Baked Chicken Brown Rice Vegetable Casserole

One Pan Baked Chicken and Rice Casserole, served with brown rice, carrots and peas, is healthy, flavorful and involves almost no clean-up!

Chicken and rice casserole with peas and carrots

Healthy Chicken and Rice Casserole

One Pan Chicken Brown Rice Vegetable Casserole recipe will delight you with its ease and quick cleanup anytime you are tired of cooking! I spent a weekend retesting, reshooting and double checking every bit of this chicken and brown rice recipe!

Chicken thighs baked in brown rice with chicken stock, butter and carrots bake up into a fluffy chicken and rice bake. Right when you take it out of the oven you pour on some frozen peas and mix. The heat of the dish will warm them without making them mushy. Dinner is prepped in 10 minutes, an hour in the oven and you have a healthy easy meal people will fight over!

How to Make this Chicken and Rice Bake

To make this Chicken and Rice Casserole with brown rice and veggies, preheat oven to 375 degrees. The perfect size baking pan for this recipe is 13 inches by 9 inches.  Scatter rice on the bottom of the pan. Layer chicken on top. Season the whole pan generously with salt and pepper. Remember this will be seasoning the whole dish, not just the chicken. Scatter the carrots between the chicken pieces. Scatter bits of the butter around the pan. (optional)How to make chicken and rice casserole - raw chicken on top of brown rice and veggies Pour the boiling hot stock on top gently. Wrap tightly with foil and cook for 60 minutes. pouring chicken stock on top of chicken and rice bake

 Right when coming out of the oven, toss with frozen peas. Let sit for 3-4 minutes. Enjoy your Chicken and Rice Bake! 🙂 Chicken and Rice Bake, or Chicken and Rice Casserole ready to serve

Dinner then Dessert TIPS

 Want dinner on the table in 30 minutes? If you swap the brown rice for white rice in this chicken and rice casserole, the meal will be done in 30. The meat won’t be quite as soft and tender, but it will still be delicious! chicken dish made from a baked chicken and rice recipe

CHICKEN AND RICE CASSEROLE RECIPE NOTES (UPDATED) 7/12/2016:
Some of you had left me comments that the timing wasn’t working in this Chicken Brown Rice Vegetable Casserole recipe so I tested it once and it worked well but I did notice an extra 5 minutes didn’t hurt so I am updating it with the new time. Here is a not so fancy screenshot on my iPhone (excuse the not Pinworthy photo) of my original remake the way we do it every week (no edits, 375 degrees, exactly 60 minutes) and it was definitely a tender rice bake, not soupy: Chicken and Brown rice out of the oven


Then I decided to test this baked chicken and rice recipe a couple of more times because with 3 of you saying the same thing I knew there was a disconnect between what I was seeing/tasting and what you all were experiencing and I knew it was more than a five-minute difference.

Adjusting the Chicken and Rice Bake Cooking time

Here is what I came up with…

  • I use 3-4 ounce skinless thighs (this time in July 2016 I used 4-ounce bone-in skinless thighs). I realized this may have been the biggest issue that may have presented itself. When I went to the store and bought some more chicken I got some of the normal chicken thighs that were on sale, both bone-in and boneless. The boneless ones were almost 6 ounces each, bone in was closer to 7.
  • The larger boneless thigh (6 ounces each) batch took 1:30 minutes to cook. The bone in (7-ounce thighs) batch took 1:45 (I think this may be where most of the discrepancy was)
  • Second, I noticed that between my normal chicken and the larger thighs that they seemed slightly frozen in the middle. I don’t know if anyone else’s chicken was like this, but that may also add to the timing issues. If they are at all frozen it just means it will take even longer since the colder the chicken is it will just make the boiling stock get cold quickly which will also add to the cooking time.
  • I know no one mentioned this but I think it’s worth mentioning if you peel back the foil to take a peek during cooking you are letting all the steam out which will make the cooking time go way up.
  • This is totally not meant to insinuate anything but I would also just test the temp of your oven. I have a thermometer that lives in there so I know my oven is pretty spot on but you never know.
  • Final note: The biggest difference in your cooking time will be the temperature of your chicken and the temperature of your water. If your chicken is fully defrosted and you use boiling hot water/stock and you wrap tightly with foil, you should have a fully cooked, non soupy meal in 65 minutes.

If you guys have any other notes, I am happy to answer in any way I can. I didn’t realize how much larger the chicken in the store would be! My apologies to those who had fails, I wish I could deliver you a tray of this Chicken and Rice Casserole cooked through, I made four trays of it in the last three days determined to get to the bottom of this… (Thank goodness this dish freezes well!).

One pan easy baked Chicken Brown Rice Casserole served with Carrots and Peas. Healthy, flavorful and almost no clean-up involved!
4.93 from 41 votes
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One Pan Baked Chicken & Brown Rice Vegetable Casserole

One Pan Baked Chicken Brown Rice Vegetable Casserole, served with Carrots and Peas, is healthy, flavorful and involves almost no clean-up!
Course Main Course
Cuisine American
Keyword Baked Chicken Brown Rice Vegetable Casserole
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings 4
Calories 550 kcal
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients

  • 6 4 ounce boneless skinless chicken thighs** (Please read the recipe notes: you can also use bone in, but don't leave skin on, it will get oily)
  • 1 1/2 cups brown rice
  • 3 cups chicken stock (boiling hot)
  • 2 tablespoons butter (optional)
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 lbs sliced carrots
  • 1 bag (12 oz.) frozen peas

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Scatter rice on the bottom of the pan.
  3. Layer chicken on top.
  4. Season the whole pan generously with salt and pepper.
  5. Remember this will be seasoning the whole dish, not just the chicken.
  6. Scatter the carrots between the chicken pieces.
  7. Scatter bits of the butter around the pan. (optional)
  8. Pour the boiling hot stock on top gently.
  9. Wrap tightly with foil.

