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This Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole is made with rice, chicken breasts, cheddar cheese, cream of chicken soup, water, and seasonings. You will love this easy and delicious comfort food meal.
Featured with this recipe
- The Best Casserole
- A Recipe Straight from My Heart 💕
- Ingredients in This Recipe
- How to Make Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole
- Tips for the Perfect Casserole
- Shredding the Chicken Before Serving
- Reader Reviews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Questions About Chicken and Rice Casserole
- What to Serve with this Casserole
- Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole Recipe
- A Dish Worth Sharing
The Best Casserole
Today, I’m sharing one of my all-time favorite comfort food recipes: Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole. This dish has been a staple in my family for generations, and I promise it’s about to become a favorite in yours too.
Picture this: tender, juicy chicken breasts nestled in a bed of creamy, cheesy rice, all baked to perfection. The aroma alone is enough to have your whole family gathering in the kitchen, asking, “Is it ready yet?” Trust me, this casserole is everything you want in a cozy, easy dinner—and then some!
A Recipe Straight from My Heart 💕
Whenever I make this Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole, I think of my Grandma Edwards. She used to make it every time we visited, and it was pure magic. Sitting around her kitchen table with my family, sharing laughter, and enjoying her cooking are memories I’ll treasure forever.
Food has a special way of connecting us to the past, doesn’t it? One bite of this casserole takes me back to being a 7-year-old, eagerly anticipating dessert after Grandma’s delicious meal. Now, I get to pass this tradition on to my own family, and it’s just as special.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Simple Ingredients: Just rice, chicken breasts, cheddar cheese, cream of chicken soup, and a few pantry staples.
- Easy to Make: Minimal prep and just one pan—perfect for busy weeknights!
- Comfort in Every Bite: Creamy, cheesy, and oh-so-satisfying.
Ingredients in This Recipe
The beauty of this casserole lies in its simplicity. You only need a handful of pantry staples and fresh ingredients to create something truly magical. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Rice: Long-grain white rice works perfectly, but Jasmine or basmati can also be used for a subtle flavor twist.
- Chicken: Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are my go-to, but thighs work just as well if you prefer dark meat.
- Cheddar Cheese: Shredded cheddar adds the perfect cheesy touch. Feel free to mix in other cheeses for variety.
- Cream of Chicken Soup: This gives the casserole its creamy texture and rich flavor. (See tips below for substitutions!)
- Water or Chicken Broth: Broth adds extra flavor to the rice, but water works if you’re keeping it simple.
- Onion Soup Mix: This seasoning blend brings everything together beautifully.
- Seasonings: Salt and pepper are essential, but you can customize with your favorite herbs and spices.
How to Make Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole
Making this casserole is as easy as layering ingredients and popping it in the oven. Seriously, it’s that simple! Here’s a quick rundown of the process:
Add a Cheesy Finish: Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top during the last few minutes of baking, letting it melt into gooey perfection.
Prepare the Dish: Spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. This ensures nothing sticks and makes cleanup a breeze.
Layer the Ingredients: Start with the uncooked rice, spreading it evenly across the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and half the shredded cheese.
Add the Chicken: Place the chicken breasts directly on top of the rice. No need to pre-cook; they’ll bake to tender perfection in the oven.
Add Creaminess: Drop small spoonfuls of cream of chicken soup over the chicken and rice. This step ensures every bite is rich and flavorful.
Pour the Liquid: Pour water or chicken broth evenly over the dish, making sure the rice gets fully saturated.
Sprinkle the Seasoning: Finish with the onion soup mix, spreading it evenly across the top for that savory, aromatic touch.
Bake to Perfection: Bake uncovered at 350°F for 1 hour, or until the chicken is fully cooked and the rice is tender.
Tips for the Perfect Casserole
- Choose the right chicken: You can use boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs. If the chicken is more than 1″ thick, pound them flat or cut them in half lengthwise. You can also cut the chicken into smaller portioned pieces for easier eating. Before removing the chicken from the oven, use a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the chicken breast to ensure the chicken reaches the USDA recommended safe internal temperature of 165 degrees (Fahrenheit).
- Use the right rice: Long-grain white rice is a good choice for casseroles as it tends to absorb flavors well. You can also use Jasmine rice, basmati rice, or even wild rice. We have tried making this with brown rice and we can never get it to cook well enough without also drying out the chicken.
- Add vegetables: Enhance the flavor and nutrition of your casserole by adding vegetables like carrots, peas, bell peppers, broccoli, or mushrooms.
