Easy Chicken and Rice Casserole

This easy chicken and rice casserole is perfect for a busy day at home. Its very simple to make and the hardest part is waiting for the chicken to cook. The great thing about it though is that you can pop the chicken in the crock pot and leave it for three to five hours and work on something else. So its very useful for a busy or hectic day at home. All you need is a crock pot, casserole and an oven and of course the actual food. If you would like to check out another easy dinner you can look at my Easy Chicken Enchiladas recipe. Or if you need an easy dessert to go with dinner you can check out my Dark-Chocolate, Raspberry Banana Bread recipe.

 

Easy Chicken and Rice Casserole Instructions

Crock pot Instructions

Begin by plugging in the crock pot and placing the chicken thighs in. Measure out the chicken stock and add it to the chicken.

Next, open the can of green chiles and add it to the pot along with the balsamic vinegar and spices.

Stir everything together and then place the lid back on. Turn the crock pot to low heat and leave it to cook for three or four hours.  The longer you leave it to cook, the more tender and flavorful the chicken will be.

 

Rice Instructions

Follow the instructions for cooking rice on the back of the rice bag. Most bags give you an option for cooking in a rice cooker, stove top or the microwave if its the box minute rice.  I would start the rice about thirty minutes before the chicken is done so that it is ready to add to the casserole at the same time. For this recipe I used my rice cooker but I actually used rice I made a few days ago because I had so much left over.  Because of that, notice that some of my rice looks like it has extra spices added. Its just plain white rice, it was just in the same container as some pulled pork.  So if you have a lot of left over rice, this is the prefect time to use it up. It doesn’t have to be plain rice either, I’m sure any added flavor will just enhance the dish.

 

Combining ingredients

Once the chicken is done, preheat the oven to 375 and take out the casserole pan. take each piece of chicken and place it into the casserole pan. Leave the liquid in the crock pot but don’t get rid of it, we need it later.

Using the spoon or another utensil, shred or cut the chicken into medium or small pieces. Since it’s been cooking for a while the chicken should fall apart rather easily.

Pour the rice over the chicken and mix it up a bit.

Next, add the bag of mixed veggies and stir everything together completely. Take the liquid from the crock pot and pour it over the dish as evenly as possible. Don’t drown the dish but make sure it has a good level of liquid. I poured until the liquid level was at about the half point on the pan. I had about 1/4 cup of the liquid left over.

Once everything is mixed together, place the casserole pan in the oven and let it cook for thirty minutes. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.  Enjoy!

 

Tips

• If you want the top to not have any crunch to it, then reduce the time to twenty minutes.  I very much enjoyed the slight crunch to the top so thirty minutes was perfect for me.
• If you are unsure if its done or not, look at the amount of liquid.  By the time I was done cooking at thirty minutes, there was barely any liquid left.  At the twenty minute mark there was a little bit of liquid.  So just take that into account when deciding how long you want to cook it for.