  10. Cook for 65 minutes (If your chicken pieces are larger please refer to the notes for updated cooking times).

  11. Right when coming out of the oven, toss with frozen peas.
  12. Let sit for 3-4 minutes.

  13. Enjoy 🙂

Recipe Notes

Adapted from Diethood. Which, by the way, is a totally awesome blog you should check out!

RECIPE NOTES (UPDATED) 11/12/15: Some of you had left me comments that the timing wasn't working in the recipe so I tested it again:

I use 4 ounce skinless thighs. I realized this may have been the biggest issue that may have presented itself. When I went to the store and bought some more chicken I got some of the normal chicken thighs that were on sale, both bone in and boneless. The boneless ones were almost 6 ounces each, bone in was closer to 7.

The larger boneless thigh batch took 1:30 minutes to cook. The bone in batch took 1:45 (I think this may be where most of the discrepancy was)

Second, I noticed that between my normal chicken and the larger thighs that they seemed slightly frozen in the middle. I don't know if anyone else's chicken was like this, but that may also add to the timing issues.

If they are at all frozen it just means it will take even longer since the colder the chicken is it will just make the boiling stock get cold quickly which will also add to cooking time.

I know no one mentioned this but I think it's worth mentioning, if you peel back the foil to take a peek during cooking you are letting all the steam out which will make the cooking time go way up.

Nutrition Facts
One Pan Baked Chicken & Brown Rice Vegetable Casserole
Amount Per Serving
Calories 550 Calories from Fat 117
% Daily Value*
Fat 13g20%
Saturated Fat 5g31%
Cholesterol 88mg29%
Sodium 530mg23%
Potassium 1279mg37%
Carbohydrates 82g27%
Fiber 9g38%
Sugar 14g16%
Protein 26g52%
Vitamin A 38080IU762%
Vitamin C 13.8mg17%
Calcium 110mg11%
Iron 2.9mg16%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

One Pan Baked Chicken Brown Rice Vegetable Casserole, served with Carrots and Peas, is healthy, flavorful and involves almost no clean-up!

Psssst… want to hear a little secret? This One Pan Chicken and Rice Casserole recipe is one of 10 in my FREE e-book 5-10-30: 5 Cuisines, 10 Full Meals and 30 Total Ingredients that is a bonus for email subscribers only! It includes shopping lists that set you up for two weeks of weeknight dinners with no ingredient waste and tips for cooking and alternate ingredient options. If you haven’t subscribed for updates you may want to now and get the e-cookbook FREE!

One Pan Baked Chicken Brown Rice Vegetable Casserole, served with Carrots and Peas, is healthy, flavorful and involves almost no clean-up!
One Pan Baked Chicken Brown Rice Vegetable Casserole, served with Carrots and Peas, is healthy, flavorful and involves almost no clean-up!

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. I’ve made this Several times now w boneless thighs n bone in skin on was still delicious . It cooks Perfect everytime . It’s very important to seal it up w foil Tight n let it cook . My boys dont like rice and they all Loved this . Thank for such an easy yummy recipe ?

  2. I’ve made this recipe multiple times and tried everything under the sun to get the rice to cook. I finally made it work! Here’s my alteration:
    Put the rice and the stock on the stove to boil and cook with lid on for 15 minutes. Add to a Dutch oven!! (Eliminates the need for foil and hoping it’s sealed enough) Then proceed as written (with chicken, carrots, and seasoning). Turns out beautifully and delicious!! I love it.

  3. I used deboned, skinless chicken breasts with this recipe. Chicken came out well but rice was not done and dish very soup. I removed chicken and added in a can of cream of chicken soup and cooked at 325 for another hour. If I try again, I’ll add in the soup at the start and see what happens.

  4. Made 1/2 recipe and chicken was delicious, rice was still crunchy and carrots not done. Note I started with defrosted, average size boneless, skinless thighs and brown rice, boiling chicken stock. Not sure what happened but such a disappointment to have crunchy rice (back in the oven now while we already consumed chicken).

  5. THERE IS NO green peppers in a Philly cheesesteak !!! Never has never been ! I’ve live in south philly whole life !! It’s steak cheese and onions and if you don’t like onions then just cheese !!!! Why why why do people that don’t live in this area put green peppers on a cheesesteak and call it a PHILLY cheesesteak ????

  6. I just made this and it turned out fabulous! I used boneless skinless breasts and instant brown rice because that’s what I had at home. I skipped boiling the stock because I knew the instant rice would over cook. However, I would definitely not skip this step if you aren’t using instant rice. I added a little garlic powder and onion powder along with salt and pepper. I cooked it covered at 375 for 50 minutes and it was cooked to perfection. I added the peas as directed. The chicken is moist and the flavor is amazing. I’ll be serving this again in the near future.

  7. Made this in a med, magnalite roaster, browned chicken thighs, in bacon grease on stove top, then removed, and added chopped onions, carrot chunks,celery chunks, and rice, and quickly stir-fried veggies and rice in the bacon grease, then added 2-c chicken broth, and 1-can cream of chicken soup and 1-can of cream of mushroom mixed and brought to boil placed chicken back in hot mix, and put on the lid, put in 350 degree pre-heated oven 30 mins with lid on, then added 1lb. cut in half button mushrooms, baked another 25 min. with lid removed.

