20 Chicken & Rice Casseroles That Are Downright Delicious

Baked Chicken, Brown Rice & Vegetable Casserole

Get dinner on the table in an hour, yet spend most of the time on the couch unwinding after a long day at work. That’s the best part of a great one-pot meal.

This one includes a lot of rice, which ups the carbs of course. Whenever you have too much in a casserole, you can always reserve some for another meal like quick fried rice.

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Cajun Chicken & Rice Casserole

Chicken and rice dinners get a bad rap for being boring, but there are endless ways to spice them up for a whole new meal. This recipe uses paprika, cayenne, and thyme to add Cajun flavors to a basic casserole.

It also has half a slice of bacon per serving, creating richer flavor than you’d get from chicken alone, and yet each portion contains just 5 grams of fat.

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Grilled Chicken & Rice Foil Packs

Casserole on the grill? Whether you’re headed on a camping trip or preparing for the apocalypse, this is a great cooking method to keep in mind.

Everything for one meal is mixed together and cooked in either a piece of foil or an aluminum pie pan. Leave that on a hot grill, or a grate over an open fire, and you’ll have chicken and rice ready a half hour.

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Cheesy Chicken Broccoli & Cauliflower Rice Casserole

How can you make a low-carb chicken and rice casserole? Leave out the rice, and replace it with cauliflower instead. There are a number of ways to make cauliflower have a texture kind of like rice, including grating it by hand.

What’s easiest is to use a food processor or blender, pulsing it until you get small enough pieces. Then you can use cauliflower as a rice substitute in casseroles, side dishes, and soup.

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Crock Pot Chicken & Wild Rice Casserole

Not only does wild rice offer a blend of textures and, but it also has additional health benefits compared to regular white or brown varieties.

Wild rice boasts higher protein and fiber content, plus 30 times more antioxidants than in processed rice. All those nutrients also lend a nutty flavor that tastes great with mushrooms and chicken.

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Chicken & Rice Bake with Goat Cheese

There are two versions of this goat cheese casserole, depending on what method you prefer. This one starts with cooked chicken and brown rice for a faster prep time.

It’s perfect for when you have leftovers to use up. Or, keep shredded chicken, spinach, and cooked brown rice in the freezer to have this easy dinner in your back pocket.

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Skinny Chicken, Mushroom & Rice Casserole

This dinner is easy to make, yet is an upgrade from a standard chicken casserole. Rather than cracking open a can of soup, this recipe uses real mushrooms for fresh flavor.

But luckily that doesn’t mean you’ll need extra time. Instead of just sautéing onions in the skillet before assembling the casserole, add mushrooms to the pan too, and cook until tender. A half hour after starting, you’ll be ready to dig in.

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Healthy Chicken & Rice Casserole with Veggies

For a low-fat way to prepare chicken thighs, try this quick vegetable and rice casserole. As the chicken cooks in a pan for about 15 minutes, slice up all the veggies.

They’ll get cooked for just a few minutes to bring out the fresh flavors, and then everything goes into a casserole dish to finish in the oven.

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Baked Risotto with Lemon Chicken

How can you make risotto without standing at the stove and stirring?

This lemon risotto casserole uses Arborio rice, a special short-grain variety that makes any dish creamy because of the high starch content. That allows it to break down more and absorb a lot of liquid, while still retaining a firmer texture than long-grain rice.

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Skinny Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Rice Casserole

This has all the flavor you want in a comforting broccoli and cheddar casserole, only with a fraction of the fat.

And that’s just because of using skim milk and low-fat sour cream in place of canned soup. For an even leaner casserole, use reduced-fat shredded cheese.

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Wild Rice Chicken Casserole with Butternut Squash & Cranberries

This hearty casserole makes a great weeknight meal throughout the fall and winter. And this is one that you can prep ahead of time – browning the chicken and veggies – and freeze for later.

Then just defrost by moving it from the freezer to the fridge in the morning, and when it’s almost dinnertime, dump everything into a baking dish to have dinner finishing in the oven in just a half hour.

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Chicken & Brown Rice Casserole with Cauliflower Sauce

This creamy chicken and rice casserole doesn’t rely on canned soup. Instead, half the casserole ingredients get blended together to make a cauliflower sauce for the chicken and rice to bake in.

That makes for a healthy and delicious dinner, especially with crispy bran cereal on top. If you can’t find All-Bran Buds, though, simply substitute whole-wheat panko instead.

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Alfredo Chicken & Broccoli Casserole

For a different take on baked chicken and rice, make a casserole using brown rice pasta.

It’s made from just one ingredient, brown rice flour, so you’ll get the same nutrition with a different texture. Choose from spiral pasta, spaghetti noodles, elbow macaroni, and more.

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One-Pot Caribbean Jerk Chicken & Rice

Here’s one for the spicy food lovers. To make a low-fat version of this Caribbean jerk chicken, use light coconut milk and chicken breasts instead of thighs.

Either way, you’ll end up with a flavorful chicken and rice dinner that has healthy macros that can be adjusted to fit your personal meal plan.

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Buffalo Chicken Casserole

This healthy buffalo chicken definitely qualifies as comfort food with creamy ranch dressing, hot sauce, and melted mozzarella.

Yet it’s cooked with Brussels sprouts and rice in the same pan, so the result is a well-balanced meal that delivers big on flavor and nutritional value. The best part? This dinner takes just six ingredients to make.

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Cuban Arroz con Pollo

Arroz con pollo, which just means chicken and rice in Spanish, is cooked countless ways across Latin America. This version, essentially a chicken and yellow rice casserole, comes from The Cuban Table: A Celebration of Food, Flavors and History by Ana Sofia Pelaez.

It’s a time-honored family recipe that uses asparagus, peas, and two kinds of alcohol – white wine and pilsner – for flavor you’ll crave.

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Baked Arroz con Pollo

If you like Mexican rice and chicken casserole, then try this version of arroz con pollo from Ecuador. It has similar ingredients like tomatoes, cumin, and – if you can find it – achiote powder.

The real difference in a South American meal is the optional extras like fried plantains and aji criollo, an Ecuadorian hot sauce made from cilantro and garlic.

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Chicken, Sweet Potato & Rice Casserole

This chicken casserole has two side dishes mixed right in. Even though sweet potatoes and rice are both starchy, each serving of this casserole contains almost as much protein as carbs. That’s because it’s loaded with chicken and topped with shredded cheddar cheese.

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One-Pot Whole Chicken & Rice

For an easy way to feed a family, cook rice while roasting a whole chicken in the same pan. It’s not as simple as putting it all in big pot and walking away, but all the steps require no more than beginner-level cooking skills.

Rub down the chicken with a seasoning blend first, and then sear it. Move it out of the pot to cook the onions and brown the rice, and then you can just combine everything and allow the oven to do the rest.

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Chicken & Rice Casserole

When you keep a stash of cooked shredded chicken in your freezer, any number of easy protein dinners are within reach like tacos, pasta, and casserole.

Thanks to that, this healthy dinner comes together in under an hour. Use a canned soup for convenience, or make this cream of chicken soup recipe in advance for quick homemade casseroles with little-to-no prep work.

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