Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole
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Chicken and wild rice casserole is a meal that uses mostly shelf-stable ingredients. Assemble the ingredients for a few months’ worth of these casseroles if you have a hankering, and know that the bag will be ready to grab whenever you need it. You could even substitute canned chicken if you like to make it completely shelf-stable! My family gobbles this one up and everyone wants seconds so if we’re all here, I usually make double.
With chicken, rice, cream of mushroom soup, green beans, and almonds, this casserole is creamy and hearty comfort food at its best. I also have a slow cooker version of this dish, if that’s more your style.
Check out some of my other yummy casserole dishes like Mexican Cornbread Casserole, Chicken Tater Tot Casserole, Mexican Cornbread Casserole, Jiffy Corn Casserole, and Sloppy Joes Casserole.
Ingredients You’ll Need to Make Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole:
- Chicken
- Long grain and wild rice blend (Watch for a sale on this and then stock up!)
- Cream of mushroom soup (A recipe for my homemade version can be found here)
- Cut green beans
- Sliced almonds
- Ritz crackers
- Butter
Helpful Kitchen tools
How To Make Chicken And Wild Rice Casserole:
Boil the chicken in a pot, then cube or shred it.
Cook the rice according to package directions. Stir chicken, rice, soup, green beens and almonds together.
Spray a casserole dish with non-stick spray.
**This Casserole Dish is beautiful and gets great ratings! Give it a try if you’re looking to elevate your presentation!
Spoon mixture into a pie plate or casserole dish.
Crush Ritz crackers and add on the top of the casserole. Evenly coat with 3 tbsp. of butter.
Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, or until heated through and bubbly.
Now that you’ve done all the hard work, sit down and eat.
Storage
- Store chicken casserole leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days and reheat in the microwave.
- You can also store casserole leftovers in an airtight container in the freezer for up to three months. Simply thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat in the microwave.
Recipe Notes
- You can leave the almonds out if you want or you can substitute them for water chestnuts if you like. You could also substitute french fried onions for these, that would be good, too!
- While you easily adapt this casserole and use your favorite rice or rice blend (which might be white rice or brown rice), I recommend using wild rice for its distinct nutty flavor.
- Feel free to add more vegetables to this dish! Increase the mushroom flavor with sliced mushrooms or you could even add a can of sliced carrots. Another option is frozen vegetables, like a cup of peas and carrots.
- When it comes to the , feel free to substitute the cream of mushroom soup for either cream of celery soup or cream of chicken soup.
- You could also add a cup of shredded cheese (or a mixture of cheddar and ) on top of your chicken casserole if you prefer your casseroles to be both creamy and cheesy.
- Another option is to substitute the breasts for your favorite cut of chicken, whether that’s chopped or shredded .
Recipe FAQs
Can I make this casserole in advance?
Yes, you can prepare the chicken casserole up to 24 hours ahead of time. Simply cover with foil and refrigerate until it’s time to bake. Just remember that a refrigerated casserole might take longer to cook through. Another option is to bake the casserole, store the dish covered in the fridge, and then simply reheat quickly in the microwave or oven.
What do you serve with this casserole?
I recommend serving this casserole with some roasted vegetables or a fresh salad. Another option is to do a side of zucchini and squash.
You may also enjoy these other chicken and rice recipes:
Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Rice Casserole
Slow Cooker Fiesta Chicken & Rice
Chicken Teriyaki with Brown Rice Fresh & Fast
Simply Delicious Chicken & Rice Soup
Ingredients
- 1 box long grain and wild rice mix I use Uncle Ben's, which is currently 6oz
- 1 cup fresh shredded chicken
- 1 can cut green beans mine is 15 ounces
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup 10-ounce, fat-free is fine
- 1 teaspoon onion powder optional
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 1 cup Ritz crackers crushed
- 3 tbsp melted butter
Instructions
To make casserole
- Cook and cube or shred the chicken. Drain the beans. Cook the rice according to the package directions in a pot big enough to mix the casserole (no sense in dirtying up more dishes).1 cup fresh shredded chicken, 1 can cut green beans, 1 box long grain and wild rice mix
- Once the rice is cooked, stir in all other ingredients (except Ritz and butter) until well combined. Spoon into a pie plate or casserole dish.1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- Cover the top of the casserole with crushed Ritz crackers. Pour melted butter evenly over the Ritz.
- Bake at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes, or until heated through and bubbly. Serve warm.
Nutrition
“Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.”
~Wayne Dyer
Oh easy peasy! I like to add a can of mushrooms to this recipe! I quite agree on water chestnuts. Blech! I like almonds, pecans or walnuts in this.