  8. delicious baked chicken….I used boneless skinless breasts because that is our preference.
    The meat was juicy and flavorful, the rice was done to perfection and I loved the peas and carrots. I’m probably going to try this same recipe with other veges sometime in the near future.
    This was a taste of my mom’s comfort food but without the cream soup!
    Loved it!

  9. Can I just cook in casserole dish with lid on instead of foil and chicken breasts because had in fridge?

  10. Made this tonight for dinner. Turned out delicious. The chicken was fork tender, and it was so easy to make. Thanks for the recipe! This is definitely a keeper.

  11. Hi sabrina just finished dinner by accident i bought frozen Brussel sprouts in stead of peas. Well I didn’t use them. My dinner came out great, I missed the peas though. Next time I’ll get the peas, and still use the mushroom.

  12. Hi sabrina, I’m making this dish as I type this. The only thing I did different was to add mushrooms. I hope your not mad, I’m sure it will be delicious. I pick yours among the test.

  13. I cannot rate this dish, b/c I have not yet made it, … but after reading this entire post, I plan to follow the recipe ‘exactly’ as written. I can then modify it – if I wish to do so. It sounds PERFECT to me, just as it’s written. I’m sure that my family & I will love THIS! For me, chicken, rice & veggies are the ‘perfect meal’. Thanks, Sabrina 🙂

  14. This was a game changer!! I used bone-in chicken thighs, baked for 1hr 15min. I also used seasoned salt. One pan, super fast prep, and clean-up was a breeze! I loved that it used brown rice. My husband & 4 yo son loved it. I even scooped some into my blender and made it into baby food for my 6 month old. He loved it too! I’ll be making this often. Thank you Sabrina! I can’t wait to try your other recipes now.

    1. So glad you liked it. What a great idea to make some of it into baby food – everyone got to eat great! Let me know how you like other recipes!

  15. Thank you for all of your testing. I actually just grabbed my cell phone to quickly look up the timing for a chicken and brown rice bake for use with a recipe of my own. Glad I read the comments, because I did have big bone-in thighs and they were a little frozen in the middle. The time you took to research it certainly helped me out a lot.

  16. Have a question — why do your pictures go to black and white when we print them? They are done so beautifully and look so inviting — but the black and white they give us is a real disappointment!

    1. I’m sorry to hear that. It sounds like it could be something with your browser but I admit, I’m not a tech expert – I just haven’t experienced this on our end.

    1. If you use white rice, it requires half the cooking time as brown rice so you chicken might not be as tender since it’s not cooked as long. Just a heads up. Enjoy!

  17. The chicken seemed to cook faster than the rice for me. This is a very simple recipe, I almost would prefer to just cook the chicken and rice separately and then combine once both are cooked.

    1. Unfortunately this recipe won’t work using drumsticks. There’s less meat on them than thighs and the rice would take much longer to finish than the drumsticks. You’re better off just making everything separate.

    1. I haven’t tested it but you may need to add about a cup and a half more stock to account for wild rice vs brown rice. The cook time should be the same. Enjoy!

  18. How much salt should I put? Sorry, I just need exact measurement coz I don’t want it to get too salty or bland. Thanks.

    1. No worries. I would suggest 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon of coarse ground black pepper. Hope this helps!

    1. You’ll end up having to make everything separate because the chicken breasts wouldn’t take as long to cook. Sorry.

    1. Yes, you can use white rice instead. It’ll take about half the cooking time though your chicken might not be as tender since it’s not cooked as long. It’s still really good. Enjoy!

  19. Now, this is what I’d call a perfect recipe—common ingredients, quick to prepare, one pan meal and delicious! I made this tonight and even though I forgot to add the peas, it was soooo good. Thanks for sharing.

  20. This dish is fantastic! I have made it at least half dozen times already. Kids are grown, so it’s just my husband and I, so I cut the recipe in half. I use chicken thighs as suggested, carrots, and I buy the box of Uncle Ben’s long grain wild rice, the slow cooking kind, not quick cooking. I use the flavor packet from the rice and mix it with the boiling chicken stock. My husband requests this often and it’s a plus for me because it’s so quick, no pots and pans to wash, Just my little covered roaster.
    Thank you for all your great recipes, you never fail me!

    1. Hi, I followed the recipe and don’t know what happened. My rice stayed hard. Any suggestions? Where might I have gone wrong?

      1. Oh no! Next time, you’ll want to make sure you’re using boiling hot water/stock and make sure that it’s wrapped tightly with foil. It’ll help keep the heat in and cook it. Hope this helps.

  21. This dish is fantastic! I have made it at least half dozen times already. Kids are grown, so it’s just my husband and I, so I cut the recipe in half. I use chicken thighs as suggested, carrots, and I buy the box of Uncle Ben’s long grain wild rice, the slow cooking kind, not quick cooking. I use the flavor packet from the rice and mix it with the boiling chicken stock. My husband requests this often and it’s a plus for me because it’s so quick, no pots and pans to wash, Just my little covered roaster.
    Thank you for all your great recipes, you never fail me!

    1. I don’t think I would recommend it because the rice needs more cooking time than the drumsticks would because there’s less meat on them than thighs. If you decide to try, I’d love to know how it turns out. Thanks!

