Easy Chicken and Rice Casserole
Try this Easy Chicken and Rice Casserole recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this Easy Chicken and Rice Casserole recipe, or contribute your own.
- Carbohydrate 0 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0 g
- Fiber 0 g
- Protein 0 g
- Saturated Fat 0 g
- Serving Size 1 1 -6 (0g)
- Sodium 0 mg
- Sugar 0 g
- Trans Fat 0 g
- Calories 0 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and set a 9x13 baking dish to the side.
- In a medium saucepan, on medium heat, add both soups and then add two soup cans of water. Stir frequently and cook until most of the lumps are gone.
- While that is cooking, pour the entire box of rice into the baking dish and spread out evenly.
- When soup is done, pour â…” of the mixture on to the rice. Stir to make sure all of the rice is moist.
- Lay chicken breasts on top of rice and season with salt and pepper to taste. I push the chicken down slightly so it sits in the rice. Then pour the rest of the soup mixture on top.
- Cover dish with foil and cook for 1 hour.
- Take the dish out of the oven, remove the foil (be careful of the steam), turn chicken breasts over (you can salt and pepper the other side if desired) and press back into the rice.
- Cook un-covered for an additional 25 to 30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and serve warm.
Unlike a stovetop pilaf where grains absorb liquid through gentle steam convection in a tightly covered pot, baked casseroles rely on conductive and radiant heat transferring through a heavy ceramic or glass 9x13 inch vessel to gelatinize starches while simultaneously roasting protein. Instant rice undergoes a preliminary steaming and drying process during manufacturing, creating porous starch granules that hydrate far more rapidly than long-grain brown or standard white varieties, which makes it uniquely suited for absorbing the liquid released by condensed soups without requiring precise water-to-grain ratios. When combining canned cream of mushroom and cream of chicken bases with two full soup cans of water, the resulting emulsion provides enough free moisture to hydrate the dry grains fully during the initial one-hour covered bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Condensing agents and modified food starches present in canned soups act as stabilizers, preventing the emulsion from breaking and separating into a watery layer while the chicken breasts release their natural juices into the surrounding matrix. Sinking the seasoned poultry slightly into the dry rice bed ensures that the raw meat makes direct contact with the simmering liquid below, allowing conductive heat to cook the thickest part of the breast evenly while the trapped steam softens the grains above. Removing the aluminum foil after sixty minutes allows excess moisture to vent into the oven cavity, triggering the Maillard reaction on the exposed surface of the meat and concentrating the starches in the rice for the final twenty-five to thirty minutes of uncovered baking. Modifications for dietary needs are straightforward, as gluten-free condensed soup alternatives can easily substitute for traditional wheat-based varieties without altering the hydration mechanics of the starch. Proper cooling allows the starches to set fully before portioning, yielding clean servings from the baking dish.