- Seasoning: Try using a mix of herbs and spices such as thyme, rosemary, garlic, onion powder, and paprika to season the dish. You can also add onion powder and garlic powder. Salt and pepper are essential for flavor.
- Broth or stock: Instead of just water, use chicken broth or stock to cook the rice. This adds depth of flavor to the dish.
- Try a different soup: You don’t necessarily need to stick to cream of chicken soup for the creamy sauce. Cream of mushroom soup, cheese soup, and cream of celery soup also taste great in this casserole.
- Cream of chicken substitute: If you are not a fan of using “cream of” soups from a can, try our recipe for Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup Substitute. It is creamy and flavorful without the modified food starch and/or monosodium glutamate (MSG).
- Save a little time: If you want to save a little time and also ensure you don’t get crunchy rice, boil the water/chicken broth or stock evenly over the casserole ingredients before baking. Cover with aluminum foil to trap in the heat and then bake– you can cut the time by 10-15 minutes by doing this trick.
- Rest before serving: Allow the casserole to rest for a few minutes after removing it from the oven. This helps the flavors meld and makes it easier to serve.
- Garnish: Garnish with fresh parsley or chopped green onion or chives to add a little color to the dish.
Shredding the Chicken Before Serving
If you have younger kids at home or just want to make this casserole easier to eat, try shredding the chicken before serving. Shredding the chicken after cooking makes the chicken have an even distribution throughout the dish. It also creates a tender texture and helps the chicken get more of the flavors from the creamy sauce. Shredded chicken blends seamlessly with the other ingredients, making it easier to serve and appealing to picky eaters, especially kids. Plus it helps you get all the flavors of the casserole in each bite!
Reader Reviews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Nan: “I made this for a dinner party last night. It was DELICIOUS. So easy to prepare, and everyone loved it!”
Lizzy P: “I keep coming back to this recipe. It’s foolproof and always hits the spot!”
Erica: “I used chicken broth instead of water and added extra cheese—total game-changer!”
Questions About Chicken and Rice Casserole
Yes, cream of mushroom and cream of celery both taste great in this recipe.
Yes, chicken broth will add even more flavor. You can also use a combination of water and chicken broth.
No. That is one of the great things about this recipe! The chicken cooks along with the rice.
What to Serve with this Casserole
I prefer to serve this Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole with cooked vegetables on the side in the winter months, and in the summer months, I serve it with a large garden salad. Try some of these delicious recipes that go perfectly with this casserole:
Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole
Video
Ingredients
- 6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
- 2 cups uncooked rice not Minute Rice
- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese divided
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 2 (10.5 oz) cans cream of chicken soup undiluted
- 3 cups water
- 1 packet Lipton Onion Soup Mix
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9×13 pan with cooking spray. Layer rice, 1 cup shredded cheese, salt, and pepper in pan.If your chicken breasts are thicker than 1", cut them in half lengthwise or pound them flat with a mallet so they cook thoroughly and evenly. Place chicken breasts on top. Daub rounded teaspoons of cream of chicken soup over the chicken breasts and rice.
- Pour water on top and sprinkle with onion soup mix.
- Bake uncovered for 1 hour.
- Remove from oven, and stir excess sauce into the rice. Sprinkle with remaining ½ cup cheese.
Notes
- If using brown rice, add 15 minutes to baking time.
- In a hurry? Boil the water before pouring over the top. Quickly cover with foil to trap in the heat and bake as directed. This can save you up to 15 minutes of cooking time.
- The USDA recommends keeping leftover cooked chicken for a maximum of four days.
- After cooking and consuming your tender chicken, take your leftovers from your baking dish or your casserole dish and place in an airtight container where it can remain safely for up to four days in the fridge. Enjoy!
Nutrition Information
A Dish Worth Sharing
This Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole is more than a meal—it’s a memory maker. Whether you’re preparing it for a busy weeknight or serving it to guests, it’s sure to be a hit. If you give it a try, let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear how it turned out and any fun twists you added.
And don’t forget to share this recipe with your friends and family—it’s just too good to keep to yourself!
Thanks for the recipe! My kids loved. I did not have any cream of chicken or mushroom soup, so I substituted sour cream and added a bit more chicken stock. Also used chicken tenderloins instead of breasts. Also added ranch mix. Very easy and made enough to fill up my teenage boys! Thanks again!
David
My family of 5 has been tired of my cooking during this quarantine. I wanted to make a casserole and my family loved this! I’m thrilled when they eat something and all agree it’s a make again dish. I think next time I’ll add broccoli florets to it. (I love casseroles with a green vegetable so I don’t have to make another pot dirty) Thanks for the recipe!
