinner Recipes!
Have you made this recipe?
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Chicken and Rice Casserole
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 Video
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!
Last Updated on October 7, 2022
This was really a great tasting recipe. When cooking my rice, I used 1 cup of water to 1 cup of chicken stock to 1 cup of Herb ox chicken bouillon cube. Of course this made way more than 3 cups of cooked rice. So now we have extra. 😋
Anyhoo, I’m giving this recipe 2👍👍’s up. 🥰
Made this tonight. It was delicious! Used pre shredded cheese and it melted great. Will definitely make this again! Baked mine for 35 minutes.
I’ve made this two times now and it came out delicious each time! I haven’t seen cream of chicken soup at my local grocery store but I have used mushroom soup mix with success! I also used mixed frozen veggies because that is what I had on hand. My husband hates casseroles but actually liked this!!
Made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious! I’ve been making a basic one-post chicken and rice recipe for several years and my husband has never gotten excited about having it…🤣 Well not anymore, he went back for seconds! So moist and flavorful! Will definitely be making this again.
Great recipe! To lighten it up a bit, I substituted one cup of rice for cauliflower rice, used reduced fat cheddar, and added sautéed mushrooms. It was a hit!
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