This is absolutely one of my family’s favorite dinners. The recipe is so simple, yet so comfortingly tasty that it will make your heart sing! The assembly is quick and easy, a great dish for one of your busy days when you don’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen.
This recipe was given to me by a co-worker who used to make this for her family of nine children. I am including the original version plus an updated, more heart-friendly version. Either way, it is delicious.
Please note: The original recipe did not call for any water. I have had to add water to the recipe in order to accommodate for a decrease in the content amount of the soup cans over time. When the original recipe was first created, there used to be considerably more product in a “can” of soup.
I mention Campbell’s soups by name in the recipe only because it is the brand of soup that I prefer. I have tried some store brands and I have not been satisfied with the results.
Skinnier Chicken and Rice Casserole
Recipe by Terri @ that’s some good cookin’ as adapted from original recipe by Augusta Hilliard
Printable Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 can (10.75 ounce) Campbell’s Healthy Request cream of chicken soup
- 1 can (10.75 ounce) Campbell’s Healthy Request cream of mushroom soup
- 1 can (10.75 ounce) Campbell’s Healthy Request cream of celery soup
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 1/2 cups white rice (raw, uncooked)
- 6-8 pieces of chicken, bone-in and skin-on
- olive oil or butter (for baking dish and chicken)
- salt and pepper or seasoning salt, to taste; When I use seasoning salt, Johnny’s is my preferred brand.
- one of the following: paprika or smoked paprika; or ground thyme or poultry seasoning. I often use salt, pepper, and smoked paprika.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Oil or butter the inside of a 9- x 13-inch baking dish or pan; set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together the soups until well blended. Add water and stir to blend. Add uncooked rice to soup mixture and stir all together. Pour mixture into the prepared baking dish.
- Rinse chicken pieces, pat dry and lightly rub with olive oil. Season as desired (suggestions above in ingredient’s list). Place chicken pieces on top of rice. The chicken pieces will probably be touching each other; not a problem, they won’t argue about it. Put the thicker pieces such as the chicken breasts or thighs towards the edges of the dish and the pieces with less meat, such as the wings or legs, towards the center.
- Place a piece of aluminum foil on top of the dish, but do not fold down the sides. The foil will keep the chicken from over-cooking while allowing a needed amount of moisture to escape from the dish while cooking. Cook for 1 hour, then remove the foil and bake for an additional 30 – 45 minutes. The chicken should be golden brown and the rice should be tender.
Serve this chicken and rice with your favorite vegetable or salad.
Original Chicken and Rice Casserole (Vintage Recipe)
Recipe by Augusta Hilliard with slight modifications by Terri @ that’s some good cookin’
Ingredients
- 1 can (10.75 ounces) cream of chicken soup
- 1 can (10.75 ounces) cream of mushroom soup
- 1 can (10.75 ounces) cream of celery soup
- 1 (1/2 cup) stick of butter, melted
- 1 1/2 cups uncooked white rice
- 2/3 cup water
- 6-8 pieces chicken, bone-in and skin-on
- olive oil, for coating baking dish and chicken pieces
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Oil or butter the inside of a 9- x 13-inch prepared baking dish or pan; set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix soups and melted butter together until well blended. Add water and stir well. Add rice to soup mixture and stir all together.
- Pour soup/rice mixture into prepared baking dish.
- Rinse chicken pieces, pat dry, lightly rub with olive oil. Season as desired with salt and pepper. Place chicken pieces on top of rice. The chicken pieces will probably be touching each other; not a problem, they won’t argue about it. Put the thicker pieces such as the chicken breasts or thighs towards the edges and the pieces with less meat, such as the wings or legs, towards the center.
- Place a piece of aluminum foil on top of the dish, but do not fold down the sides. The foil will keep the chicken from over-cooking while allowing a needed amount of moisture to escape from the dish while cooking. Cook for 1 hour, then remove the foil and continue to bake for an additional 30 – 45 minutes. The chicken should be golden brown and the rice should be tender.
Notes
The original recipe called for this Chicken and Rice dish to be baked for 2 1/2 hours. I have found that changes that have been made in the soups over the years have altered the amount of time required for baking. If you find that the rice is undercooked after baking for 1 1/2 – 1 3/4 hours, continue to bake for an additional 15 – 45 minutes. Yes, that would bring the total cooking time up to 2 – 2 1/2 hours.
I have made the original recipe a few times and it has always come out to dry. Do you add water to the original recipe? Also, it is hard to find chicken with the skin on where we live. Would that make a difference in cook time?
Hi Amber. So sorry to hear that there are some problems with the recipe. I re-read the original recipe and am very embarrassed. I realized that I had made two very big mistakes. I left out the rice in the ingredient list (duh!) and I did not account for using the rice in the instructions. I have corrected the errors. So, I don’t know if you had been mixing the rice with the soups and butter or not, but that would have definitely made a difference. Additionally, the recipe was written for bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces. Those two elements add needed moisture to the rice. (The recipe is very old and was written back the days when boneless, skinless chicken was not an option :)) Since you are using boneless, skinless chicken, the recipe does need to be altered to account for the change.
1. Add 2/3 cup water to the soup/butter/rice mixture. Pour into buttered 9-inch x 13-inch baking dish. Do not add the chicken at this time.