This has become a staple in our home. I’ve made a few small tweaks and the family loves it! After the layer of rice, cheese and salt and pepper, I go ahead and slowly pour 1 cup of the water mostly around the edges (seems to help keep the rice more moist at the end) and sprinkle about 1/3 of the onion soup mix. After adding the chicken breasts, I add a bit more salt and pepper to the top of them. I also mix in different cheeses with the cheddar depending on what I have on hand. Part of my regular rotation now. I usually make 2 pans so there are leftovers. 😀 Thank you!!
Going to try it this afternoon for dinner. Sounds easy and it is delicious. My grandmother used to make it.
This recipe was just ok in my opinion. Not bad, but my family isn’t begging for me to make it again. It makes A LOT of rice. Definitely stir it up good bc the rice under the chicken ends up without any sauce. Wish the cook time wasn’t so long too. I’m sure you could do some shortcuts to speed things up. All in all tastes ok.
I’ve always mixed my rice and soups together then the chicken and seasonings and cover with foil (much like the No Peek Chicken), and the rice is fluffy and the chicken moist. I then add the toppings and broil for 1-2 minutes.
I am cooking several casserole types of main dishes for my daughter in law and son in law. They have two small boys (the oldest is about to be 4) and my beautiful grand babies can eat like men! Crazy. I am very excited to make your grandmother’s recipe! I will have to modify one thing but when I get cream of chicken soup, I’m going to make it for me and my partner. The kids need a little help and this sounds like the perfect recipe. I am going to make a couple of portions so when they get home from work, all either of them has to do is pull one of the portioned meals out of the freezer, heat it and eat it!!
What would you recommend for the reheat, microwave or oven? If oven, should they add a little chicken broth or cream of soup to ensure it doesn’t dry out??
I will return after I have made it and rate it. I LOVE people who share family recipes! Thank you so much!!
One year for Thanksgiving, I located recipes people made between the dates of 1850-1899 for everything I made using. Very very difficult and a little stressful based on the fact that instead of a true measurement, their measuring system was a little different than modern techniques. The also used what was available to them, be it cost prohibitive items like refined sugar and white flour. They used molasses or brown sugar instead of the high priced refined sugar. They would use Rye flour, “Indian (corn) meal” with only a small amount of wheat flour for white flour or wheat flour. The fact that mildew rust on wheat flour caused most 19 Century Americans to all but abandon the wheat flour crop.
I am SOOO SORRY!! I have not idea how this became a history lecture of 19th Century recipes! Thank you again!!!
Penny
I LOVE hearing the history of anything to do with food. This is such a wonderful comment! We love getting personal stories and history stories like this, so thank you. That is so neat that you pulled off a Thanksgiving dinner from the 1800s! That is impressive!
To answer your question– you can totally microwave or use the oven to re-heat. I would do as you suggested and add a little chicken broth so the rice doesn’t dry out too much.
If you like family recipes you are totally in the right place 😀 I hope you have been able to browse around to find even more of our family’s favorites! We have over 1,000 of them on here with more being added each week. We hope you will keep coming back for more!
I made this tonight, as I didn’t have the energy to cook from scratch. Easy to put together and similar to a recipe that I used to use.
I used 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup, didn’t add any extra salt, and I used jasmine rice (what I had on hand). I used 4 medium chicken breasts; 2 cut in to bite size and mixed into the casserole, and cut the other two in half and laid the pieces on top, and then added a bit of cheese all over.
I baked it at 375 degrees instead, for about an hour. When done, removed the big chicken pieces and gave it a stir to mix in the last bit of liquid. Turned out great.:)
Oh, I forgot to add that I mixed the soup, water, and dry mix together first before pouring over rice and cheese in the dish, and gave it a quick stir to ensure no dry spots of rice.
I am making this for Bunco tomorrow and the first recipe I found added French onions on top so that’s what I’m doing
The only things I did different was substitute salt for a pinch of kosher salt. I used one can of cream of chicken soup and a can of chicken and mushroom soup. And, while it cooked for the first hour, I would every so often stir the rice and liquids, and turned over the chicken so that everything would cook evenly. After an hour, everything was pretty much cooked through, but went ahead and stirred in the 1/2 cup water and let it cook for 5 more minutes. Came out great! Not too salty and rice fully cooked (Uncle Ben’s white rice). Next time I will probably add veggies! Great recipe!
Thanks so much for the nice comment! So glad you liked it!
