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This was delicious! A big hit with my family! No left overs and everyone wanted more!
Beverly Nixon
This Casserole Is a Nostalgic Masterpiece.
Forgotten Chicken. Remember that?
That was not a joke. Forgotten chicken is a real thing and I’m asking you if you seriously remember it. I don’t, but Bjork does. And he mentioned it the other day, how much he ironically remembered and loved and missed having Forgotten Chicken as a kid.
I thought I should do a nice wife thing and make it for him. It was also a nice self thing:
- It was intensely cozy and comforting.
- There was enough for every meal all week. NO MORE COOKING! I mean, woops. I mostly do like to cook.
- It forced me to make my own homemade condensed cream of chicken soup, which was easy and wonderful and I’ll do it again, possibly forever.
- It was so customizable. I could have even added vegetables. Could. Have.
- It was intensely cozy and comforting.
Whether you remember it or not, I hope it brings a lot of coziness to your life.
Ingredients You Need
We’ve got a short ingredient list for this one, which I love! Here’s what you need to pick up at the store:
- Chicken breasts
- Brown rice (see FAQ for white rice)
- Seasoning mix (rotisserie, hickory, or chipotle)
- Sauce ingredients (chicken broth, milk, and flour)
I inlcluded the instructions for yesterday’s homemade condensed cream of chicken soup in this recipe, so if you follow these instructions you’ll already be making your own! If you want to use canned cream of chicken soup, there is a note about that in the ingredient list, too.
You’ll notice there are no vegetables in this list. This is just how Bjork prefers it! But you sure could add some veggies too – broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, peas, or green beans would all work great.
How To Make This Chicken and Rice Casserole
- Make The Sauce: Broth, milk, and flour is all you need. If you want to skip this step, you can use two cans of cream of chicken soup instead.
- Combine Rice and Sauce: Mix them up in a bowl with water and more seasoning.
- Arrange Chicken on Top: Place to chicken on top of the rice mixture and sprinkle with more spices.
- Bake: Bake covered and then uncovered or maximum browned crispiness!
One thing to know. This yummy chicken and rice casserole needs to bake for a loooong time because of the brown rice.
It’s worth the wait. Go watch TV. Read a book. Put your feet up and dream about making salted maple pecan pie bars again, for the fifth time this month. You’ll soon be lost in a big bowl of this goodness so don’t even worry about it.
Frequently Asked Questions About This Casserole
Adding veggies to the top with the chicken should work! Broccoli, carrots, or mushrooms would be my pick(s).
Yes, you can! It will cook faster than brown rice, so just keep an eye on it at the 45-minute mark.
This will last up to three days in a sealed container in the fridge. Be sure to reheat it well to 165 degrees for food safety (because of the rice!). I also like to add a little more milk or water when reheating to make it creamy again.
Yep! This would work great with chicken thighs as well.
If you’d like to use quinoa, I’d recommend making this casserole instead!
Sure can! Even cozier!
This was cheese in the photos, but sour cream is another good option!
Chicken and Rice Casserole
- Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
Description
This chicken and rice casserole is frequently requested by my husband who grew up calling it “Forgotten Chicken.” Simple and satisfying!
Ingredients
For the sauce:
- 2 1/2 cups chicken broth (I used 2 cans)
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1 tablespoon seasoning mix (or 1/2 tsp. onion powder, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder, 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper, 1/2 tsp. parsley)
(You can sub 2 cans of cream of chicken soup for the homemade sauce.)
For the casserole
- 1 1/2 cups uncooked brown rice, rinsed
- 2 tablespoons seasoning mix of your choice for the flavor of the casserole – my favorite was a smoked hickory southwestern seasoning
- 1 cup water
- 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts
Instructions
- Make the sauce: combine the chicken broth and 1/2 cup of the milk in a large saucepan. Bring to a low boil. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the flour and seasonings into the milk until a smooth, thick mixture forms. Pour the flour and milk mixture into the saucepan over low heat and stir continuously, whisking as the mixture simmers. Continue to simmer and stir/whisk until the mixture is smooth and thick, 5-10 minutes.
- Prepare Casserole Dish: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Generously butter a 9-inch square casserole dish – it really sticks to the sides.
- Combine Sauce and Rice: In a large bowl, combine the uncooked rice, condensed soup from step 1, 1 tablespoon seasoning, and water. Pour into prepared dish.
- Add Chicken: Arrange chicken pieces over the top and sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of seasoning.
- Bake: Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 45 minutes. Remove foil; bake for an additional 30-45 minutes or until rice and chicken are cooked through and top is slightly browned. Allow to cool for 15 minutes; shred chicken into small pieces and stir to combine with the rice. Serve with a dollop of sour cream or shredded cheese.
Notes
A few commenters mentioned their rice not cooking all the way through, so you might want to just add a little extra liquid (about 1/2 cup) and keep the pan covered with foil for the entire baking time. Be aware that covering the dish helps it cook faster, while leaving it uncovered gets that nice browned texture on the chicken. I used a combination of both as mentioned.
Add water or milk as you reheat it to bring it bake to its original creaminess. Nutrition information is for 8 servings.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 90 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: chicken and rice casserole, chicken casserole, rice casserole, casserole recipe
Love this recipe! Could I mix up everything and have whole pan prepared a few hours before I put in the oven? Or will it be yuk? Lol
Yes!
Hi, I’m planning to make this on Thursday. I’m going to precook the rice in the rice cooker, then assemble and bake. How would you tweak the sauce amount? Cut it in half? Use just enough to coat everything to our liking? I just don’t want the chicken to end up dry in with pre-cooking the brown rice. Thanks for your help!!
