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.
This recipe sounds so good. I think you’ll make a great daffodil lady. And I would love to come to the cornbread festival. Sounds like maybe a girls upcoming road trip is in our future. I had a few daffodils several years back. My husband had our son out pulling weeds around the front porch and he pulled up my daffodil bulbs. Grrrrr!! So in other words, how do I protect them from the menfolk? I need to plant more this fall. I love them too.
Christy, This is the funniest post you have ever done. I loved it. I read it often, but this one has me laughing out loud. You have no idea how close to home to hit with this one.
Hey Christy, glad to see someone has pretty much the same aspirations that I do. I love daffodils! Would love to be called The Crazy Daffodil Lady someday!! They remind me of my grandmother. She had them growing in a wild profusion all over her yard. There’s always some that just spring up in a field near where we live every year and my husband always tries to bring me a huge bouquet of them as soon as he sees them because for some reason they come up sooner than mine do. I always worry that he’s gonna get caught trespassing and get shot when he does this though! =)
Christy, I love all your recipes. I too love southern cooking and the simpler the better. I definitely am going to make this dish.
Spring is my favorite time of the year and I love the changing from brownish to the bright green of the trees along with the many colorful flowers. Thanks for the recipe.
My husband has planted thousands of daffodils over the years and they bloom from sometime in February through April sometimes. So many varieties and colors that bloom at different intervals keep the yard beautiful almost until the iris open. We even have some pink ones. Love the daffodils and redbud trees blooming at the same time. I’m sure he would be happy to share if you are ever in our neck of the woods. You know that they multiply so well that after awhile you can just divide them and plant some in other spots (or share them with your friends).
Yum! And I will be joining you as another crazy daffodil lady! Always been my fave! Forget roses – give me daffodils! I remember visiting my grandmother on weekends and sneaking over the fence to the cow pasture in the holler (waaaay out in the country of Tennessee) where the daffodils grew wild. I would come back with armloads of them! Mama would put them in vases with a few drops of red food coloring and the next day I had beautiful daffodils with traces of red through the veins and long the tips! Best memory!
I make a version of this casserole and use water chestnuts, drained and pimentos in it. This is my absolute favorite chicken casserole.