My mom made this recipe about once a week, and I loved it every time. It's so simple, but just so comforting. Old Fashioned Chicken and Rice Bake. Whether you're new to cooking or just don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. This is a recipe that you'll go to often.
Quick Look: Old Fashioned Chicken and Rice Casserole
- ⏱ Prep Time: 10 minutes
- 🔥 Cook Time: 1 hr 15 minutes
- 🍽️ Servings: 8 servings
- ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe: One-pot casserole dishes with chicken are effortless and use only a few ingredients. Perfect for busy weeknights.
- 🍪 Main Ingredients: rice, chicken, cream of mushroom soup (homemade or canned)
- 👌 Difficulty: Easy
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Jump to:
- Quick Look: Old Fashioned Chicken and Rice Casserole
- 👩🍳 Why This Cream of Mushroom Chicken and Rice Bake Works
- Chicken Rice Veggie Casserole
- 🧑🍳 Key Ingredients
- 🍲 Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup Recipe
- How to Store Chicken and Rice Baked with Cream
- Cream of Mushroom with Chicken and Rice FAQ
- Substitutions
- How to Make this Cream of Mushroom with Chicken and Rice Bake
- Expert Tips:
- More creamy comfort food classics
- Old Fashioned Chicken and Rice Casserole
If you like easy chicken recipes, you'll love my Chicken Pot Pie with cream of mushroom soup, 3 ingredient
👩🍳 Why This Cream of Mushroom Chicken and Rice Bake Works
This savory chicken and rice casserole turns uncooked rice into fluffy, creamy rice as it soaks up the sauce while the chicken cooks through.
✅ Uncooked Chicken - usually boneless breasts or thighs nestled right in the dish.
✅ Uncooked long-grain white rice - the rice cooks in the oven, absorbing the liquid and flavor as it bakes.
✅ Creamy sauce - made from cream of mushroom soup (or you can swap in cream of chicken soup). This creates a rich, comfort food texture.
✅ Easy to customize by adding vegetables like frozen green beans or broccoli straight to the bake.
Chicken Rice Veggie Casserole
And if you want Chicken and Rice with vegetables, no problem! The frozen or fresh green beans or broccoli will cook right in the casserole! Woohoo!
🧑🍳 Key Ingredients
- Chicken - Use uncooked chicken breast or chicken tenders, or thighs. Bone-in or Boneless. Skin or skinless chicken works in this recipe.
- Rice - This recipe calls for white rice. If you'd like to use brown rice, you will need to increase the water by ⅓ of a cup and increase the cooking time to 75-90 minutes.
- Lipton Soup Mix: Packed with favorite flavor and very little effort.
- Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup- A classic ingredient in cream of mushroom with chicken and rice, this creamy staple coats the chicken and rice for that signature comfort-food texture. You can swap in cream of chicken soup. If you'd like to make your own cream of mushroom soup, see below.
🍲 Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup Recipe
If you prefer homemade over canned, make your own version in about 10 minutes using butter, flour, chicken broth, milk, and simple seasonings. It thickens as it gently simmers (about 5-7 minutes) and equals two cans. Store for up to a week or freeze for later.
Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup Ingredients
- 4 Tablespoons Butter
- ½ cup + 2 Tablespoons Flour
- 2 cups Chicken Broth
- 1 chicken bouillon cube, or 1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon. (Optional- see notes.)
- 1 cup milk, preferably whole but any kind work
- ⅓ teaspoon celery salt
- ⅓ teaspoon onion powder
- ⅓ teaspoon garlic powder
- ⅓ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ teaspoon pepper
NOTE: if making cream of chicken add in a cup of finely chopped chicken
Instructions
- Melt the butter over medium heat.
- Stir in the flour to make a roux and cook for a minute or two to eliminate the raw flour taste.
- Gradually add the chicken broth and milk, whisking continuously to avoid lumps.
- Simmer the mixture until it thickens to a creamy consistency. Season with the rest of the ingredients. It will take about 5-7 minutes or so to thicken up.
IMPORTANT TIP: Let the soup heat up slowly. As it warms, it thickens. Skipping this step makes it thin. It takes about 5-7 minutes to get thicker. It doesn't happen instantly; it needs time to heat up.
* 1 batch= two (10.5 oz.) cans of soup
* Store in an airtight container and for a 1 week or freeze for up to 4 months.
Dairy Free Cream of Mushroom or Chicken soup: Use the recipe above, but substitute the milk or cream for your dairy-free milk of choice.
Use this homemade cream of mushroom soup recipe or canned as the base for other dishes, too. Whether it's:
- My Easy Chicken Pot Pie
- Old Fashioned Chicken, Rice and Cheese Casserole
- Cream of mushroom chicken & rice bake
How to Store Chicken and Rice Baked with Cream
- Let the casserole cool, then cover tightly or transfer to an airtight container. Store in the fridge for 3-4 days. If it dries out when reheating, add a splash of chicken broth or water to bring back the moisture.
- Freezing: Cool completely, then put into single servings for easy reheating. Store in airtight freezer-safe containers with cling wrap over the rice or freezer bags work well if you remove the air before freezing. Best used within 2-3 months.
