Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole
This Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole is my favorite way to dress up a box of wild rice and some chicken when I’m in the mood for something truly comforting. It’s got that wonderful, creamy texture from the mushroom soup and a little surprise crunch from the almonds that just makes the whole dish. Between the savory rice and that golden, buttery Ritz cracker crust, it’s the kind of honest Southern cooking that brings everyone to the table in a hurry!
The Perfect Casserole Recipe For Any Time of Year
Christmas and New Year’s are behind us, and most folks are in the middle of winter, snuggling within their quilts and homes, cooking up stews and cobblers. Oh, I’m doing the cooking part, but not the rest of it; my mind is on other things. You see, as soon as January hits, I get to expecting spring.
There are so many variations on this casserole that you could throw a rock at the internet and hit fifty on any given day. This is mine, it’s pretty easy and awfully good. Modify it, play with it, make it your own. Just let me know what time it is served and try to have plenty of tea when I show up, please 🙂 Or Diet Dr. Pepper…Diet Dr. Pepper is always good, too! (Bonus points if it’s a Dirty Dr. Pepper)
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Long Grain and Wild Rice (with seasoning, such as Uncle Ben’s)
- Cream of Mushroom Soup (can use fat-free)
- French Style Green Beans
- Chicken
- Almonds
- Ritz crackers
- Butter
NOTE: You can also add a cup of sour cream to this, and it will be wonderful! This is completely optional, but I love it.
Step 1: Cook Your Chicken
Normally, I wouldn’t have used chicken tenders for this because they are a little more expensive. This is a great recipe to use cooked chicken leg quarters (deboned and shredded), leftover chicken, or a whole fryer (cooked, deboned, and shredded), but since I did have this chicken on hand and company was coming (did I mention I like to make this for company), that is what I used.
Step 2: Combine Your Ingredients
Dump chicken, cooked rice, green beans, cream soup, and almonds into a big old bowl. Give it all a stir until it is good and mixed.
Step 3: Top and Bake Your Casserole
Spray a baking dish lightly with non-stick cooking spray. Spoon the casserole filling into the baking dish. Sprinkle crushed crackers all over the top, drizzle melted butter over the cracker crumb topping, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
Now all that’s left to do is eat up!
Ingredients
- 1 box long grain and wild rice mix I use Uncle Ben's, which is currently 6oz
- 1 cup fresh shredded chicken
- 1 can cut green beans mine is 15 ounces
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup 10-ounce, fat-free is fine
- 1 teaspoon onion powder optional
- ½ cup sliced almonds
- 1 cup Ritz crackers crushed
- 3 tbsp melted butter
Instructions
To make casserole
- Cook and cube or shred the chicken. Drain the beans. Cook the rice according to the package directions in a pot big enough to mix the casserole (no sense in dirtying up more dishes).1 cup fresh shredded chicken, 1 can cut green beans, 1 box long grain and wild rice mix
- Once the rice is cooked, stir in all other ingredients (except Ritz and butter) until well combined. Spoon into a pie plate or casserole dish.1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 teaspoon onion powder, ½ cup sliced almonds
- Cover the top of the casserole with crushed Ritz crackers. Pour melted butter evenly over the Ritz.
- Bake at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes, or until heated through and bubbly. Serve warm.
I make a chicken casserole simular to this but in place of ritz cracker topping I use the Pepperidge Farm seasoned stuffing mix.I only use them for things like this so I always have some tightly sealed in a baggie in my cabinet.Gives it much more flavor.
Just curious, what else do you usually serve with this dish? It sounds fantastic! I can’t wait to try it. 🙂
Rolls and tea ~giggle~
*laugh* Sounds good to me! Gotta love one-dish meals.
Hi Christy! You make me SOOO jealous! I live in MI where spring doesn’t come (at least for daffodills) until mid April if we are lucky. OMG, I would give anything to see my daffs come up this early!
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this recipe! My mom used to make something like this out of her leftover chicken and leftover rice. Sure brings back the memories. Thanks so much-going to have it for supper tomorrow when all my kids come home from work.
Can’t wait to try this!! I also wanted to say thanks for my Rubbermaid glass storage set, it came in the mail last week!!!!! I love it!! I think it’s the first thing I have ever won. You are and awesome crazy daffodil lady 😉
*an awesome crazy daffodil lady I meant.
Imagine my shock when I moved into a 100-year-old house in an historic neighborhood in the fall and found out the following spring that there were no flowers! Silly me, I just assumed every responsible, self-respecting homeowner had at least a few daffodils around the front porch! Nope – the only non-tree ornamentation in my yard was four flowering yucca plants (you know, the kind that look like a seven-foot-tall stalk of flowery asparagus) and a more-than-half-dead honeysuckle. I surely remedied that the following year, let me tell you!
Oh, and I will eat anything you put in front of me that has wild rice in it! Looks tasty!
Daffodils are my favorite and I look forward to seeing them every year. They were my great grandfather’s favorite as well it makes me think of him I am sure he has his own garden full of them in heaven. : ) I can’t wait until they begin to bloom in Kimberly, Alabama !!!
You can’t beat a good chicken and rice casserole!
I hope I remember to attend the Cornbread Festival!