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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What if I didn't know the chicken had to be cooked and I did it raw will it still work?
My dtr-in-law made it and it was marvelous. But I'm on a special pre-diabetic diet so, if I can't count the carbs and calories then I can't eat it. And that would just be criminal. Lol
So, do you have any nutritional info on this recipe?
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I made this tonight. I cooked per directions for 40 min. Took it out and stirred and tasted, rice was still not all the way cooked. I added a little chicken broth, turned the oven up to 400, recovered and cooked an additional 15 min. Turned out delicious! By the way I did stir at the half way point also.
I've used this recipe at least 4 times now. Great with beans and frozen vegetables thrown in
The flavor is amazing but my rice came out so hard. Is 1 cup of milk enough to cook 3/4 cup of rice?
So I want to try this and from what I see its very good… My only question is how many people does it feed for?
It will feed about 4 – just depending on what you serve with it and how hungry people are.
My rice was under cooked 🙁
Very good! It will be making a comeback at my house soon.
I made this and it was amazing! I followed the instructions to the mark and at 40 minutes, my rice was still hard as rocks… it took nearly an hour and 1/2 to cook the rice (I had to continuously add more water/milk), and it was still a little 'al dente' but we were so hungry at that point, we didn't care. I was picking rice out of my teeth the rest of the night. I think I only had an 8×8 metal pan… I think next time, I'll at least par-boil the rice. The flavor was delicious!!
I wonder if those who are not getting good results with the baked version are not tightly covering their baking dish? If not, the moisture needed for the rice is going to evaporate and not cook.
Mine turned out perfectly.
We made this (My 3 yr old did most of the work! He loved it!) and added broccoli to it. My only issue was that it is rather salty. Any idea how to cut down on the salt? It's really yummy and we would make it more if we can figure out how to solve that little problem 🙂
I made it with pre-cooked instant rice, otherwise followed recipe, and it turned out good.
Hey Susan, I was planning on cooking this with already cooked rice. Did you still use 1 c. of milk?
Just got done making this with minute rice and cooked it for 40 minutes. Checked it at 20 and 30 minutes, but 40 was perfect! Yum!
My rice was a tad crunchy. I would suggest adding more liquid. Still yummy though! 🙂
I made this for dinner last night. It was a delicious HIT with my family! I used MINUTE rice & it turned out great. 1/2 of a cooked Rotisserie Chicken from Costco (white & dark meat) is the perfect amount of chicken. I did add another 1/2 c. of cheddar cheese (1 1/2 c. total). All other ingredients remained the same. Yummy! ***Highly Recommend***
Hey jamee, I was planning on cooking this with already cooked rice. Did you still use 1 c. of milk even though you used minute rice?
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Emily – I use either Mahatma or Publix long grain white rice. I have never had an issue with the rice not cooking. I make this and a version of this dish all the time.