This is a dump-and-bake Chicken Rice Casserole with broccoli that’s made from scratch. It’s creamy, cheesy, comforting and tastes like a risotto but so much easier to make! It’s the ultimate emergency meal – completely effortless but doesn’t sacrifice flavour for convenience.
NO CANNED SOUP!!!
How to make Chicken Rice Casserole – my Emergency way!
This is a dump-and-bake rice casserole that’s made from scratch.
And anyone who knows anything about cooking will (rightfully!) raise their eyebrows when they see how this emergency version of Chicken Rice Casserole is made:
Dump UNCOOKED RICE in pan
Sprinkle with flour and seasonings
Mix with liquids (broth and milk)
Top with RAW chicken and RAW broccoli
Bake
Stir in cheese, melt cheese, serve.
And this is what comes out: a CREAMY Chicken Rice Casserole with PERFECTLY COOKED rice with JUICY SEASONED pieces of chicken! 🙌🏻
What this Chicken Rice Casserole tastes like
It truly tastes like everybody’s favourite risotto – except you haven’t been slaving over a hot stove for 20 minutes. The rice is coated with a creamy cheesy sauce that’s made with milk and flavoured with chicken broth/stock plus stock powder.
It’s nice and creamy rather than stodgy like many rice casseroles are, and comes out of the oven with a bubbly golden cheesy top.
Most of the chicken has some browning on it, and the chicken stays juicy and isn’t overcooked.
The broccoli is on the soft side, but most definitely not cooked into mushy oblivion. You could steam it separately and stir it through at the end, but I chose convenience for a relatively small compromise!
What you need
Here’s what you need to make this Emergency Chicken Rice Casserole:
The key ingredient here that makes a real difference to the tastiness of this recipe is stock powder, also known as bouillon powder. I use this in lieu of salt in this recipe because it’s salt with flavour.
Use chicken or vegetable stock powder – my favourite is Vegeta which is a vegetable one, pictured below. Crumbled bouillon cube will work just great too – it’s the same thing, in cube form!
We need this extra flavour boost to compensate for skipping the usual flavour base step of sautéing onion and garlic in butter and searing the chicken until golden brown like I do with my stovetop Chicken Rice Casserole!
Other uses for Vegeta?
I’m a huge fan of Vegeta, it’s my secret ingredient for great soup broths, such as for from-scratch Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. It’s also my trick to make a really great QUICK clear soup broth for Chicken Rice Soup and faster Chicken Noodle Soup, and a really terrific creamy sauce for Chicken Pot Pie.
NO CANNED SOUP!
I would’ve loved to call it the WORLD’s easiest – but I know for a fact it is not!
The world’s easiest chicken rice casserole is made with just chicken, rice and canned soup that is dumped in a pan and baked, and you will never see that recipe on my site.
I do not judge (you’re talking to she whose parents would crack an egg over rice, add a drizzle of soy and call that dinner!) but using canned soup to make shortcut casseroles just isn’t the way I cook. 😇
But I do truly believe this to be the easiest Chicken Rice Casserole that’s made from scratch because we by-pass the usual roux making process whereby melted butter is mixed with flour and used to thicken milk to make a creamy sauce for loads of things from Mac and Cheese, the Béchamel Sauce for Lasagna to Chicken Pot Pie.
And I promise you – it is 100% delicious. Not “hmm, it’s pretty good”. It’s SERIOUSLY delicious. Creamy, cheesy, comforting, can’t-stop-eating-it-good!!! – Nagi x
PS This is the rice version of the Ultra Lazy Chicken Broccoli PASTA Bake and the baked version of this 30 minute stovetop Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole, both of which are reader favourites!
Watch how to make it
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Emergency Chicken Rice Casserole
Ingredients
Chicken:
- 500g (1 lb) chicken thighs or tenders (tenderloin) , cut into 1.5cm / 2/3" pieces (Note 1)
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp vegetable or chicken stock powder (granulated bouillon) (Note 2)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Rice:
- 2 1/2 cups (625 ml) chicken broth/stock , low sodium
- 2 1/2 cups (625 ml) milk , any fat %
- 1 1/2 cups long grain white rice , uncooked (Note 3)
- 1/4 cup (35g) flour , plain / all purpose
- 1 tsp vegetable or chicken stock powder (granulated bouillon) (Note 2)
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 2 tbsp (30g) unsalted butter
- 2 broccoli heads (large!), cut into florets (Note 4)
- 2 cups (200g) shredded cheese
Garnish:
- 2 green onions , finely sliced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F (180°C/350°F fan/convection).
- Mix Chicken Ingredients.
- Heat chicken broth and milk until hot using any method (stove, microwave). Can combine together in saucepan. (Note 5)
- Spread rice in 23 x 33cm / 9 x 13" ceramic or glass baking dish. (Note 6)
- Sprinkle with flour, stock powder and garlic.
- Add the hot chicken broth, stir until flour dissolved (some small lumps ok).
- Add milk, swish rice to spread out evenly.
- Spread broccoli on top, then chicken, then plonk butter on (anywhere).
- Bake uncovered for 40 minutes. (Might get some browned skin on surface, that’s ok)
- CHECK rice before stirring – should be JUST cooked (Note 7).
- Add half the cheese, stir through, being sure to get rice in the corners and edges of pan. Should be creamy and quite loose (see video).
- Top with cheese, return to oven for 5 minutes until just melted.
- Sprinkle with green onion, if using, then serve!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
This is why I never drive with the windows down – he’d lose his head with a passing car!!!😲😲😲
Oh wowwww this casserole looks absolutely perfect 😍
Wondering about the broth/milk. In Step 3 you say to heat them to just before the boil but then in Step 6 you say to add the hot broth and in Step 7 the milk.