Cream of Mushroom with Chicken and Rice FAQ
No need to precook the rice because it will cook in the oven as it absorbs the rich flavors of the chicken, cream of mushroom soup, and stock or water.
If you're not a fan of mushrooms, use Cream of Chicken Soup or homemade Cream of Chicken soup.
Make sure there's enough liquid (broth + soup), cover tightly while baking. The rice should absorb the creamy mixture and stay tender. If it's too dry at the end, add ⅛th cup of water, cover tightly, and continue to cook for another 10 minutes.
If it doesn't seem done yet, it likely just needs more time - continue cooking in 15-minute increments. Drizzle on ⅛ cup of additional liquid if it looks dry. Avoid opening the oven door too often, as that releases heat and extends cooking time. And make sure the foil is sealed tightly so the casserole stays moist and cooks evenly.
Make Ahead: You can assemble the casserole (without baking) and store it covered in the fridge for 1-2 days.
Freezing Unbaked: Assemble the ingredients in a freezer-safe dish, cover with plastic wrap and foil, and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake directly from frozen, adding an extra 10-15 minutes to the cooking time.
Substitutions
- Cream of Mushroom Soup: Substitute substitute cream of chicken or homemade cream of chicken or mushroom soup shown above.
- Chicken Breasts: Substitute Chicken thighs.
- Veggie chicken and rice bake: frozen vegetables before baking.
How to Make this Cream of Mushroom with Chicken and Rice Bake
- Preheat and Prep
Preheat oven to 350°F. combine rice, cream of mushroom soup and water.
- Stir and Add
Stir the mixture together and add your chicken.
- Season
Add the Lipton onion soup mix and paper if desired.
- Cover Tightly & Bake
Cover tightly with foil and bake until rice is tender.
- Uncover and check for doneness.
Serve
Expert Tips:
If I'm serving this for a get-together, and I want to look extra special, I sprinkle the top of the chicken with a bit of paprika before to give it a nice color. I also saved some of the Lipton soup mix to sprinkle directly on top of the chicken. And garnish it with fresh parsley, if desired.
If you make this Chicken and Rice Casserole, I'd love to know what variation you tried! Leave a comment below or tag me on Instagram @Lauren_Lane_Culinarian - I always reshare your creations.
Old Fashioned Chicken and Rice Casserole
Equipment
- Dutch Oven
Ingredients
- 1 cup long grain white rice uncooked
- 1 ½ cups water
- 10 ounces cream of mushroom soup condensed or use Cream of chicken
- 4 boneless chicken breasts
- 1 package Lipton onion soup mix
- Optional: ½ large bag frozen green beans or broccoli the amount is really prefrence
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Spray 9×13 pan with cooking spray
- Add uncooked rice
- Combine mushroom soup and 1 ½ cups of water. Pour over rice and stir
- Add chicken breasts and season with salt & pepper
- Add veggies if using
- Sprinkle with onion soup mix.
- Cover tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until the rice is tender. If it's not cooked through- add a bit more water and cook a bit longer. (Avoid opening the oven to peek as it takes longer to reheat and adds cooking time.)
Notes
- Be sure the foil is on tight so the rice cooks through.
- How to Store Chicken and Rice Baked with Cream Let the casserole cool, then cover tightly or transfer to an airtight container. Store in the fridge for 3-4 days. If it dries out when reheating, add a splash of chicken broth or water to bring back the moisture.
- Freezing: Cool completely, then put into single servings for easy reheating. Store in airtight freezer-safe containers with cling wrap over the rice or freezer bags work well if you remove the air before freezing. Best used within 2-3 months.
Gina H. says
Love this recipe! My mom always made this as well, and I loved it with cream of chicken as well as cream of celery (my mom's favorite Campbell's cream soup).
Bonnie Phoenix says
LLB! I will give this a try this weekend. I’m sure your Mom served this up when I was there 😀 But curious how you get the toasted brown chicken in the photo. Do you take the foil off after the rice is done?
Lauren Lane says
I actually didn't brown the chicken, I sprinkled a little more of the Lipton onion soup mix on top of the chicken and also sprinkled it with paprika to give it that nice pretty color. Little food styling trick there!
Keli says
How can I find the recipe for the chicken and rice, as this one is showing black eyed pea soup with sausage. Something got mixed up on the website. Thank you.
Lauren Lane says
I'm so sorry- it's fixed now. I hope you love it!
Dorothy says
Can I use rotisserie chicken instead
Lauren Lane says
Sure! I haven't tried it, but don't see why it wouldn't work.
Lauren Lane says
Yes! That should work fine.
Mark says
I tried this recipe with brown rice. I cooked it 1hr 35 minutes. The rice wasn't completely done but I was hungry so I ate it anyway. Other than the rice being under cooked it tasted good. Oh yeah for 2x I had to use a 11×13 inch dish.
Mark M says
I fixed this recipe and used brown rice. It was really good
Lauren Lane says
My childhood favorite in the ultimate comfort food. I hope you love this as much as I do. And leave a comment if you make it!
Vicki says
I don't like how there are multiple recipes mixed within the one you desire. I would prefer the recipe that you seek to be up at the top with variations after that. Too much busyness.