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You only need 5 minutes to prepare this Dump-and-Bake Chicken Rice Casserole. An easy dinner that cooks in one dish with chicken, green beans, rice and a creamy sauce, the kids love it!
This chicken rice casserole comes from my friend Mollie. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning (with rare exception), I join a few of my girlfriends for a 45-minute walk that is so much more than a little fresh air and exercise.
On one of our recent morning walks, my friend Mollie was laughing as she started to tell us about the dinner that she had served the night before. Mollie was pregnant and not feeling very well, but her mother-in-law was visiting from Texas and she knew that she needed to get a homemade dinner on the table for her family…without an extra trip to the grocery store.
After rummaging through her pantry and freezer, Mollie pulled together this delicious dish. Her chicken rice casserole recipe is so easy that Mollie was almost too embarrassed to tell us her secret! After enough begging and pleading, though, she finally spilled the beans…
Mollie’s Dump-and-Bake Chicken Rice Casserole is an entire dinner that cooks in one dish with only 5 minutes of prep. The brown rice, green beans, and chicken are baked together in a creamy sauce and topped with cheese and breadcrumbs at the end. Mollie’s mother-in-law spent the evening raving about the meal and repeatedly praising the “fancy” crumb topping.?
This easy dinner secret is just one of the many rewards from my morning walks with the girls. I hope that you’ll give it a try and help out one of your closest friends by sharing the simple weeknight meal solution too!
How To Make Easy Chicken Rice Casserole
The chicken and green beans are put in the casserole dish from frozen, so there literally is no prep involved.
Next, add the uncooked brown rice on top of the frozen chicken and beans followed by the creamy sauce.
What’s In The Creamy Sauce?
It couldn’t be simpler, mix together condensed cream of mushroom soup with some chicken broth and pour over the top. Cover with foil and let it bake to perfection.
Cook’s Tips
- If you don’t want to use frozen chicken, just substitute with a thicker piece of meat so that the cooking time is longer. You just don’t want the chicken to dry out while the rice finishes cooking.
- For the soup I used Campbell’s Healthy Request.
- I used whole wheat Panko breadcrumbs, but any type will work fine.
- Use frozen green beans and don’t let them thaw out or they will be overcooked.
More Delicious Casseroles You Might Like;
- Easy Broccoli Casserole
- Apple and Butternut Squash Casserole
- Chicken and Cornbread Casserole
- Sausage, Red Beans and Rice Casserole
Dump-and-Bake Chicken Rice Casserole
Ingredients
- 6 frozen thin-sliced boneless skinless chicken breast (about 1.5 lbs.)*
- 16 ounce package frozen cut green beans do NOT thaw first
- 2 cups uncooked brown rice
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 1 10.5 ounce can condensed cream of mushroom soup (undiluted)**
- 1 cup 4 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs***
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F (200C).
- Spray a 13 x 9-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
- Place frozen, raw chicken cutlets in bottom of prepared dish. Add the frozen green beans over the chicken, and cover with uncooked brown rice.
- Whisk together chicken stock and condensed soup until combined. Pour in the dish.
- Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour, 20 minutes to 1 hour, 30 minutes (or until rice is tender and has absorbed most of the liquid).
- Remove foil, sprinkle with cheddar and breadcrumbs. Place under the broiler (uncovered) for about 5 more minutes, or until cheese is melted and breadcrumbs are crispy.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe reminds me of one my mom would make! Looks delicious and comforting!
Thanks, Shelby! Yep, it’s totally that comfort food from childhood that still tastes good today! 🙂
Ahh both of us had chicken and rice bakes on the brain today! Love the addition of green beans here!
And I love the sundried tomatoes in your version, Megan! 🙂
Where would we be without our girlfriends? Sounds like Molly made a winner! This casserole looks delicious and I love that it’s only 5 minutes of prep time. My kind of meal!
Totally, Gayle. Girlfriends are the key to sanity! 🙂
I could have used this for one of the night I was baking the 12 Days of Cookies. Sounds like my kind of chicken dish.
Wishes for tasty dishes,
Linda
Hah! Exactly! Thanks, Linda!
Another great recipe Blair!! I’m glad you got Mollie to give you the recipe!! Pinned and definitely on my dinner list ? Xoxo
Thanks so much, Kelly!
So, I had to alter this recipe a bit to use things I had on hand already. J replaced the green beans with broccoli (frozen), I cut the chicken into strips so it would cook longer (seasoned in a sealable plastic bag with olive oil to coat, and some homemade taco seasoning I had on hand), and instant brown rice (I stirred this into the soup & stock mixture and added salt and pepper). It cooked at 375 for 55 minutes, and 5 minutes uncovered with the cheese on top as the recipe calls for. This was delicious!
Excellent! Thanks for sharing your variations too, Christina. That’s helpful for others to see! 🙂
I love that you have so many quick and easy recipes, Blair. That’s what people need these days to get through their busy week. This looks delicious and reminds me a little of a casserole my mom used to make.
Happy Holidays to you. Hope you’re getting some time off! 🙂
Thanks so much, Robyn! Hope you’re enjoying the holidays as well!
This looks amazing! The breadcrumbs would make such a delicious crunchy topping too!
Yep, the topping is great! Thanks, Kristy!!
Hi Blair, Sallie’s mom here…. Mollie’s casserole is perfect for me to cook for a Ladies Pickleball dinner here in North Carolina. But, I do not like brown rice. I want to use white rice. Will the cooking time be changed? I don’t use that Minute Rice but I do like the original Uncle Bens Converted Rice..: think that’s what it is called. When cooking just the Rice in a pan it takes about 20 minutes.
