Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
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This Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole is a simple, one-dish dinner made with tender chicken, rice cooked in chicken broth, and broccoli baked together into a creamy, comforting casserole. With no pre-cooking required, it’s a true dump-and-bake recipe that’s perfect for busy weeknights.
This Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole is what happens when my mom’s chicken and rice casserole and a bowl of broccoli cheese soup join forces to save dinner. Cozy, creamy, and ridiculously good for something that takes almost zero effort.
And by zero effort, I mean no pre-cooking the rice, no extra pan for the chicken, and no standing at the stove stirring a thing! That’s right. This meal is 99% hands off, folks. Everything goes into one dish, straight into the oven, and magically turns into dinner. Busy weeknight stamp of approval.
If easy, family friendly comfort food is your love language too, you’ll also love my Homemade Hamburger Helper and One Pot Taco Rice. Different flavors, same “thank goodness dinner is made in one dish” energy. When soup season hits, my easy Chicken Pot Pie Soup has that same cozy, family dinner feelings we all love.
You’ll love this recipe for Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole!
- No precooking the chicken, rice, or broccoli!
- All in one dish = very minimal clean up.
- Family friendly
- Makes great leftovers and meal prep.
- High protein!
- healthy comfort food
Ingredients you’ll need:
*exact measurements in recipe card below
- boneless skinless chicken breast (chicken thighs or tenderloins work too)
- long grain white rice (for this recipe, it must be long grain rice other rice will not cook right)
- chicken broth
- better than bouillon (i love this to add some extra flavor)
- cream of chicken soup (pacific, campbells, or homemade all work)
- cottage cheese (favorite brands: good culture, nancy’s, and daisy)
- fresh broccoli florets
- sharp cheddar cheese
- dried minced onion (or onion powder)
- spices (dried thyme, garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper)
How to make Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
Preheat the oven to 375°F and lightly spray a 4-quart baking dish (sometimes referred to as lasagna pan) with nonstick cooking spray.
Add the diced chicken and uncooked rice to the bottom of the prepared dish and spread into an even layer.
In a large bowl, whisk together the chicken broth, bouillon, cream of chicken soup, cottage cheese, shredded cheese, and seasonings. Pour the mixture over the chicken and rice, then gently stir to combine.
Cover tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour.
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After 1 hour, carefully remove the foil and stir in the broccoli florets until coated in the sauce. Sprinkle the remaining cheese evenly over the top.
Return the dish to the oven uncovered and bake for 10 minutes, or until bubbly around the edges and the broccoli is just tender.
Let the casserole rest for a few minutes before serving.
What to Serve With Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
This casserole is a full meal on its own, but it pairs well with:
- A simple green salad
- Extra veggies: Air Fryer Frozen Broccoli, Air Fryer Green Beans, or Air Fryer Carrots
- Dinner rolls, garlic bread, or biscuits
Variations:
- swap veggies: You can use cauliflower in place of broccoli or a mix of both!
- condensed soups: use cream of celery soup, cream of mushroom soup, or make your own condensed soup.
- extra cheesy: add in some mozzarella with the sharp cheddar at the end of recipe.
- meatless option: Skip the chicken and replace it with 2 cans of white beans. Use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth and add a little extra seasoning for flavor. Bake as directed.
- Rotisserie chicken: If you’d like you can use rotissere chicken in place of the raw chicken, I’d use about 3-4 cups chopped total.
- Texture: You could add crumbled up ritz crackers or crunchy french onions for a topping!
Storage & Reheating
- Refrigerator: 3-4 days in an airtight container
- Freezer: store in freezer safe container up to 3 months (best to thaw before reheating)
- Reheat: microwave with a splash of water or ice cube to help fluff up the rice for about a minute then 30 second intervals until heated through.
Helpful Tips
- Dice the chicken small and the same size, so it cooks evenly.
- Cut broccoli into bite-sized pieces for even cooking.
- Make sure the dish is tightly covered with foil during the first bake so the rice cooks properly.
- Make sure to use long grain white rice! Most varieties of rice are unique and require not only different total cooking times, but different liquid amounts as well.
- Test a small bite of rice to ensure that it’s done cooking, if the rice still has a bit of a bite to it, cover again with foil and return it the oven to cook for 5-10 minutes
More One Dish Recipes:
- One Pot Taco Rice
- Homemade Hamburger Helper
- Pollo Loco – (Mexican chicken and rice with cheese)
- Cheesy Ham and Broccoli Rice Casserole
- Buffalo Chicken and Rice Casserole
- Cajun Chicken and Sausage Rice Casserole
Don’t forget to come on back and let me know how this Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole recipe was!
Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
Ingredients
- 2 lbs uncooked boneless skinless chicken breasts (diced into small bite size uniform pieces)
- 1½ cups uncooked long grain white rice
- 3 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 2 tsp chicken better than bouillon
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1 cup 1% low fat cottage cheese
- 1½ cup reduced fat shredded sharp cheddar cheese (half cup reserved for end of cooking)
- 2 tsp kosher salt (if using regular fine salt reduce to 1 tsp)
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 3 tbsp dried minced onion
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1½ tsp dried thyme
- 4 cups broccoli florets (diced into small bite size pieces)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F and spray a 9×13-inch (4-quart/lasagna style) baking dish with nonstick spray.