  22. Is this instant brown rice or the regular? I’m guessing that makes a difference and o can’t find anywhere where it’s said

      1. So I am desperately wanting to make this but only eat chicken breast and am trying to stay away from white rice. I was thinking what if I cook the chicken with seasonings/veggies in oven and cooked brown rice in rice cooker and then combined them for the last 5 minutes? Not all in one pot, but….. maybe???? What are your thoughts?

        1. If you’re making them all separate, I would think you should just combine them all on your plate to get as close to the original as you can with the substitutions. Enjoy!

  23. I just finished dinner, the chicken was excellent. I used boneless skinless thighs and cooked for a hour and a half. They were very moist with great flavor, some of the best chicken I have made. I used Minute Brown Rice, it turned out sticky. What type of rice do you use? This is a easy and great recipe. I want to attempt it again with the correct rice. Thank you

  24. This is very easy to make. Haven’t ate it yet but the recipe calls for 2 lbs of sliced carrots. Is that incorrect as that is a lot of carrot?

  25. I am thinking of making this but before I do, I read how some people have issues with the timing… what may be one of the problems is the type of brown rice used. It makes a big difference. So many types of rice now, which is nice but you have to pay attention to the different cooking times of each type of rice and water absorption.

  26. I loved the baked chicken brown rice veggie casserole. We take dinners to people in our church for certain occasions and I’ve taken this twice to two different families and they have loved it. I also have made a smaller amount for just my husband and also for company! Thank you!

  27. Hi Sabrina. While it’s almost two years later, I just found this recipe. It looks amazing and I read many of the comments but my question is, can this be adapted to a slow cooker?
    You may have covered but I didn’t see this asked. Thank you!

    1. It’s still on my to-do list to adapt this to a slow cooker recipe….I do love my slow cookers, haha! Stay tuned!

    1. I’m so sorry but I don’t have any nutritional facts for recipes on the site but I know there are a lot of free resources on the internet from when I’ve cooked for clients with low calorie diets.

  28. I made this after church today. Although it tasted very good the brown rice did not cook all the way. I had the broth at a rolling boil and I cooked it at 375 for 65 minutes. I plan to make again with brown instant rice.

  29. Hi! Can this be made with carrots zucchini and mushrooms? Or do you think the mushrooms and zucchini would get too soggy? Thank you!

  30. I read through all of the comments but didn’t see if anyone asked about using drumsticks instead of thighs. I just so happened to have them on hand. Thanks… Looks delicious!

  31. I made this recipe and it was delicious! The rice was so moist. I usually do my rice in the rice cooker and it comes out kind of dry. I seasoned the chicken and everything in the pan with Himalayan salt, pepper, garlic powder, and lemon pepper seasoning. I cooked at 400 for about an hour and it came out perfect!! 

  32. I don’t see this questions anywhere, might have missed it. You write 2 POUNDS of carrots. I got 1 lb in there and it looks like way more than your photo. I love carrots, but is something off?

    It’s baking, will let you know how it comes out! 

  33. Delicious and so easy! Used skinless bone-in thighs and followed recipe for timing and it was right on time. Thank you!

  34. I was wondering what to make for dinner tonight, then I remembered making this a couple of months ago and absolutely loving it. Not only is it super easy to make, but it’s healthy and cheap too! Oh, I used white rice and it came out perfectly 🙂

  35. This is perfect, Sabrina. I like how you have sprinkled pepper on the chicken that not only gives a great texture but a great smoky taste to it. I tried that but the tiny pepper stones just don’t stay there, don’t know why. Amy I doing something wrong? Because when the chicken mixes with the rice, it looks bland but tastes great nonetheless. Any idea? Thanks, dear.

    1. I think because the broth is washing over the chicken, it’s not allowing the pepper to stay on. My suggestion would be to put the pepper on after putting it in the oven so the broth doesn’t move around or make sure to move the dish into the oven carefully as to not have the broth moving around. I hope this helps and I’m glad you’re enjoying the recipe.

  36. This is the recipe that helped me discover your blog! I’ve screwed up a couple of times by not seasoning it properly (not salting and peppering the entire surface area), but have since discovered using other seasoning like Old Bay or garlic powder in addition to the salt and pepper. Do you have other one pan recipes like this? It is so awesome! thank you.

    Maggie

    PS I’m working my way through the sloppy joe recipes Philly cheese steak s.j. tonight. It was great!

    1. I’m so glad you kept trying! It’s such a great meal, I’m glad you didn’t miss out. I do have other one pan/one pot recipes. There is a search bar at the top of the page and if you type in “one pan”, it’ll pull up all the recipes for you to look through. Happy searching!

  37. This looks delicious and I’m making it for my family tonight, Sabrina! I’ve been looking for a healthy chicken and rice casserole that doesn’t include the creamy soup mixes. I love the addition of the veggies too.

    Can’t wait to revisit your blog!

  38. So I am trying to use up all my food that I have since we are pcsing. (Military family moving to a new state). So I have brown rice, spam, and a can of pea and carrots, and a cream of chicken. Would I be able to use this with this recipe? I know is kinda off, so I’m not sure if it would work lol please let me know what you think(:

    1. First off, Thank you so much for you and your family serving our country! I love that you’re getting creative and smart not to want to waste anything also. I don’t see an issue with the substitutions you’re wanting to use with the exception of the cream of chicken. It’s so much thicker so I might suggest still using the broth instead.

  39. Hi I made the casserole and it came out perfectly. Thank you for the modification bc I had bone-in thighs and cooked everything for 1:45 just like your updates recommended. My question is, do you have the nutritional value for the recipe? Thanks!

