Easy Chicken-and-Rice Casserole

I love a good easy weeknight meal, and this chicken-and-rice casserole delivers on all fronts. It is the ultimate comfort food after a long day at school. It's easy to throw together, the ingredients are still relatively cheap, and it makes enough to have leftovers to pack for lunch the next day. You just can't beat that!

This recipe was featured in a post from several months ago in which I rounded up seven of my family's recent favorites that we had tried. Since then, I've shared the recipe with many other people, and it's become a regular in our dinner rotation.

Because it is such a crowd favorite in my house, I wanted to share with you all how I make it. I mostly follow the original recipe since it's so good that it really needs no modifications. I normally like to serve a veggie as a side for a bit of variety, but this particular night we just ate it with bread, and it was plenty enough.

Ingredients

• 2-3 chicken boneless breasts
• 2 cups minute rice (white or brown)
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 packet onion soup mix

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 90 minutes

Step 1

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

You're going to need a 9x13 baking dish. The one I use is a made by Pyrex. Grease the bottom and sides to prevent your rice from sticking. You can use butter (like the original recipe calls for) or non-stick spray. I use original Pam cooking spray, and it works fine.

Step 2

Add your two cups of rice into the pan along with both cans of soup. We actually used Campbell's this time, but you can use any brand you want. I did accidentally buy the unsalted cream of chicken, which affected the overall taste a bit, but not enough to be mad about.

Fill one of the empty soup cans with water and add that as well. Mix it up well.

Step 3

When you've got your rice and soup mixed well, add your chicken. This go 'round, the pack we bought had three good-sized breasts in it. I always cut them into smaller pieces. You could probably scatter them around the pan more if you wanted, but I like to lay them down the middle.

Put the chicken on top of the rice, though. The pieces should not be touching the bottom of your pan. They will sink into the rice-soup mixture a bit, and that's fine.

Step 4

Take your onion soup mix and sprinkle it over the top of the chicken. I'm not stingy with this, so I basically cover the entire top of the casserole with the dry soup mix.

The original recipe calls for Lipton brand onion soup mix, but I like the Publix brand just as good, and it costs less, so that's what we use.

Step 5

Cover with foil and bake for 90 minutes (or until chicken is cooked through). Uncover and let stand for about five minutes before serving. I usually let it stand while I'm cooking my bread, so about 12 or so. That way it's still nice and warm when we sit down but not burn-your-tongue hot.

Refrigerate any leftovers you may have. You can reheat in the oven or in the microwave. This keeps for up to three days before it gets questionable.