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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
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!
Favorite Casserole Recipes
Last Updated on February 12, 2024
So good. I fried up an onion and a few mushrooms in butter, then added 1/2 cup white wine and simmered for a few minutes. Mixed it in with the other ingredients. Delicious!!
Hi,
It looks amazing! I’m making it tonight and it’s just me & my husband. Of course we’ll have leftovers, but hoping not to have too many leftovers. Is it possible to follow this exactly recipe/quantities and use a smaller dish (8”x11” instead of 9”x13”)??
Thanks!
You can definitely just half the recipe!
Best dish ever. Bonus no shopping it cleaned out the pantry, freezer, and fridge. I used leftover fried chicken (removed the skin). Then one 8.8 oz pre-cooked uncle Ben’s (ready in 90 seconds) rice, roasted chicken flavor. One bag 10.8 oz Birds Eye cheesy broccoli. One 10.5 can cream of mushroom, one can 10.5 cream of chicken. My family ate all of it no leftovers for work lunches. But definitely now in the work week meal rotation! Fast, easy, delicious, and cleaned out the back stock! Thank you for the suggestion recipe and all the ideas for substitutes! We give it a 100 stars!
This was just the type of recipe i was looking for to make for dinner tonight. It was super easy and even my husband gives it 5- stars! I did make a couple of modifications. Since I only had a box of Rice-a-Roni, I prepared that as directed which added a little extra flavor. I also added a couple of green onion ends to the mix. During the last 10 minutes of cooking, I topped with the 2nd cup of cheese and sprinkled crushed potato chips over the cheese for a little crunch. Delicious.
After a crazy day this dinner came together fast and easy with all ingredients we had in house and was delicious
Do the frozen peas need to be thawed
and cooked if baking the casserole a few days after preparing?
They can be – you can assemble the entire casserole and refrigerate for up to a day before baking.
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