    1. So glad you loved it! I’m sorry but I don’t have the nutritional facts for recipes on the site but I know there are a lot of free resources on the internet from when I’ve cooked for clients with low calorie diets.

    1. Sounds like a perfect addition! I would add them at the end with the peas or you could sautée them and add them into the dish when it’s done.

  40. This is a wonderful recipe! I was having a little trouble with it being a bit soupy after the 65 mins, but a few more minutes did the trick! Very very tasty, even my picky two year old cleaned his plate, thank you for sharing your recipe!

    1. Winning over a picky 2 yr old is definitely a win! Thank you for dropping back by and letting me know how much you enjoyed it!

    1. That is a very good question, I haven’t tried it that way so I can’t answer that. But I would be thrilled if you tried it that way and let me know? My gut is saying it *should* work, but its a matter of the liquid having no way of escaping at all that worries me. In an oven you’ll still lose a bit through steam escaping the foil, in a slow cooker you really keep every last bit.

  41. I made this tonight and my family wants me to make it again! Here’s what I did different

    I used 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs, 3 chicken bullion cubes to 3 cups of hot water, brown rice. Thyme seasoning on chicken, And added as side dishes peas and corn. I didn’t do the butte or vegetables in it. My son wants me to use white rice instead next time.

    It turned out perfect for me. I’ve made different variations of this in the past and it didn’t turn out right. So I’m very glad this one turned out!

    1. Fantastic! This dish is perfect to tweak to your taste buds and I’m so happy your whole family enjoyed it! Thanks for taking the time to come back and let me know!

  42. I read somewhere for this same recipe if you put rice on top it’ll also work.I have 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs I want to use, would it work for this?

    1. Yes, you can definitely make this with 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs. Depending on how big they are, you may have to increase your cook time. enjoy!

    1. Sorry I don’t have the nutritional facts for recipes on the site but I know there are a lot of free resources on the internet from when I’ve cooked for clients with low calorie diets.

  43. Your recipe is so simple. Today I had little time to cook in the afternoon so used my slow cooker. I didn’t have the peas but added celery and sweet potato instead. I didn’t have the Breast fillets and used chicken pieces instead. It smells amazing. Because of the extra veggies I had to add extra water later as it was very thick. I know my husband will like it. Plus it is healthy. I removed the chicken skin before cooking. Thank you. We are having it this evening for dinner.

  44. Made this tonight with 4 larger chicken thighs. Since the thighs were about 7 oz I baked them at 375 for an hour and a half. Everything came out perfect! It was delicious! This will now be a go to recipe of mine. It was unbelievably easy to make.

    1. I haven’t tried it before but I don’t see why not. It will alter the taste a bit just because it’s different. If you try, I’d love for you to come back and let me know how it worked out for you.

    1. You could do white rice and chicken thighs probably with no ill effects though it would cook for so much less time. 30-40 minutes for reference.

  45. I just printed this recipe and got a 59-page document…way more ink than I need to spend on a recipe that I have not tried, yet. My printer rant out of paper twice just trying to print the recipe. I don’t need to print all the comments. I have never had this happen before when printing a recipe. Also there is no print preview. I would really recommend that you fix this. Thank you.

    1. That’s so odd, did you use the print recipe button? I’m sorry all the comments printed and there will be a new recipe card soon so hopefully that won’t happen again.

    1. Did you use boiling hot stock? If you’d like to troubleshoot you can email me at contact @ dev.dinnerthendessert.com and I’d be happy to work through it with you, this is one of our staples in our house.

  46. I’m a convert to chicken thighs because of you. Tonight I cooked a batch of breasts separately to use later in the week. The breasts, my former favorite, were dry and tough and the thighs were tender and delicious. Thighs win! I tried the chicken and brown rice with vegetable casserole for the first time and it was perfect. I used SMALL boneless skinless thighs, I didn’t weigh them but they were small. After 1 hour there was a small amount of liquid still in the bottom of the pan, but in 5 minutes it was all absorbed and the dish was perfect (for me)!

    However, my husband just started a low salt diet, so I did not add extra salt and he said it was bland. Any suggestions for flavor without salt?

    1. Garlic will do wonders for it, Rosemary too (although I personally am not a fan of rosemary it is quite popular with these flavors). Maybe a bit of thyme or oregano? Or flavors like cumin and coriander will bring a lot of flavor to the dish (and add a bit of a Mediterranean twist).

    1. Sorry this comment took so long to get to, it ended up in my spam filter somehow! Half the ingredients in an 8×8 baking dish 🙂 Same cooking time.

    1. Sorry this comment took so long to get to, it ended up in my spam filter somehow! Sorry I just found a huge number of comments over the last three months that was snared in the spam filter and I am trying to follow up with each one now even though in your case I am way too late to help. Yes about that long cooking would be right, 30-35 minutes.

  47. You said this freezes easily. How long/what temp do you bake it once it thaws from being frozen? I haven’t made it yet but I have enough chicken to make two batches.

    1. Well, it’ll be done cooking by that point, so you will only need to heat it long enough for it to be warm. You could even heat a portion in the microwave!

    1. Yes! Cut the cooking time in half. The chicken won’t be as fall apart tender but it should be done in significantly less time.

  48. This sounds wonderful… it reminds me of a recipe from my grandmother, which uses 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup. I’m really looking forward to trying your version because I’m not a fan of cream soups anymore. Thanks so much for the helpful info regarding the thigh sizes etc- I think a lot of the troubles I’ve had w various chicken breast recipes recently can be chalked up to the size discrepancies with those, too (it seems all chicken are well-endowed these days, haha!). =)

    1. Yes! I sometimes am in the grocery store and I see chicken breasts that weigh almost a pound for a single piece. And yes, you won’t miss the cream of soups in the recipe, the chicken stock and rice make for a delicious fluffy and moist rice.