This is an absolutely wonderful idea!!! I have a small ’emergency’ pantry for ‘just in case’ and things I tend to run out of. This idea will fit in perfectly because I have thought about the individual items in there and wondered what would I actually cook if the power was out for a while, or any other emergency, and none of it seemed very exciting. This solves that problem right away! Thank you so much for sharing! I love getting your emails and checking out the latest idea or thought!
Pam
Christy, this is a brilliant idea! There are just the two of us, now that the kids are gone from home . I can totally see doing up a months worth of bag meals. Fewer trips to the grocery store means less $$ spent and that is a good thing.
I so agree with you on the water chestnuts!! I cannot stand them in stuff. It is such a weird texture to me and I don’t think they really have a taste……
I’m glad I’m not alone!!!! I don’t know what it is about them but….eek. Makes my skin crawl. At least it’s not just a Christy thing. It’s a Christy and Mary thing now! 🙂
Add me to that list….water chestnuts are not my thing either!! They have the weirdest texture.
Can you use the rice that you only have to microwave for 90 seconds and then uts ready to serve?
I’m so glad you are doing these! We’very started a new expectation with our kids (ages 14 and 12) that they will cook one night a week. Having these bags will be perfect for that – they can just choose the bag they want to cook. With the instructions included, I can be totally removed from the kitchen!
YOU, dear Denise, are an AWESOME MOM!What a great thing to teach your kids AND I know they must be proud to make supper for the family on their own!
Ok, I see two problems with this, but think I can work around them. Number one, my daughter is allergic to mushrooms, so the soup is out, but expect any other cream based soup would work. So that one is taken care of, the other is a little more difficult, I have never seem the rice in small packages like that, we have smaller bsgs of the Uncle Ben’s some pre cooked pop in the nuker and some quick cook, supposedly searving 4, so my question echos the first onr, how big a box. Or at least how much cooked rice? In cups, not quarts as yours are smaller thsn mine.
Hey! You are right on the cream soup, so that problem is solved.
On your second problem. I’m not quite sure I’m following you but I’ll try to respond as best as I can. I’m guessing you live in another area, perhaps another country? I like to find out what is harder to get in other places so I know what to tell folks :).
Either way, we have the quick cook versions here as well that serve four. This box serves about four and makes roughly 3 cups of rice once it is cooked. I’m hoping that will be a good guide for ya! This also has seasonings in it so if yours does not, I’d add some parsley (tablespoon of dried), 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste. Or just have fun with your family’s favorite spices.
I hope this helps!
Gratefully,
CJ
And by the way, Eva, I just want to thank you. Since you’ve joined SouthernPlate you just leave the most interesting comments and I feel like we are getting to sit and chat in them! I’m so glad you are here and I am so enjoying getting to know you!
Thank you Christy, yes I live in Northeast BC Canada, at Mile 0 on the Alaska Highway, so a lot of the stuff you have regular in your stores we don’t even see here. Like the mixed bag of frozen peppers and onions for the stuffed pepper soup. Can work around that too, but its sometimes annoying! We don’t seem to have the smaller boxed rice (Uncle Ben’s seems to be the brand in quick cooking rice even here) but we have the Bistro Express and some other small bags that you have to cook the bistro express is ready to eat after you heat it in the microwave. So as long as the package you have serves 4 that’s fine. My husband will eat the whole thing himself, he loves rice, but has been told to cut down a bit on it, so this will be a good excuse to make him eat less! LOL
I’m allergic to almonds so I’ll be trying the water chestnuts in mine. I’m guessing I should drain the liquid off them before adding them in?
Yes, you will need to make sure they are drained.
I make this with cream of celery soup. It is delicious!
I think Wild rice may be unusual in some areas, but this type of casserole is so versatile, you could make it with brown rice, red rice, plain white rice, or with any rice side packet you prefer, for that matter it could also be made with rice and pasta mix, or even with quinoa or barley. If you prefer peas to grean beans substitute them. If you have access to fridge food, fresh celery, and even fresh mushrooms would be heavenly in it.
We make the same rice and ______ type casserole with canned tuna or salmon instead of chicken. We also like it with cream of broccoli soup and real cheese without any form of meat.
Play with it and enjoy!
Thank you, I was wondering if Salmon or Tuna would work in the casserole. I have thought about beans in place of the chicken.
Could you tell me what size the package of wild rice is? Thanks so much for these recipes!!!
Thank YOU!! I just went and added that in. It is 6 ounces right now, but any Uncle Ben’s Wild Rice Mix will work. You know, next week it may be a 5 ounce box… 🙂
Thanks!! I appreciate all you do!!
This looks yummy. Plan to try it this week!
I hope you enjoy it Norma!!
Thanks so much for this shelf stable meal! I plan to make these for those who cannot go to the store due to coronavirus scare.
Keep them coming!
Great recipe. I added a 4 ounce can of drained sliced mushrooms and an 8 ounce bag of shredded cheddar cheese.