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I made this recipe exactly as written and it was delicious. This will definitely go into our favorites file. Next time I will double so we have leftovers!
Susie
This game is called How Can I Get You To Like A Sloppy Delicious Wild Rice Thing All Baked Up In A Pan.
To which I say GAME ON.
First things first: Minnesota. You should probably come. If you’re ever going to appreciate a cold snowy winter wonderland and pan-o-goodness of chicken and wild rice, December just before Christmas is the time. I’ll crank up the heat in our little house to a nice warm 75 degrees like the perpetually cold energy wasting person that I am, and you can come sit on my couch, snuggle with my favorite used-to-be-white Pottery Barn blanket, smell the wild rice cooking away in the oven, and listen to the crackling fireplace.
Oh snap. We don’t have a fireplace. I am a fireplace ledge dweller and therefore this is the most sad thing ever about our adorable house nestled into the cold, frozen land of the Minnesota tundra. It’s basically a crime to live here and not have a fireplace. Maybe in some future house we’ll have a fireplace to cozy up to, but right now, it’s just us and the new fridge.
Wait, the FRIDGE! Houston, we have a fridge. There are functioning kitchen appliances in the house other than a blender and a toaster for the first time in months, and I have been slow on telling you about it because I ate all that turkey a while ago and it just… I dunno. It just made me slow at life. Forgive?
Kitchen remodel video update coming atcha in 3, 2, 1…
Kitchen Update (2 MINS):
We are down to a matter of DAYS before the complete kitchen reveal happens! The backsplash still needs to get finished, I need to get my kitchen gear organized (story of my liiife), and we need to hang a few things on the walls. Maybe.
Be sure to subscribe to Pinch of Yum on YouTube <— a) because you don’t want to miss the big final kitchen reveal and any recipe videos that will follow! and b) because we? I? Pinch of Yum? has a fantastic, tiny little army of exactly 689 followers, and for that reason I still celebrate every single follower, which means that I will eat an Oreo truffle in celebration when you subscribe. So, like, hurry up.
Okay, though, we started out with me trying to make sure you know how great it is to eat chicken wild rice soup in casserole form, especially when topped with buttery golden brown toasty bread cubes.
It’s almost unfair for me to make a chicken wild rice casserole because I am so very happy eating chicken wild rice soup forever. I don’t have many recipes that I make more than a few times in my life, but that crockpot chicken wild rice soup is a once-a-month regular. My goal with this casserole wasn’t to replace the soup (hello, NOT POSSIBLE) but more just to offer my hungry self a recipe that could be a real food + comfort food casserole type thing that would give us all the cozy feels of soup without actually being soup. I sort of love casseroles in that very predictable Minnesota winter way, but I also like to try to make them updated to 2014, and this is why Chicken Wild Rice Casserole came into my life.
No cans of anything here – just lots of real, healthy ingredients (okay FINE there’s a little butter, too) which kind of feels good, and smart, and grown up and all that stuff, plus it just tastes like a bite of Minnesota home. Real food + comfort food.
Essentially what this Sloppy Wild Rice Deliciousness is all about is a good hearty pile of wild rice cooked in broth and carrots, onions, and celery –> then baked with the chicken and the creamy sauce that you’ll make from scratch because you’re awesome –> then topped with the cutest little butter-soaked bread cubes for the looks (rawr) and the delicate crunch.
It’s like soup meets buttered bread meets casserole meets Minnesota.
Ugh. I just get so happy when those four things collide right into my world.
Chicken Wild Rice Casserole
- Total Time: 2 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: 8 (about 3/4 cup per serving) 1x
Description
Chicken While Rice Casserole! Real, healthy ingredients and it just tastes like a bite of Minnesota home. Real food + comfort food.
Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 5 carrots
- 5 stalks celery
- 1 cup wild rice
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 lb. chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
- 10 tablespoons butter (divided)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 4 tablespoons flour
- 2 cups milk
- 3–4 cups cubed bread (dry, sturdy, or day old bread works best)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Chop the onion, carrots, and celery. Place in a large baking dish. Add the wild rice and the broth. Cover tightly with foil. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes.
- When the rice is almost done, melt four tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour, salt, and poultry seasoning and cook for one minute. Add the milk slowly, whisking to form a thick, creamy sauce.
- If you want the topping, melt the remaining six tablespoons butter and toss with the bread cubes. (I’ve also made it without the topping and it’s still delicious).