      1. Update! I made this for dinner this evening. My bone–in chicken thighs weighed 5oz each. I cooked 8 of the-, no other alterations to the recipe (except I skipped the butter and added a bit of Cajun spice in place of the salt). I used boiling hot chicken broth and cooked the dish for 1 hr 20 min. PERFECT… absolutely perfect. This is a wonderful recipe and I look forward to the leftovers! Thank you so much, Sabrina!

        1. AWESOME! So glad it worked out so well for you! Thanks for coming back and letting me know it turned out. 🙂

  49. Just wanted to comment on this recipe. .it looked wonderful and after reading the reviews and then the revisions or notes I decided to give it a try, however I used regular skin on bone in thighs…BUT I marinated them for 3 hours ( i used the marinade all the time and have left as long as 2 days..its terrific flavor) 2Tbs soy sauce, Tbs grated ginger,1 tbs rice vinegar, 2 Tbs dry sherry, and 2 grated cloves of garlic..massage around in zip lock bag for a few hours or overnight. Then seard the skinnier of the thigh (trimmed any extra hang over fat) and browned it really nice..polled holes in skin to help render. Drained on a paper towel just skin side patted dry.
    Then I added grated/minced shallot and garlic , ginger to chicken broth before I boiled it..DEFINITELY boiled broth and used carrots between etc as recipe stated..covering tightly same as this recipe calls for…the recipe is the same other then marinating the chicken and searing skin. I ALWAYS but skin on and bone in because of flavor and because some said it was bland I marinated it as well. This kept it from being oily and gave it alot of seasoningto chicken..still used pepper and light salt. This is easy to adapt flavors and if you prefer blander a good recipe…I agree that chicken cant be frozen at all nor not boil stock before pouring over rice and have it cook properly or not take alot of extra time…if you change up veggies and seasonings you could do Mexican or Indian, Caribbean etc…with this technique. Great recipe to share and adapt…thanks and would love to see anyone elses adaptation of flavors/combos posted. I love asian!

    1. That sounds amazing!!! I love Asian flavors too and yours sounds awesome! Thanks for the feedback!

  50. I’ve made this twice in the last 2 weeks. Followed the recipe to a T, and both times I’ve had to leave in the oven for an additional 60 mins and at a higher tem for the rice to fully cook. My family loves the dish and so do I, just the wait is longer than I like. Any ideas or suggestions as to why this may be?

    1. Travis are you sure the oven is at the correct temperature? I’ve tested it and recorded to the minute and temperature how long it takes a number of times. Part of the reason some people have had cooking time issues have been: water not boiling hot to begin with (this is a big one), oven temps are off, chicken is frozen (or partially frozen) or the pieces of chicken are huge. Also what size pan are you using? If you use a smaller one, the deeper the food is the longer the cooking process. Would love to troubleshoot via email if you would like? contact @ dinnerthendessert . com 🙂

  51. Realized after I starting cooking that I was supposed to wait till the end to put in the peas. Here’s hoping it turns out fine. I should have actually read rather then assuming they went in at the same time as the carrots. 🙁 I will try to remember to post the results of this mistake.

  52. I’ve noticed when cooking some times you have to take where you live(altitude) into account. Maybe that is also a factor for some? In that case I like to pay attention to the portions of the food that could possibly burn(I’m horrible about that some times.)

  53. Thank you so much for your wonderful recipe! My mom used to make a “No Peek Chicken” that included white rice and canned soup. I remember enjoying it, however this was SO much better! Sorry, Mom! Your directions were spot on! Only one dirty casserole dish? This recipe is a keeper;)

    1. So glad to hear it!! I actually made the dish again today too and enjoyed it for dinner. Wanted to update the photos in the post now that I understand not to shoot food photos with yellow kitchen lights on, haha.

      Thanks so much for your kind words! It isn’t often I beat mom’s recipes. 🙂

    1. No, unfortunately that would cook very quickly and then it would overcook and turn mushy. If you wanted to use instant I would suggest cooking the chicken in your saute pan first before putting it in the baking dish, but that sort of loses the one dish magic. Sorry for the delay in responding, for some unknown reason your perfectly reasonable comment got marked as spam and I didn’t see it!

  54. Thank you so much for this recipe. I made it with boneless, skinless chicken breast halves. I added onion, garlic, dried basil and dried thyme, replaced the carrots with baby carrots and skipped the peas. It was easy to prepare and the additions made it very flavorful. I think I am going to be preparing this very often, since I just need to throw everything in the pan, and even though it took an hour and a half to cook I was able to get plenty done in that time.

    1. So glad you enjoyed it! I love the additions you made, and thank you for coming back to let me know how you enjoyed it. 🙂

  55. I didn’t add the butter to keep the fat down. We found it a bit bland but very good, the rice was perfect and the carrots and chicken cooked just right. Next time I’m going to add a tsp of Mrs. Dash or chicken seasoning.

    Also, I was out of whole carrots so I added a bag of baby carrots and they worked great.

    1. When I can add more spice and flavor I love adding minced garlic and ginger or a bit of cayenne even. Glad you enjoyed it though 🙂 Maybe I should edit the post to include the top ten ways I use this recipe as a base and add different flavors.