Hi, Debbie! I love that you’re going to make Mollie’s dish! 🙂
Here’s what I would do: use regular long grain white rice. Instead of frozen chicken, just use thawed chicken. That way when you shorten the cooking time for the white rice, the chicken will use a shorter cooking time as well.
When I have made similar casseroles with white rice and chicken in the past, I have found that it works well to bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes (covered). You’ll want to remove the cover during the final 5 minutes or so to let the cheese brown on top.
Enjoy! 🙂
Very easy and tastes great! I used a bag of frozen mixed veggies and it was delicious. Thanks!
Awesome! I’m so glad that you enjoyed it, Kristen! Thanks for letting me know!
I work really late sometimes but still come home and have to cook I need simple recipes like this one
Great! Hope you enjoy this one, Karrie!
Salt and pepper the casserole & make sure all the rice is in the liquid. It was an easy meal, but very bland.
NO ONE should leave a comment unless they have prepared the recipe! This entire site has delicious looking recipes but has anyone actually cooked one and have an opinion then? We all know they appear easy and delicious… so frustrating! I would like to read an honest review before cooking!
Hi, Brenda! Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope that you get to try some of the recipes and let us know how you like them. Enjoy! 🙂
Hi Brenda,
I made this tonight. I changed the recipe slightly- used uncooked jasmine rice. I needed to keep the oven at 400 degrees, as 375 at 45 minutes did not begin to cook the rice. Casserole baked about 1 hr. 30 minutes. I did not add frozen vegetables. Oldest daughter gave it a thumbs up! Waiting for younger daughter and husband to try it.
I cooked it and it was exactly as described. Quick, easy and delicious. You probably could have already prepared it by the time it took you to write your comment. It was that easy. My house smells great.
Thank you, Janice! I’m so glad that you enjoyed it!
Can you sub cream of chicken soup for the cream of mushroom soup?
Hey, Leah! Yep — any “cream of…” soup flavor that you enjoy will work perfectly!
I love the way you bake the chicken, but I would love to use chicken legs to make the recipe, what do you think? Thanks for this amazing share.
Hi, Tiana! I think the legs would work fine! 🙂
Hi Blair, I can’t have dairy. I found a recipe for cream of chicken soup that doesn’t contain dairy. So, my question is do you think I could make this without the cheese?
Hi, Rachael! Yes, the recipe will still work without the cheese on top. It won’t taste as good, but omitting the cheese will not “ruin” anything. 🙂 Hope you can enjoy it!
Can I use whole frozen chicken breasts?
Hey, Kristin! You definitely can, but they will just take even longer to cook through. By using the frozen thin-sliced chicken cutlets, the chicken is done at about the same time as the brown rice. 🙂
Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe. It’s very adaptable as far as add-ins. I subbed broccoli florets for the green beans, and it was yummy. My husband had seconds, which speaks volumes. He normally doesn’t care for casseroles of any kind.
Next up; your Egg Roll in a Bowl!
Yay! I’m so glad that you like it! And yes — definitely give the egg roll in a bowl a try! One of my faves!
Just finished making and eating this! Deeeelicious!!! We had a very busy day and I felt like comfort food, but I had forgotten to thaw out the chicken thighs! I made it exactly as written except I didn’t have any cheddar, so I used the last of the shredded mozzarella (3/4 c) and finished it off w 1/4c if shaved parmesan, then the panko on top! It was superb! Very comforting! Definitely a keeper!
Perfect! Thanks, Beth! I’m so glad that you enjoyed it! 🙂
We made this, followed the recipe exactly & the rice didn’t cook – it was still raw & hard after almost 2 hrs. We removed the fully cooked chicken and continued cooking for another 20 minutes before the rice was finally tender. We used short grain brown rice, but it shouldn’t make a difference, should it? We haven’t seen different cooking times between short/long-grain brown rice in other recipes in the past. Such a bummer, we were excited about an ‘easy’ recipe and others had success…
I had a similar issue. It cooked on the edges but not in the middle. Not sure what happened.
I had the same problem, not sure what went wrong.
I had a busy day yesterday. Made this recipe for dinner. My husband loved it…I did too! Only thing I changed was I used a bag of frozen mixed veggies and sprinkled some McCormick chicken seasoning.
GREAT RECIPE!
Awesome! Thanks, Cathy!
I made this last night! I will confess, I was skeptical. I could not believe I could throw frozen chicken & veggies and raw rice, etc in a dish and have it actually come out with all the ingredients cooked perfectly an hour and a half later. But I was delighted that it came out absolutely perfect and delicious! I used broccoli instead of green beans, and didn’t have and “cream of” soups on hand so just used the chicken broth-still delicious! I also sprinkled the top with some leftover stuffing I had on hand instead of the cheese and breadcrumbs. This recipe can be tailored to your tastes-but the great part is -literally 5 minutes of prep for a stand alone meal-my kind of cooking!
Thank you, Pat! I’m so glad that you gave it a shot and that it was a success. Thanks for your note!
Finally a recipe with an accurate cooking time! I’ve tried so many of these “dump and bake” recipes and they’re like cook for 45 minutes and nothing is cooked right lol. This recipe was wonderful! I unfortunately didn’t have cheese or cream of mushroom. I subbed for adding half and half to the chicken broth with some extra seasoning in there lol. I also didn’t have green beans so used frozen broccoli and it was lovely! Without the cheese it was just as savory and turned out to taste just like my mom used to make. Thanks for this recipe, perfect easy dinner!
Thank you, Allysa! We’re so glad you were able to make it work for you and enjoyed the recipe.