- When the rice is done, remove foil, add raw chicken and creamy sauce, and stir to combine. Arrange the bread in a layer on top. Turn the heat up to 450 and bake uncovered for another 20-30 minutes until chicken is no longer pink and the bread cubes are golden brown. Top with salt, pepper, and/or parsley for a pop of green color.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour 45 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: chicken wild rice casserole, wild rice casserole, chicken casserole
Also, I must tell —> That fun video thing I was working on in San Francisco earlier this fall? It’s a little blogger photography class – and it’s live!
I worked with Brit + Co. to develop a simple course called Photography for Bloggers. I used food (because WHAT ELSE is there) for my teaching purposes, but the idea is that these are photography basics that would help any new blogger – foodies and beyond – up their skills in the photography department by learning manual controls, lighting, and composition.
This really hit the spot on a cold weekend evening. Lots of veggies! I used 4 celery sticks and 4 carrots because they were gargantuan, and a large yellow onion. The veggies were tender and the wild rice perfectly cooked. I didn’t have poultry seasoning, so used the same amount of herbs de provence, and after the white sauce had thickened up I whisked in the juice of one lemon. Used already cooked shredded rotisserie chicken, and topped with a mix of panko and shredded cheddar cheese as I didn’t feel like messing with homemade breadcrumbs (and was serving with homemade biscuits). After baking for 30 minutes I put under the boiler briefly to toast the panko/cheese mix. Delicious, cozy, and filling. With veg/chicken/wild rice mix it felt like a balanced meal. Makes a ton of food! Going to freeze individual portions for work lunches.
Made this multiple times, family loves it!
looks amazing.
Could you make this with precooked chicken? Thank you!
Definitely a keeper! Easy, delicious and perfect for a cozy fall or winter evening.
First of all, I made the recipe (with modifications), but I have questions. I dug through all the “reviews” posted here, but I did not find one review from a person who had actually cooked this dish, which is disconcerting. There were a lot of people stating that it sounds good, but who cares? Many of the “reviews” had to do with thermostat settings and fireplaces? WTH?
Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I did make this dish. I modified several things, so I’m reviewing my modified version rather than the original, I guess.
My modifications:
I did not have time to wait over an hour to cook the veggies and rice, so I cooked the veg in some broth in the oven, and I cooked the rice on the stove-top; that saved me about 45 minutes.
When I made the sauce following the directions exactly it was watery and soupy. I mixed a little cornstarch in with some broth and added that, and it thickened enough to be useable.
I did toss the cubed bread in butter, and that was great; 3-4 cups were way too much in my opinion, though. I had leftovers last night, and I felt like all I had on my plate was a little rice and a ton of bread cubes. Next time, I’ll cut those way down. (I may try subbing croutons to save even more time!)
The one direction that I absolutely could not get behind, was this: “When the rice is done, remove foil, add RAW chicken and creamy sauce, and stir to combine.” Maybe there’s nothing technically wrong with this, but in my house we didn’t stuff the turkey because you don’t mix raw poultry with other cooked ingredients. I couldn’t bring myself to stir in raw chicken, so while the veggies were cooking, I stewed the chicken on the stovetop with the onion and some of the celery. When it cooled, I cut it into small pieces and followed the recipe from there.
Having said all that, the modified version I made was very, very good. I’m sure I’ll make it again, and already have ideas for other modifications.
You’re super annoying @ Fran.
I NEVER leave reviews but this has be said. I am a very picky eater, a mom of 3 (one picky son with autism) and a wife of a gluten free- dairy free husband. Finding meals we all like gets hard but it happens once in a whole. I should have doubled this recipe because it was GONE in minutes! Everyone loves it! Will be throwing it into our regular rotation. I didn’t use any cream- only doubled my broth for the rue and left off the bread on top. SO GOOD! I look forward to trying some of your other recipes!!
This was my first POY recipe that I didn’t love, and I so wanted to love it. I think it was too heavy on carrots which didn’t get totally soft, and it didn’t end up being very creamy like I thought it would be. I think if we did this again, I would scale back to 2 carrots, 3 stalks of celery, and double the sauce. It also needed salt in more places. 1 tsp wasn’t nearly enough.
This was really nothing special. For as much as went into this it is pretty bland. It honestly looked more fabulous than it tasted. I’ve got a chicken and rice soup recipe that is so much better than this.
Made this last night. It was delicious! I don’t particularly like poultry seasoning, so I substituted for chicken bullion (2.5 tsp or to taste). Take a while to bake, but the prep process is simple. Highly recommend for a delicious, warm comfort food. 🙂
Hi!