  56. PERFECT! I made this tonight. Worked out great…I used all organic ingredients. Slight changes I made-used baby carrots, and for the broth I substituted 1 cup of Portobello soup and added fresh garlic and red onions while it simmered then used frozen corn (it’s what I had). I also used my dutch oven with lid, I was very hesitant about that, not having used it too much, came out great. I thank you so much for this recipe. I remember my mom making something similar but with white rice. During the week I’m usually only cooking for 1, so this works perfect. Dinners and lunches.
    🙂 In much gratitude to you.

  57. This looks so good! Have you ever tried it with regular boneless skinless chicken breasts? That would be the only difference I would make, because it’s what I always have at home. Do you have any idea how much longer/shorter that might take?

    1. Are you going to use brown rice? If so by the time the rice cooks the chicken with be really overcooked. I use white meat a lot in cooking but for this version if I were to switch cuts of meat, I would say you should switch to white rice, I just can’t see the breast meat surviving an hour in the oven without getting super dry and overcooked.

  58. Just made this for dinner tonight and everyone LOVED it!!!! I used boneless skinless chicken thighs and they came out sooooo tender!!! I did add some chopped onions and garlic to the chicken broth before I boiled it. I will definitely be making this again and again it was so easy. Thank you so much for a delicious and healthy recipe!!!

    1. I forgot to say that I cooked it for exactly 65 minutes without peaking at it and the rice was perfect. I used Carolina brand brown rice.

      1. I’m so happy to hear you loved it! It really is a staple in our house. I love your addition of onion and garlic too! 🙂 Thank you so much for coming back and commenting!

  59. Wow my typing is horrible. I have long grain white rice not instant and only boneless skinless chicken breast on hand. Will this recipe still work? And what should be the cook time be then?

    1. So this isn’t something I have tested, but if I had your ingredients here is what I would do. Still use the hot boiling water, but brown the chicken on high heat first. Don’t try and cook it through too much, but get a bit of color on it. Bake for 20 minutes. The goal would be that when the rice is done cooking the chicken breast is finished too. I just think in 20 minutes without browning the chicken it may not be 100% cooked through and you don’t want to have to overcook your rice to get the chicken to finish cooking. That would be my best guess at it. I hope it works for you!

    1. Are you open to white rice? The brown rice will take so long to cook if you use chicken breast it will get super dried out. If you use white rice you could cook for 20-25 minutes. The other down side with the brown rice/white meat combo is that if you try to peel back the foil halfway through and add the chicken you lose all the steam the rice is using to cook and your rice will not come out great.

      1. If I didn’t thaw my chicken breast all the way or put them in frozen do you think that would help them not overcook? I can’t use white rice, have to use brown. This is just a thought, what do you think?

        1. That would definitely be something I would try. But my only hesitation is, is it skinless boneless? If it is, I worry the top may overcook while the inside isn’t quite done and the amount of it above the level of the rice may dry a bit. If It were me I would probably do it, but yes with brown rice definitely.

  60. I also had to bake for close to an hour and a half, but after that amount of time it had set up perfectly… The rice was cooked, the carrots were just the right degree of soft and the chicken was melt-in-your-mouth tender. Next time, I think I’ll only use 1 pound of carrots though. After accounting for shrinkage of the chicken thighs, I feel like I’ve got way more carrots than I need to go with everything else. Good call on just throwing in the frozen peas at the end…you’re right that they “cooked” just from the residual heat. Very tasty meal, end it felt good to make something that was super easy, but didn’t use processes convenience foods. I’ll definitely make this again!

    1. Beth,

      Thank you for coming back to update the saga of the cooking time for this recipe. I am glad you enjoyed it even if the cooking time was also longer for you than I had put in the recipe. I bought all the ingredients today and am baking tomorrow to confirm. I have never cooked it for so long but I am at a loss for why it is taking everyone else so much longer to bake through. Will report back 🙂

    2. Okay, I retested the recipe and updated it with some reasons I think the timing may not have worked. Sorry for the confusion :/

  61. This sounded like my kind of meal. I followed the recipe exactly and used boiling hot stock. Rice, however, didn’t get done. So disappointing. Taste was good, but texture wise didn’t cut it.

    1. Okay, I am going to make it again and keep exact time on my cooking, I usually set the timer on the oven for an hour and I have never had an issue. I will also test the temp in my oven. I am really at a loss for how it isn’t cooking through in that time. I’ll make it this week again and report back. I am so sorry it failed for you!

  62. I followed the recipe to a T and unfortunately the rice was like soup. I’m so disappointed:-( just ate the chicken and carrots.

    1. Hey Jess, would love to know more about what happened? Could you email me so I could maybe troubleshoot with you? I make the dish on a weekly basis, so I am not sure where it could’ve failed you. Did you put boiling water in the pan with the rice? My email is: Contact @ dev.dinnerthendessert.com

    2. Okay, I retested the recipe and updated it with some reasons I think the timing may not have worked. Sorry for the confusion :/

  63. I have to second the timing issue. I’m sitting here waiting at over 1-1/2 hour and the rice is still not done. I followed everything exactly as written. So disappointing.

    1. Hmm, I am so sorry to hear it. I make this dish so often and have never had a problem with it. I did make it again this Sunday after the first commenter had that issue and I think I realized where my mistake was in the recipe. You have to start with boiling stock. I am so sorry for the error in the recipe, I corrected it now (I realize it is too late for your current dinner though). My sincere apologies, I try really hard to make sure I don’t have any errors in the recipes and I totally failed on this one.