Where is the tenderloin on a chicken? Never heard of this.
Chicken tenders. It’s found on the underside of a chicken breast. Bars and pubs serve batter-fried tenders which are called “chicken fingers” in the states.
@Jayne. The chicken tender or tenderloin, is a strip of breast meat, that is part of the breast but that is not really connected so that it can be separated and used as it is.
What kind of cheese do you recommend?
This looks heavenly! I’d love to make this to eat with my mum, but she’s a pescatarian. Do you think the recipe would work if I replaced the chicken with a can off 400g tuna or white fish fillet pieces? Thanks ❤️
Fantastic recipe and quite clever too! Ditch the soup, this is perfection and comforting.
This looks great! My husband doesn’t like broccoli any suggestions? Corn? Thanks for the recipe!
Cauliflower would be a good substitute for the broccoli.
Peas would be good. Ir maybe peas and carrots.
What is the butter for? I cannot find it in the recipe
Yikes! Thanks for asking Don, it gets popped on top 🙂 Just adds an extra something something! N x
OMG Nagi, everything about this is so wrong and yet so BRILLIANT. It is testament that you can make a fast and easy dump and bake casserole without a can of soup.
What other vegetables could you use instead of broccoli or cauliflower?
😂😂😂 Your description is so perfect! So wrong yet so right!!
this concerns Dozer: another reason for not letting him stick his head out the window, is they get ear infections.
Never thought of that! 🙂 Now I’m imagining all that traffic pollution clogging his ear!!😝 N xx
Is there a way I can do this in the slow cooker? Or could I just dump everything in the slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours? TIA
Hi Marianne! I haven’t tried but it would need adjustment to significantly lower the liquid quantity 🙂 Sorry! N x
Could you please specify the size of the dish used? Seems like a deeper or shallower dish might affect the cooking time of the rice. Thanks!
*And she hauls herself off the couch and totters into the kitchen to check* 😂. 9×13″ / 23 x 33cm, updated in recipe, thank you for asking! (PS You are right on, it definitely affects it 🙂 N xx)
Hi Nagi. I live in the U.S. How much broccoli is “1” for you? Here the bunches vary in size.
Hi Debra! Oops, sorry about that! I mean 2 whole broccoli heads, about 5 heaped cups, 400g/14oz (updated recipe). This recipe can take TONS of veg – you can literally cover the entire surface of the pan with broccoli or cauliflower! N x
Hey there-huge fan; I love so many of your recipes. I don’t think we have stock powder in the US? Can I sub bouillon cubes or the equivalent?
PS Popped that direction into the ingredients PPS Bouillon cubes are just stock powder in cube form!
Hi Natasha! You sure can – just crumble a bouillon cube in 🙂 N x
I live in Colorado and have found the Vegeta powder at World Market.
Chicken or vegetable though 🙂 I think beef might be a bit odd! N x
I swear I’ve seen it at Walmart and Target too!! But any of those bouillon cube / stock powders will work just fine! N xx
I really wanna make this, but there is just two of us. Can I “successfully” half this recipe. It truly sounds amazing.
PS Will pop scaling tips into recipe! N x
Hi Janet! You sure can – use am 8″/20cm square pan 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi, can you please clarify the amount of broccoli? The ingredients list says 2 broccoli–is that 2 stalks? 2 cups? Thanks in advance, looking forward to making this soon, sounds yummy! Love your recipes and Dozer. I have a golden retriever too named Buck.
Thanks for picking that up Debby! I meant 2 whole heads 🙂 5 heaped cups, 400g/14oz. Updated! N xx PS Hugs to BUCK!
Hi Nagi – thank you for this recipe! It really looks good. I’m so accustomed to using canned cream soups when I make a chicken and rice with broccoli casserole, but this looks even easier (and tastier) than my old version! Thanks again! Oh and by the way, you’re website is awesome!
Thanks so much Ron! I do hope you get a chance to try this one – I promise it will be better than using canned soup! ☺️ N xx
Hi Nagi, Just wanted to let you know that I have archived and made so many of your recipes with great success. And today we get another keeper! I always enjoy hearing from you!!
Thank you Susan! I’m glad you like my recipes – I just got an email from a reader saying today’s recipe was “another boring one” 😩😩😩 N xx
Why on earth would someone feel compelled to write a nasty comment like that? It always amazes me when that happens.
Ignore the haters, Nagi. Your blog is the best out there, seriously.
P.S. I’m making your marinated veggie pasta salad today. Gotta clean out that crisper drawer and that recipe is just the ticket!
Turn the other cheek, haters are not worth your energy, and karma has a longer memory 🙂
I have made dozens of your recipes; some of our favorites are beef stew with Guinness, poached salmon in coconut lime sauce (have made into a seafood soup and served over rice) and pork stir fry with green beans … just to name a few.
Your recipes are real food, for real life. I have even begun sending your recipes to our sons who are now out on their own so they too can have “real” food.
Keep it up 💪🏽
Thats what makes the world go round. If you posted a 20 step recipe, people would be whining it’s too difficult. Just keep posting the good stuff which you post. Real food for everyday!
Can this recipe be made with frozen broccoli?
Hi Susan – sure can! But the broccoli will need to be thawed other the frozen broccoli will bring down the temperature of the liquids and will affect even cooking of the rice. 🙂 Also drain off excess water from the thawed broccoli. N xx PS Will put these tips in the recipe!