Chicken and Wild Rice Bake Recipe

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ByJi-hyun

Everyone has their own favorite comfort food and if you’re from the Midwest, this recipe will surely remind you of the taste of home. In the midwest, a meal that’s a comfort food for a lot of people is a hotdish. Hotdish may sound uncommon to some, but it’s actually a meal we’re all familiar with: casserole. There are a ton of hotdish recipes out there, but one of the favorites to cook in a midwestern kitchen is a chicken and wild rice casserole. 

Wild rice is native to the Great Lakes region of the United States and in Canada. Wild grains are packed with proteins, double that of brown rice. Add in some chicken, mushrooms, cream, cheese, and almonds, and you’ve got yourself a hearty, comforting home-cooked meal. 

In this article, we’ll be teaching you a chicken and wild rice recipe that you can easily cook up in your home kitchen. Aside from protein, this dish is also packed with nutrients such as vitamin a and vitamin c. Whether you miss the midwestern taste of home or you simply want to try new recipes in the kitchen, this one’s for you.

Ingredients

The ingredient list for this chicken and wild rice is rather short! You’d surely have no trouble finding these ingredients in your local grocery stores. In fact, you may even have some of these in your pantry already. While the list is short, this recipe makes a total of 10 servings.

  • 1 cup uncooked wild rice
  • 3 cups diced chicken pieces (cooked)
  • 3 cups water
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 1 10.50oz can cream of mushroom soup
  • 1 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 3/4 cup slivered almonds

If you’re finding it difficult to acquire some ingredients for this recipe or if you have a somewhat similar item on hand, you can do a couple of substitutions. Cooking your wild rice is one of the steps in this recipe, but if you have a box rice mix or microwave rice, that’s fine to use as well. You can also combine it with brown rice for a great flavor. 

For the chicken, you can use any type that you like. It can be shredded rotisserie chicken, crock pot chicken, skinless chicken breasts, boneless chicken thighs, and the like. 

If you don’t have a can or cream of mushroom, you can use cream of chicken soup, cream of celery soup, or heavy whipping cream as a substitute. When it comes to the type of mushrooms in this wild rice bake, you can use any that you prefer.

How to Make Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

We promise that this meal is easy to cook! Make sure to follow these baking instructions thoroughly so you can serve a delicious dish for the family. This meal can be eaten for lunch or dinner. 

This recipe yields 10 servings.

Step 1. In a saucepan, pour in water and bring it to a boil. Add and stir in the wild rice and 1 teaspoon salt. Reduce the heat and cover the pot as you let the wild rice simmer for about 45 to 50 minutes. Drain any excess after it’s cooked.

Step 2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 3 quart (or 13×9-inch) baking dish using cooking spray. 

Step 3. In a 6-quart pot, heat the butter over medium high heat. Saute the sliced mushrooms and chopped onions. For this recipe, we used button mushrooms but you can use any kind such as shiitake and cremini. Do this step for about 5 minutes.

Step 4. In the same pot, stir in the wild rice, pepper, garlic powder, 1 cup chicken broth, pepper, salt, lemon juice, diced chicken pieces, and the cream soup. In this recipe, we used boneless chicken breast, but you’re welcome to use any part of the chicken that you prefer. If you have uncooked chicken, you can season the chicken, place it on a baking sheet, and bake for 20 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked. If you don’t have any of the cream soups we listed in the ingredients, you can use heavy whipping cream instead. 

Step 5. Transfer the contents of the pot into the baking dish. Sprinkle it with a cup of grated cheese and almonds. Place the baking dish into the oven and bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until it’s heated through.

Step 6. Serve.

If you have leftover rice and wish to reheat the chicken and wild rice bake, first preheat your oven to 300 degrees F. This wild rice bake can be reheated in a frozen or thawed state. If you thaw the wild rice casserole before rewarming, check it in about 30 minutes. Cover it up until the remaining 10 minutes so that the top would be crisp again.

Planning to have this chicken and wild rice bake as a make-ahead meal for the family? You can assemble the wild rice bake and cover it well. If you’re freezing it, you have several options. 

  • You can place all the ingredients except the broth in a freezer bag and place it in the freezer.
  • You can also wrap the dish well with aluminum foil.
  • Lastly, if you’re freezing the chicken and wild rice meal cooked, allow it to cool completely and wrap it in aluminum foil and seal it well. Always thaw before cooking it on a slow cooker.

Maybe this chicken and wild rice casserole is one of your favorites or you’ve run out of dinner ideas and want to bring something new to the table. Either way, we hope that this recipe will be able to give you a comforting taste of home. 

Searching for more dishes to make in the kitchen? Check out our other recipes. 

Hailing from California, USA. Ji-hyun is a Korean American 🇰🇷🇺🇸 with two growing boys who eat their weight in rice each week. After graduating UCLA & becoming a mom she started We Know Rice as a guide for all the students and moms out there looking to cook healthy and filling meals.