    1. I use regular brown rice, which is why it takes an hour to cook. If you use instant I would cut the cooking time in half. The only thing to note is that the hour for the chicken makes it pretty tender so at a half hour it may not be so pull apart tender. Still delicious though!

  64. I tried this last night…delicious!!!Easy and healthy. The only thing I will mention, is that it did take 1 hour and 40 minutes for the dish to be done. The rice took that long to absorb the liquid. I had plenty of time, so it wasn’t a bother, and the chicken was so tender!

    1. Wow! Well first I am SO glad you liked it! I bet the chicken was tender with that long in the oven! I wonder why the rice cooked for so long.

  65. this looks amazing, I so want to try this. So you don’t cook the rice first? You just spread the uncooked rice grains in the bottom?

    1. Yes! Spread the uncooked rice on the bottom! That is one of the best parts of the dish 🙂 Just remember I used brown rice, so the cook time is longer than normal rice.

    1. Frozen peas are so easy, I either defrost them in the microwave or even just add them straight on top when it comes out of the oven and mix. They thaw in a minute or two as the rest of the dish cools down.

  66. Hi Sabrina! I love this recipe! I too play with the seasonings, I like to grow what I eat so whatever needs to be picked is what I use. You are spot-on too about the marrow in the nones. The dish would not be the same without the bones 🙂 Have a great weekend, with a smile from Tampa Fl – Carlyn 🙂

    1. Thanks Carlyn! I love cooking with what I grow too! My only problem is keeping my herbs and veggies alive! With clients and kids and the hubby and the blog my poor plants get the short end of the stick!

  67. You had me at one pan! I love to cook but I hate when I spend more time cleaning up than actually cooking.

  68. I’m making this tonight, but I am not seeing the oven temperature and also wondering what size pan? Is it a 13 x 9 pan at 350 degrees? Thanks!

    1. Yikes, I thought I had it in the instructions, and I am probably too late to help you tonight. It is a 13×9 and the temp is 375

      1. Sabrina- I prefer cheicken breasts. How do you think using breasts in place of their ha would alter the cooking time? Thanks!

        1. Sorry this comment took so long to get to, it ended up in my spam filter somehow! I think the breasts would dry out to be honest, with such a long cooking time on the rice I wouldn’t make brown rice with the chicken breasts. You could do white rice and chicken breasts probably with no ill effects though since it would cook for so much less time? 30-40 minutes for reference.

  69. This recipe looks delicious, I especially love that it is a one pan wonder! Looking forward to your upcoming e-book!

  70. This looks delicious! I love casseroles, they make quick easy meals. I would stick with the brown rice, better for you then white rice.

    1. I always do, but sometimes an hour is too long for someone to commit to. The flavor of the brown rice is just so delicious though and the texture is so soft.

  71. I’m always looking for yummy recipes that I can get on the table easily! This looks like something everyone in my family would love!!!!

  72. Yum! I used to make something like this but it had cream of chicken soup in it and wasn’t nearly as healthy or pretty as yours!

    1. Yep, this dish is pretty guilt free. But it tastes creamy from the chicken cooking in the liquid with the rice.

  73. My husbands favorite is chicken and rice. White rice with cream of mushroom soup. Not the healthiest of all options. I am going to try this with the skinless boneless thighs and brown rice. I think he’ll really like it – kiddo too!

  74. Looks yummy! I will pass on this recipe to my friend who cloves to cook chicken. Thanks for sharing this.

  75. First off, that looks not only delicious, but pretty! 🙂 And I am all about easy… especially love one pot meals! Will be making this soon!

  76. Sabrina I’m bookmarking this beauty for when school starts up again. I struggle to find easy, healthy dishes that don’t take forever to make! This looks great.

    1. Wonderful! I hope you enjoy it! It really is so incredibly simple but the flavors work so well together. Also, you can experiment with seasonings. Sometimes I add diced garlic, sometimes rosemary or some lemon zest and juice. It is just such an easy dish to play around with and alter with any extra ingredients you would like to throw in.

  77. Looks like a great recipe. We eat quite a bit of chicken here so always looking for new ideas on how to make it.

  78. One pan definitely sounds fast and easy! I would definitely swap out the brown for white, thanks for letting us know there is a difference in cooking time when doing that! 🙂

  79. This looks so easy and perfect for a mid week meal! I love that there is pretty much NO clean up… I always find it takes me longer to clean the kitchen than to cook dinner :p

  80. wow. this looks really delicious and seems super easy too! thanks for the recipe, now i want to try it!

    1. yes! I am all for crazy complicated recipes as I am sure you have seen, but easy one pot meals are always welcome in our rotation!

  81. After a weekend of indulgence and splurges, I could use some classic comfort food in my life. This dish looks perfect!

  82. Oh nice! This would satisfy the whole family. Having it all in one pan makes it much easier on me too!

  83. This is so simple and i think I have a majority of the ingredients at home here to make it. I must make it soon!

        1. My concern is that the breasts will dry out because the cooking time for the rice. You might be better off making this with white rice and reducing the cook time to 30-40 minutes.

  84. Aside from the peas (I’m like a preschooler when it comes to peas!) it looks like a great dish. Thanks for sharing!

  85. This is so perfect for me. Absolutely perfect! I have three kids, a day job, and a blog, so there are days when I just don’t have the time to make something super involved. This is great because I can just layer it all in and get back to it. Thanks!

  86. I absolutely love this. Anytime I can make a full meal in one pan, I’m sold. This looks delicious AND easy. That’s a double sale, lady. =D

    1. Yes! by the end of the week if I even have to look at my stove or kitchen it gives me a moment of sadness, haha.