Dinner comes together quickly and easily with this one-dish dinner of chicken, vegetables, and rice. Your family will gobble down this Chicken and Wild Rice Bake.
I love being able to throw ingredients in a pan, slide it in the oven and walk away. There are so many other things I’d rather do than stand over a stove and babysit dinner. This chicken and wild rice bake is one of those fix it and forget it kind of recipes. The rice and chicken bake while you make a salad or other vegetable side dish. Delish!
The recipe is based on one that I found in my mom’s yellow, weathered, Pillsbury Family Cookbook, circa 1972. LOVE that cookbook! It was written in the days when people still used real ingredients instead of packaged mixes. You can still find them on ebay. I bought my sisters each one, so that someday the family copy is mine. I’m selfish like that.
The original recipe did call for a packaged rice mix, but I’ve adapted it to use regular rice and spices. I’ve given directions for preparing this as a freezer meal at the bottom. Having all the components ready in the freezer is so nice!
Chicken and Wild Rice Bake
Dinner comes together quickly and easily with this one-dish dinner of chicken, vegetables, and rice. Your family will gobble down this Chicken and Wild Rice Bake.
Preparation Time:30 minutes
Cook time:90 minutes
Total time:2 hours
serves 4 to 6
Ingredients:
- 3 bone-in chicken breast halves cut in half or 1 cut-up chicken
- 1 batch herbed vinaigrette or 1/2 cup your favorite oil and vinegar dressing
- 2 cups brown rice
- 2 tablespoons wild rice
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 rib celery, chopped (optional)
- 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms (optional)
- 4 cups chicken broth, water, or a combination
Instructions:
- Combine chicken pieces and vinaigrette in a large ziptop bag. Seal and massage bag. Allow to marinade for several hours or if in a hurry, 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375°. Spray 9×13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Combine rice, wild rice, thyme, pepper, onion, celery and mushrooms in pan. Stir in broth.
- Remove chicken pieces from marinade and place atop rice.
- Cover with foil and bake 1 hour. Uncover and bake an additional 30 minutes or until rice absorbs liquid and chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.
** To prepare this as a freezer meal: Combine chicken breasts and vinaigrette in bag. Label. Combine rice and spices in a second bag. Label. Lay out onion, celery and mushrooms in a single layer on a baking sheet. Flash freeze. Place vegetables in a third bag and make sure to label them. Place all bags together in a larger bag, labelled Chicken and Wild Rice Bake. Be sure to include baking instructions. Freeze. Thaw chicken before baking. Bake as directed above.
Tools I use to make this recipe:
Check out the Ultimate Collection of Freezer Cooking Recipes and Tips for the 411 on freezer cooking.
Want more freezer-friendly recipes and freezer cooking plans? Buy my book, Not Your Mother’s Make-Ahead and Freeze Cookbook
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I have had this bookmarked for ever and just tried it tonight! It was very good! I added some canned artichoke hearts I had in the fridge and finished it with squeeze of lemon juice .. . yum! I made it with skinless chicken thighs (4 of them) and I think for us next time I will halve the rice as it made a lot. But I will freeze the excess for an easy side dish on another night!…so maybe I won”t halve it next time :0)
Thanks! I can always count on your recipes to be tasty!
Great recipe & super easy! I made this last night (using chicken drumsticks) and the whole family loved it! Yeah!! I found it needed longer than 90 mins for all the liquid to cook down – perhaps I wouldn’t cover it for as long next time. I have noted the suggestion above & frozen the leftover rice (2 portions) to serve another time. Great recipe – I will definately make again!
I tried this recipe tonight. The rice was great, however, the chicken was dried out. Any suggestions on how to get the chicken done right?
Maybe keep the chicken covered and uncover the rice? Or remove the chicken once it’s done and tent with foil, then let the rice keep cooking.
I used to make this years ago. Forgot all about it and never thought of it as a ‘freezer’ dish. Thanks for bringing it up!
just wondering if you could make this with boneless, skinless breasts? Or would it take away from the moist quality?
They would dry out. But, you could probably add them near the end of cooking. If you try it, let me know!
Can you tell me what brand of brown rice you use? I’ve had trouble with brown rice not cooking well in the past. Not sure what I’m doing wrong. I’m wondering if a name brand like Uncle Ben’s might work better…
@Ellen, I usually just buy the bulk long grain brown from my health food store.
Just a suggestion that this is a good recipe for people with hypertension (since it has little salt).
I recommend lightly salting the chicken and adding 1/4 teaspoon salt to your rice mix for more flavor. Rosemary works well on chicken with thyme or instead of thyme.
Very simple and yummy. I used chicken thighs and found that there was too much liquid after cooking. I just drained some of it off and baked it a bit longer to dry up the rice a bit. Everyone loved it including my 7 & 2 year old.
Can’t wait to try this! LOVE the freezer instructions & it will be added to my list. Thanks so much for sharing all your great recipes & ideas!!! Your blog is one of my favorites!
Thanks for your kind words. Enjoy!
In the ingredient list, is that cooked rice or raw rice?
uncooked rice
We have special diets going so we used 2 boneless skinless chicken breast halfs, chopped them into 1/2″ pieces and increased the celery and mushrooms and added some carrots, we left out the marinade, but it looked very yum. I stirred every 30 min instead of foiling. I think next time I would reduce liquid by half and put this in the crock pot as I ended up adding 2 cups extra liquid.
Stupid question: IF I did this with a packaged rice box (Uncle Ben’s Long Grain Wild Rice) how would that change the baking instructions? Thanks!!
I am not sure. I used that 20 years ago, but I don’t know how the product has changed? Maybe just check for the baking time about ten minutes before it should be done?
We usually get frozen chicken breasts unless there is a really good sale for fresh chicken. I was thinking I didn’t want to thaw the chicken to put it in a bag with marinade, then refreeze. I realized that perhaps I can just take out the frozen chicken and put as much as I need in a bag of marinade without even thawing the chicken. When I eventually thaw the chicken and marinade will the flavors penetrate as well as if it had been thawed chicken that went into the marinade? (Bag of marinade-put frozen chicken in it-put this bag in freezer)
While I don’t remember having done this, I don’t see a reason why it wouldn’t work. I’ve suggested it to folks before and not heard complaints. I say go for it.
Can I use boneless, skinless chicken breasts?
The chicken will cook faster than the rice if you use boneless, skinless chicken breast. So, I’m not sure how the timing should adjust.
Hi! I am soo glad I found your site with soo many helpful meal plans! As a new mom and full time worker having someone else do the planning is fantastic. Thank you so much! Question about this recipe. Could I make it in the crock pot? If so, would I need to adjust ingredient amounts?
I don’t know, but that’s a great idea! I’ve never made rice in the crockpot.
Happy to have come across your site!
For the freezer meal version, do I pre-cook the rice and spices or freeze it uncooked? Thanks!
You’ll put those in the bag, as specified, uncooked. Let me know if you have more questions. Welcome!
This looks SO good! Thanks so much for the recipe, Jessica. Pinning it now.
Loved the chixken and wild rice bake. I know it was a take on the old yellow cookbook. I was wondering what the cover looked like. Couldnt find it on ebay. I love old cookbooks…
Could u post.
thanks Morgan Gibson
Yellow with blue writing across the top.