- Add the diced chicken and uncooked rice to the baking dish.
- In a bowl (or in the casserole dish for less dishes), whisk together the chicken broth, bouillon, cream of chicken soup, cottage cheese, shredded cheese, and seasonings. Pour over the chicken and rice and stir gently to combine.
- Cover tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour.
- Remove the foil, stir in the broccoli, and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Return the dish to the oven uncovered and bake for 10 minutes, or until bubbly and the broccoli is just tender.
- Let rest for a few minutes before serving. Gently fluff with a fork and serve!
Notes
- Refrigerator: 3-4 days in an airtight container
- Freezer: store in freezer safe container up to 3 months (best to thaw before reheating)
- Reheat: microwave with a splash of water or ice cube to help fluff up the rice for about a minute then 30 second intervals until heated through.
- Dice the chicken small and the same size, so it cooks evenly.
- Cut broccoli into bite-sized pieces for even cooking.
- Make sure the dish is tightly covered with foil during the first bake so the rice cooks properly.
- Make sure to use long grain white rice! Most varieties of rice are unique and require not only different total cooking times, but different liquid amounts as well.
- Test a small bite of rice to ensure that it’s done cooking, if it’s still got a bit of a bite to it: cover again with foil and return it the oven to cook for 5-10 minutes
This recipe saved dinner for us tonight! I started down the path of another recipe that called for 2 full cans of cream of chicken soup, and that amount of sodium (before adding anything else!) just felt wrong! I stumbled across this recipe in a quick grasp for a lower-sodium option, and it turned out perfectly – And this being my first time ever cooking chicken in all 40+ years of my life! Thank you so much.
wow!! first time cooking chicken? thats amazing. I’m so glad the recipe turned out so well and that you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for letting me know!
Can you used already cooked chicken? Thank you!! Love your recipes!
I haven’t personally used it, but I’ve had a few people say they’ve used rotisserie chicken and turned out great!
So good!
So glad you enjoyed, Marti!
My husband and I loved this recipe. I ended up cutting in portion size pieces and freezing them. We can take them out easily and reheat when I have no time to cook. Thanks!
I’m so happy you and your husband enjoyed Lynn!!
I have a recipe that didn’t include broccoli so looking forward to this twist! Can I substitute sour cream for the cottage cheese?
Hi Laura! You can definetely switch out sour cream for cottage cheese. I hope you enjoy!
This Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole was so delicious! 3 out of 4 kids ate the whole thing and thats saying something. Thanks for another good one, Star
The dish is very tasty and we enjoyed the flavors. My only thing is the rice turned mushy. I did use the rice recommended for the dish and cooked as directed, but it became a bit mushy. It has happened in other of your chicken and rice dishes as well. Any thoughts?
Wonderful tasty dish. My family went for seconds. Only issue I had was the rice cooking. Ended up cooking it uncovered for an additional 30 min and that did the trick!
This was easy and is very good. I have not cooked with thyme in the past, so I’m not sure how I feel about the taste, but it’s growing on me. As others have stated, it took quite a bit longer to cook than it instructs in the recipe. I used Ben’s Original Long Grain White rice, and covered it tightly with heavy-duty foil, but it still took considerable extra time to be done.
I think next time I will use cream of mushroom soup, and add some diced baby Bella mushrooms. I may omit the thyme just to see if I prefer it that way.
I enjoyed it!
I’m so happy you enjoyed! Can I ask what type of casserole dish you used? I’m trying to understand why some people are having some trouble with the cook time because I haven’t had any troubles and I’ve made it at least 10 times so i’m trying to troubleshoot it and replicate it with what others have used.
Hi Star,
I baked it in a Fiestaware 9×13 casserole dish.
Thanks!
It was great! I did have a hard time getting the rice cooked. I used enriched white long grain rice. Can you share what brand you used? I will be trying this his again! Thanks for all the great recipes!
This tasted good but it took FOREVER to get done in the oven, close to two hours. I used the ingredients specified in the amounts listed and it seemed like way too much liquid.
Oh wow!! That’s crazy to hear. I’m sorry it happened, I haven’t had difficulty with rice cooking in this at all and have made it A LOT. Did you use regular long grain white rice and cover it tightly with foil? Those are two absolutes in this recipe and if not followed the recipe will not turn out correctly.
Loved this recipe. So simple. The Thyme gave it a unique taste and my family loved it.
Definitely a keeper.
Yay!! Happy to hear you and your family enjoyed this casserole, Mark! Thanks for letting me know
This was delicious, but I definitely had to cook it 15 minutes longer for the initial cook time. Chicken didn’t seem done and it was still very soupy with crunchy rice after one hour. I used a 9 x 13 glass cake pan. Skipped the thyme and added fresh mushrooms. Would make again! Might try with cream of mushroom soup next time.
Can you substitute cauliflower rice for white rice?
Hi Brandee! I haven’t done that for this particular recipe, the cook time/liquid amounts etc would be quite a bit different.
This is comfort food at it’s best! My whole family loved it. It makes a lot! Great for leftovers or meal prep.
So happy you loved it!!
Delish!!!!
So glad you enjoyed, Chris! Thanks so much for coming back to let me know!
Delicious