Has anyone tried this in the crockpot? Wondering if that’s a possibility….
I made this after reading most of the comments.
I used a rotisserie chicken which I chopped up.
I rinsed my two cups of rice three times.
I used 2 cups water as the recipe says. I used cream of chicken and cream of celery soups (plus the rest of the ingredients as listed). I mixed all of it together in a bowl and poured it in the 9×13 pan. (I poured half, added grated cheese, and poured the rest.)
After an hour I stirred it and added more water (1/2 cup) as it was seeming to be dry. In about 20 minutes I checked it again , stirred, and added about another 1/2 cup water . And another 1/2 cup in about 20 more minutes.
I added a lot of cheese on top and cooked it about 20 more.
It was simply delicious!
It filled the pan all the way to the top (though didn’t boil over). So even a small serving is very filling. I feel like I could feed an entire football team! But I also read in the comments that it freezes well.
Will definitely be making this again and for sure when I need to feed a large group. It would provide a very inexpensive meal for a large group.
My husband loved it too!
Absolutely recommend!
Great idea using a rotisserie chicken. YUM!!!! Thanks for your comment!
I liked your idea of just mixing it all in a bowl and pouring it into the pan. I have it in the oven baking right now. Can’t wait for it to be done. Thank you for your comments.
I used minute rice and it turned out just fine for those who don’t have regular rice. The dish was really good.
Thank you! I was wondering as I only have minute rice!!
I am making this tonight. My plan is to mix everything together then place the chicken on top. Adding some veg as well.
I used taco seasoning instead of the onion soup mix (none on hand), pepper jack cheese, and added corn. Love it!
I’m definitely excited to try it again truly following the original recipe.
Great recipe, thank you for sharing it.
I used to make a chicken and rice casserole but had not made it in along time. Did this one last night for 2 with leftovers tonight–1/2 recipe using a package of Earthly Grains long grain and wild rice (equals 1 cup of rice), 1/2 cup of cheese, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 1/2 pkg onion soup mix and about 1 cup of water and 2 lg chicken breasts. It was very tasty. Husband approved.
I tried this tonight. Its really good!!! The I next time I make it, I think I will mix the soup with the rice, pepper (I would omit the salt if you use the Lipton Soup Mix) together I think you will get better rice consistency. I added some diced onion and celery to the top layer of the rice when I made it tonight. This recipe is wonderful. I also covered it with foil for about an hour of the cooking. I still got some pockets of hard rice under the chicken. Next time I think I might cut up the chicken and try it that way. I will definitely make this again. Great winter comfort food!
All I have to say is I was so excited to try this recipe I placed it in the oven as directed by following all instructions including the uncooked rice……however it is four hours later and my rice is still uncooked!!!! Do not use this recipe! & or try cooking rice prior!!!!
I’m so sorry this didn’t work for you. I will revisit this recipe and see if we need to make some changes. I appreciate you letting us know. Thank you!
Echo, I think if you mix the rice with the soup and whatever liquid you use it will cook more evenly. I had a few spots in the pan that the rice did not fully cook. I used chicken stock when I made mine and the taste is wonderful! I love this and will make it over and over and find new things to add!
Thank you, Toni! I have this on the menu for this week. I will try it this way and adjust the recipe. I appreciate you sharing this!
Just made this tonight and while it smells delicious and tastes great our rice is still only half cooked. I added water to the bottom before putting in the chicken and then added more water on top and it still was not cooked! I took it out and mixed it all together and added 2 more cups of water. Cooked it another 15 minutes and still partially hard rice. Juse added another cup of water and cooking another 15mins. That is a grand total of 6 cups of water so far for 2 cups of rice. If it isn’t done this time I’m giving up and making frozen dinners!
Oh no! I hope it turned out! I’m not sure why you would need that much water. Are you using brown or white rice?
Hi this delicious iam going to make this I have never seen Lipton onion soup mix before what could I use in place of the onion mix could i use French onion mix instead.
Yes, you could use a French Onion dry mix. You could also use a combination of dried onion and onion powder. You will want to use 1/4 cup, which is the amount in one packet of Lipton soup mix. Thank you for asking!
can you use already cooked rice???
We haven’t tried it with cooked rice but I don’t see why not– you may just want to reduce the liquid if you try it. The rice will already be soft and won’t need the extra moisture
Do you think I could use frozen chicken?
You probably could– you will just want to cook it longer– the problem with that is that your rice may get a little dry. Ideally you will want to thaw the chicken first and then cook it.