Cracked Out Chicken and Rice Casserole – SO easy! Chicken, cheddar, bacon, ranch, rice, cream of chicken soup, and milk. Simply mix everything together, cover, and bake. Ready in about 30 minutes! Everyone LOVES this super easy weeknight dinner recipe!! #chicken #casserole #glutenfree #easydinner
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Pin This RecipeThis is no ordinary Chicken and Rice casserole. This is “Cracked Out” Chicken and Rice – chicken and rice loaded with cheddar, Ranch, and bacon. YUM! This takes ordinary chicken and rice from good to great!
We absolutely loved this dish. How could we not? It is so delicious and super simple to make. I used my weeknight dinner secret weapon – rotisserie chicken – at it came together in minutes. Simply mix together chicken, rice, cheddar, cheese, cooked bacon, ranch dressing mix, cream of chicken soup, and milk. Feel free to throw some broccoli in the mix too! Pour the chicken and rice mixture into a baking dish and that is it. It takes my oven longer to preheat than to make this casserole.
Here is a tip to make sure the rice cooks thoroughly and doesn’t burn on the bottom – stir this about halfway through the cooking time. Turns out perfect every time!
What does CRACK mean?
If a recipe has “crack” in the title it means that the recipe has cheddar, bacon, and ranch in the ingredients. It all started with my Crack Dip way back in 2007. I made the dip for a Titans football game. Everyone went crazy over it. We couldn’t stop eating it and said it was like crack. The name stuck.
According to the dictionary, the definition of crack is “of superior excellence or ability”. We think the flavor combination of cheddar, bacon, and ranch fits this definition! This recipe is most definitely of superior excellence!
This casserole has become a staple at our house. You just can’t beat a quick and easy weeknight meal. We served this cheesy chicken & rice with some butter peas and garlic toast. Here are a few of our favorite recipes from the blog that go great this yummy casserole:
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Cracked Out Chicken and Rice Casserole
Ingredients:
- 2 cups cooked chopped chicken
- ¼ cup chopped cooked bacon
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 (1-oz) package ranch dressing mix
- ¾ cup long grain rice (not instant)
- 1 (10.5-oz) can Unsalted Cream of Chicken Soup
- 1 cup milk
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 375ºF. Lightly spray a 9×9-inch pan with cooking spray.
- Combine all ingredients and pour into prepared pan.
- Cover dish with foil. Bake for 35-40 minutes, stirring midway through cooking time.
Notes:
- I use rotisserie chicken for the cooked chicken in this casserole.
- Can use low-fat chicken soup and milk.
- I suggest using Unsalted Cream of Chicken Soup in this dish to control the sodium.
- You can buy it by the case at Amazon: https://amzn.to/49n4uZE
- Need Gluten-free Cream of Chicken Soup? You can buy it here: https://amzn.to/3MtqQ1s
- Here is our recipe for Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup: https://www.plainchicken.com/homemade-cream-of-chicken-soup/
- Do not make the ranch dressing. Use only the dry mix.
- Feel free to increase or decrease the amount of Ranch dressing mix according to your personal preference.
- Use gluten-free Cream of Chicken soup for a gluten-free casserole.
Steph
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Marissa – you would need to cut the cooking time way down. I would check it at about 15 minutes and then every 5 minutes until done.
Would you still use 1 c. of milk?
What would happen if you did use Minute Rice? I have a ton of it but no regular rice.
Wow! This looks great! I love chicken and rice but you really did it with this recipe. I can't resist the bacon, ranch and cheddar. Definitely going into my weeknight rotation!
Love me some crack ANYTHING! Can't wait to try it Steph!
Thank you Stephanie, will try this soon.
I was hurting for dinner stuff too, going to make this tonight!
Your recipes are always the best! Definitely will give this a try. My favorite of yours is the chicken dish with the orange marmalade.
This recipe looks perfect for dinner tonight! I am curious about something – I notice in a lot of your dinner plate pictures, lima beans seem to be your vegetable choice. Are lima beans a southern "staple"? I've never eaten lima beans unless they were mixed up with other vegetables. How do you cook them so they taste good? 🙂
It’s been along time since you asked this question, so I’m not sure if you’ll see this reply. Lima beans, or as we sometimes call them, butter beans, are my favorite vegetable. I cook mine in water with a couple of chicken bouillon cubes added. You can also add a little bacon grease which makes them really good. I buy mine frozen and just simmer them until they’re done. They should be soft. Hope this helps.
I need this, like I need it right now! I would totally eat all of this haha, I know this recipe is fabulous! Love it!
justanotherperson – it is cooked chicken. I updated the recipe. Thanks!
Can't wait to try it out…I've made several of your recipes and they have all been wonderful! thanks for the great post
Yumm!! Looks great! 🙂 Definitely something we would enjoy – saving this one.
Wonder if brown rice would work in this recipe?
is that raw or cooked chicken
Recipe says cooked chicken.
Campero – no, do not cook the rice first.
Do you cook the rice first?