2. Cover with foil and bake until rice is almost tender–I think that this will take probably about an hour, I’m not exactly certain.
3. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper or whatever seasonings you like. Place on top of rice. Cover with foil and continue to bake until chicken is cooked through (should register at 165-degrees on a thermometer inserted into the thickest piece of chicken) and rice is tender, probably about 30 minutes.
I have not made this casserole using boneless, skinless chicken, but I will make it tomorrow to double check my above instructions. Again, I am so, so sorry that the original recipe presented problems. I feel awful about it. Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know that things were not working. Tomorrow night I will update my findings here in the comment section after making the recipe with boneless, skinless chicken. ~Terri
I have one more question for you, How many people does this recipe usually feed? Thank you for the speedy reply. I’m anxious to see how it turns out. 🙂
Amber, it usually feeds about 6 people comfortably depending, of course, on how hearty people’s appetites are.
I owe you yet another apology. I caught a nasty little stomach virus and was not able to cook dinner as planned…curled up in the bed with my favorite blankie and took a 3 hour nap. I am feeling much better now and will make the casserole this evening (Wednesday May 23rd). I am so hungry for it! Making it again will be a good time to go back through and do step-by-step photos. This was a recipe from the early days of the blog before I had a sense of how to write a blog post and definitely before I had a better idea about taking pictures.
I have a question for you: which cuts of chicken do you prefer? I am asking because it could make a difference in when to add the chicken. Chicken breasts are thicker and will take a little longer to cook than will chicken thighs. Well, I’m looking forward to the dinner adventure.
Okay, Amber. I think I have things figured out. I tried a few different things and I think that the following changes worked the best with the boneless, skinless chicken:
1. Preheat oven to 325-degrees F.
2. Mix the soups, melted butter, 2/3 cup water, and 1 1/2 cups white rice together well. Pour into a 9- x 13-inch glass baking dish. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
3. While rice is baking, prepare chicken pieces as follows: Rinse and pat dry. Lightly coat with olive oil. Season as desired with salt, pepper, and paprika (I used smoked paprika and it was wonderful!) If you don’t want to use paprika, ground thyme or poultry seasoning also works well. I tested the recipe using chicken breasts and thighs. The thighs, of course, turned out more moist and flavorful than did the chicken breasts. Set aside.
4. Remove the rice from the oven, stir rice mixture in baking dish and redistribute evenly. Place the seasoned chicken (6-8 pieces recommended) on top of the rice. Cover with foil and return to oven. Bake for an additional 30 minutes or until both the rice and the chicken are done.
5. Note: If the rice mixture looks “wet” or a bit soupy, return to oven, uncovered, and bake for an additional 10 minutes. If you have concerns about the chicken becoming over-baked, then remove the chicken from the rice onto a plate (cover) and return the rice to the oven, uncovered.
Additional information:
1. I tested this recipe with two large boneless, skinless chicken breasts and 5 standard-size boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I did find that boneless, skinless chicken was more difficult to use in this recipe because it tended to dry out easily.
2. The recommended cooking time in the original recipe(s) is too long. I feel that a more appropriate cooking time for either version of the recipe be between 1 hour and 1 hour 30 minutes. Baking the rice for about 30 minutes prior to adding the chicken, then stirring the rice mixture and placing the chicken on top for the remainder of the cooking time works well. The rice in the corners of the baking dish and around the edges tends to get “hard”; stirring helps to alleviate this problem in both the updated “skinny” version and the original version of this recipe.
3. Using skin-on and bone-in chicken will take somewhat longer to cook (close to 1 hour 30 minutes) than using boneless, skinless chicken.
4. I have updated the recipes to reflect changes in baking times. The original recipe called for this chicken and rice dish to be baked for 2 1/2 hours. I feel that there is a better outcome with the shorter baking times.
I have been using boneless skinless chicken breasts. I will try the updated recipe sometime soon. Thanks again for your help and I’m glad that you are feeling better! Have a great weekend! 🙂
I have a very similar beloved recipe from my grandmother. It uses Golden Mushroom soup instead of Cream of mushroom. Also, ours bakes at 300° for 3 hours. Love this recipe. (I just try not to think about the sodium content, lol.)
I know what you mean about trying not to think about the sodium content (or fat or whatever!). When it comes to using “cream of” soups, you get what you get and the vast majority of the time what you get is some really great flavor. 🙂 I am glad that you mentioned baking this dish at 300-degrees for 3 hours. The original recipe as given to me by my co-worker stated to bake this for 2 1/2 hours at 325, which is pretty similar to your baking temp and time. I used to cook it that way faithfully and somehow it always turned out well. I can’t remember what made me shift my cooking times — maybe it was when I changed up the soups. I should go back and make the original recipe again and see how it turns out. I might be doing myself a disservice by making it “skinnier”. ~Terri
So silly stupid question but is the rice uncooked
Not a silly question at all. Yes, the rice is raw, uncooked. I’ll add that information to the recipe. Thanks for asking, Jessica. Have a good day. 🙂 ~Terri
Can’t figure out what you do with the stick of butter?
You are the first person to catch that error! Good job. 🙂 Mix the butter with the soups and then proceed with the recipe.