I think it’d be best to make the sauce and coat to your liking, but maybe err on the side of more sauce since the rice will absorb some of it, and it also will help to keep the chicken from drying out. Enjoy!
I thought this sounded good so I tried it. Ultimately didn’t end up being my cup of tea. Something unidentifiable was a little off in the flavor to me.
I added half a stick of butter to the roux and threw in some frozen broccoli. It was delicious!
I added sour cream to the sauce along with a small chives, herbs de Provence and some frozen peas. It was perfect for a cold Sunday nights dinner.
Can I use instant rice?
We wouldn’t recommend using instant rice in this recipe!
I tried this recipe with beck and bulow chicken, meat in usa. the taste was yummy delicious. I highly recommend you to try once beck & bulow online meat in USA for you favorite meat recipes.
Don’t do it!
The flavors were ok. The idea is ok.Brown rice not so much! If you use brown rice, cooked it first!
I will not try again.
Holy Hannah! The recipe for the homemade soup is incredible! I was low on milk, so I made the soup “healthier ” by adding heavy whipping cream instead. OMG! I could eat the soup alone. I can’t wait until the casserole is done. Thank you for your creativity!
Thanks for giving the recipe a try! So happy you liked it!
The perfect quarantine recipe! Made the sauce as directed and used 1 tbsp liquid smoke and 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Umami for seasonings. I used the extra 1/2 cup of water as suggested and after just 45 min in the oven it was ready! My chicken breasts were very thinly sliced, assuming that’s why. I had no issues with crunchy undercooked rice, after 45 min the rice was perfectly fluffy and creamy. Both my husband and 17 month old had seconds and are looking forward to leftovers tomorrow 🙂
Glad to hear it, Mirelle!
well….this recipe was just the Coronavirus pantry was calling out for! Plus could work, work, work remotely while it cooks. Too save time….I used organic cream of chicken in the boxes. My compromise. And added some frozen mixed vegetables and some soup base of cooked onion, carrots and sausage I had in the freezer. Seasoning? Used Penzey’s Forward Spice with a touch of Cayenne. I really hope this works!! Thanks for saving me!
Glad you enjoyed this, Jan!
My rice was crunchy
Oh no! So sorry to hear this, Lauren. 😕 We’re wondering if it just needed a bit more time in the oven. Thanks for sharing this feedback with us – we appreciate it!
I had to come back and post on this, because it’s the holy grail–everyone in my picky family likes this dish (my daughter still won’t eat chicken, but likes the rice, so I call it a win).
I’ve never heard of forgotten chicken, but my family had a similar dish growing up with chicken thighs (not shredded), rice, cream of mushroom soup, and lipton onion soup mix–no southwest spice.
I really love this version better and hubby has asked for the dish in regular rotation (he never does that!). I used the recipe for southwest spice mix here (used normal chili powder and left out the cayenne–plenty spicy): http://www.simplyscratch.com/2019/01/homemade-southwest-seasoning.html
Now, if you’re one of those who hates adaptations with recipe ratings, stop reading now. Lol, I have many many dietary restrictions, so I had to tweak this so I could eat the deliciousness without a migraine:
For the soup part:
Instead of 3/4 c. flour, I used 6T. Tapioca starch (corn starch would work the same)
I used rice milk instead of dairy milk
We prefer white rice, which was cooked perfectly after 45 minutes. I used chicken cutlets/tenders, so they were always plenty cooked by that time. I’m hoping to try whole breasts next and see if I get even juicier chicken.
I offered cheese and sour cream to the dairy eaters, but they didn’t think it needed anything!
One thing I want to clarify: the handy soup recipe above looks like it produces about 4 c. (64 oz.) of soup, but you say we can substitute 2 cans of cream soup (21 oz.). I have had good rice when I bake it with ~4.5 c. total liquid, but I’ll be honest: I often sub out some water for my precious homemade broth in the “soup” recipe.
Do I need all of that liquid? Is the cream soup substitute mentioned above referring to larger cans?
Let me know and thanks so much for this great recipe!!
The sauce makes about 4 cups, which is actually about 32 ounces. We’re assuming a sub of two 10.5 ounce cans. Hope this helps, Cathy!
Hi I’ve made this many times and love it. I wondered if anyone made it in the crockpot and what adjustments were needed?
I typically make it as per the instructions except with frozen vegetables, 4T arrowroot rather than flour, and about 15 minutes more than the recipe states to cook the rice through. We love it especially the homemade condensed soup! Thank you!
Lol, 32 oz not 64 oz., duh me. Thanks for the catch! And thanks for the clarification! And a great recipe!
I enjoyed this but will make a few changes next time I make it. While I like salt this was a little too much for me. I will use a low-sodium chicken broth instead of regular. You can always add salt if needed. In addition, the sauce was pretty thick so I will add additional broth/liquid as suggested.
I didn’t have Southwest seasoning and substituted Cajun and will definitely try with the Southwest seasoning.
Thanks for a sharing a really nice recipe.
I am curious if anyone has tried this in a pressure cooker/instant pot and what the timing would be? Thanks! Sounds super yummy!
This was soooo yummy. Only change I made was using boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Came out delicious. Will definitely be checking out your other recipes.
Rice didn’t get done. I added about a 1/2 cup chicken broth and kept it covered 45 minutes.
Oh well….
Loved it! I’m vegan, so I made this a vegan vegetable cassarole. I replaced the cows milk with canned coconut milk. This turned out fabulous! I will definitely make make it again!!!
Glad to hear it, Jessica!
Has anyone tried this with white rice? I’m not a brown rice fan. Thanks
Is the chicken cut into pieces or left whole?
can I use instant rice? It’s all we ever have around the cupboard.
I have made this once and plan to make it again this week