I’ve loved this recipe forever! I recently bought an instapot and found your mushroom and wild rice instapot recipe, so I ditched the mushrooms and adjusted for less broth, and cooked it all in the instapot! Turned it wonderful.
Thank you so much!!
Absolutely delicious.
A casserole made with Whole Foods instead of processed foods.
I want to make this recipe, and usually like to read the results from other cooks, but scrolling down, I have yet to see that anyone actually made this recipe, just lots of wanna make it, so…. has anyone actually made this and reviewed it? I do wish food bloggers would omit those “reviews” that are not really reviews, because they are not helpful. Thank you.
Is this a wild rice blend that you use? Didn’t see any comments or notes about using a blend or not.
Nope, we used just straight up wild rice!
Made this for a church pot luck happening tomorrow. I doubled the recipe which got confusing because the ingredient list doubled but not down in the directions, but maybe that was just me.
I used a bag of matchstick carrots from the store to save time there. I plan to put both pans into crockpot before heading to church and will add croutons before serving.
I would suggest putting the rice in the pan before the vegetables so it is soaking in the broth for cooking. I love this method and will for sure make this again.
This Dinner was a winner! Super delish. I never leave reviews but it was that good. Only changes I made was using Pepperidge farm herb cubes stuffing instead of bread, I didn’t have poultry seasoning so I did 1/2 tsp combination of rosemary, thyme, nutmeg & garlic powder and I cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces, and for the rice I used a box of Rice a Roni Long Grain & wild rice (used packet too). I was super impressed by how well the creamy sauce was flavored, sometimes these sauces can end up bland and this one did not disappoint! Thanks for the recipe!
Love this recipe so much!! So comforting and amazing flavor. I want to make it for Christmas dinner, but I have two little.. can I make it in advance and freeze it?
I made this last night and it is so good! My rice took over 2 hours to cook following your method but that was okay! I added some sauteed mushrooms to the rice mixture and I precooked the chicken cubes (seasoned with poultry seasoning) on a skillet, then mixed it into the rice mixture. I didn’t have any bread so I made homemade biscuits to top the casserole with. So delicious! Thanks for another great recipe!
Great cupboard cleaning recipe, For the cream sauce I used a can of cream of chicken soup. This will be one of my go to recipes. Thanks
Made this tonight and all 3 boys asked for seconds after raving about how good it was. Great recipe – thank you for sharing!!
Awesome, Angie! So glad it was a hit!
Yum! So planning on making this for thanksgiving could you make it ahead or time and bake the next day or no because of the raw chicken? What about using cooked chicken?
We haven’t tried making this the day before, but we think it will work. It may be best to use cooked chicken. If you give it a try, we’d love to hear back!
This recipe has potential. I like all the parts but I found it very lacking in salt and spice. I made sure to compensate for my unsalted butter and unsalted chicken stock. I tasted the creamy sauce before I put it in and adjusted accordingly — I spiced it with 1 tsp garlic powder, tsp onion powder, 1 tsp black pepper, 1tsp salt and 1tsp tyhme. I cooked everything at the max times and my rice wasn’t done nor was my celery. I had to drain off 2 cups of the broth before adding the chicken and creamg, because my cooking vessel couldn’t hold everything once it was added and because instinctively it was too much liquid. The consistency turned out a little loose for a casserole so I’m glad I did that. And I’m glad I added the bread topping because it thickened it up some. I also added garlic. I also tossed my cut up chicken in a tiny bit of dijon mustard. Just enough to coat.
I think it would be helpful to give a quart measurement or dimension for the baking dish instead of indicating it as “large”.
We did enjoy this but wanted to let others know the results my first baking of this recipe.
Thanks so much for the feedback, Stephanie!
I don’t want to give this a bad rating in case it was something I did wrong… But it’s come out super watery. Nothing like the picture. 5 cups of liquid is called for in the recipe which does seem like a lot (3 cups chicken broth + 2 cups milk.) Is that right?
Hi, Patty! Sorry to hear this turned out watery for you. 😕 Those liquid amounts are correct, but we’re wondering if it’d help to use a little bit less broth next time to see if this helps. Let us know how this goes for you!
Why does my bread topping burn every. single. time? Any tips?
Hi, Remy! Hmm..it’s a little hard to say. We’d suggest turning the temp down just a smidge when you add the bread layer or moving the pan down a rack in the oven. Let us know how this goes for you!
I’m interested in making this – but do you have any suggestions as to how best to freeze it for later? (Meal prepping for new baby!)
We haven’t tried freezing this for later, but it should work to prep everything and cook at a later time. The bread just probably won’t be as crispy.