Chicken and Rice Casserole

Cream of chicken and rice casserole

This chicken and rice casserole, made with Campbell’s condensed cream of chicken soup, is a simple recipe that anyone can make. It tastes great and is almost impossible to get wrong. It is an easy recipe that only needs a few ingredients.

Origin of this Campbell’s Chicken and Rice Casserole Dish 

This recipe is one of my late Grandma Molly’s special recipes. My Granny used to live alone in Forest Hill in South London, and as a kid, I used to visit her by train whenever I was around.

My Gran was not really a great one for cooking, but she always made this simple recipe for me when I was visiting, as she knew I loved it.

I believe her version did not even have any garlic or shallots in it, and I do not think she even pre-fried the chicken, as I sometimes do. It was that simple!

Campbell’s Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup 

The key to the recipe is, of course, the Campbell’s condensed soup. Remember the iconic paintings of Campbell’s soup cans by Andy Warhol? Yes, those are the ones! They look a bit like this: 

Campbell’s Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup Can

Now, back in the good old days, Campbell’s used to be the best known and eaten brand of soup that I can remember.

But now it does seem to be less easy to get hold of, and certainly, where we live in Ireland, I could not find any Campbell’s ‘condensed’ cream of chicken soup anywhere when I wrote this post, so I used a replacement.

Casserole made with a ‘cream of chicken’ replacement cream of chicken soup

Campbell’s is now ‘Erin’ in Ireland

However, I have since discovered that Campbell’s condensed soup in Ireland was re-branded many years ago by the Irish ‘Erin‘ brand of soup as you can read in this news article. So I was able to update this post with some more recent pictures using the ‘real thing’, which I could find locally.

The Erin brand also comes in a tin that looks pretty similar to the Original Campbell’s branded tin, as you can see here:

And after making this casserole it seems to taste exactly the same as the original Campbell’s product, so I am glad I found this out.

This chicken casserole recipe made with Erin condensed cream of chicken soup, without pre-frying the chicken

You can also use this recipe with chicken and ham or chicken and mushroom to make a nice tasty pie, if you have some shortcrust or puff pastry in your fridge or freezer. I have also done this recently and it works well.

Use Condensed Soup if you can get it

So for the original photos of this post, I used a different manufacturer’s can of cream of chicken soup for these pictures. You can tell the older photos as I pre-fried the chicken, garlic and shallots as described in the optional step in the recipe.

From the newer photos, you can see the difference in the appearance of the casserole if you do not follow the optional step.

You could of course also try a condensed cream of mushroom soup if you wanted some variation – that also works.

However, the soup I used originally was not a ‘condensed’ soup, so the sauce is slightly different and less thick than usual. So if you use a non-condensed can of soup, you may want to thicken the sauce using some cornflour as mentioned in the recipe.

So my recommendation is, if you can get your hands on some Campbell’s or Erin’s condensed cream of chicken soup, please do use that. It is just better, and will give you a thicker and tastier sauce in your casserole! Their soups really are the best!

Chicken and rice casserole 

I have used chicken breast in this recipe, but if you wish you can also use chicken thighs and cook the chicken on the bone if you prefer. It is up to you.

The secret to getting the nice fluffy rice in the photos is to rinse and soak your rice before you cook it. Check out some tips in my pilau rice recipe, just leave out all the added ingredients and add only a pinch of salt, but follow the same process of rinsing and soaking.

I hope you get to try this recipe. If you do, please let me know how you get on in the comments section below!

How to make chicken and rice casserole with Condensed Cream of Chicken soup

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Chicken and Rice Casserole (with Campbell's condensed cream of chicken soup)

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

This easy chicken casserole with rice recipe is so easy to make and tastes fantastic. Serve up with some fluffy white rice to soak up the sauce.

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Ingredients

• 1 tin of cream of chicken soup (Preferably Campbell's or Erin's Condensed Cream of Chicken soup)
• 3 chicken breasts
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely sliced
• Vegetable oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Rice (about 75g pp - I use Basmati)

Optional

• 1/2 tsp cornflour (if not using condensed soup)
• Chopped coriander (cilantro)

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
2. Clean the chicken breasts of any white parts, chop into bite-sized pieces and season with some salt. Finely chop the shallots and slice the garlic.
3. Optional step: Fry the shallots and garlic together in a skillet until starting to brown. When cooked remove to a casserole dish. Then fry the chicken until browned on all sides. You may need to do this in batches, depending on the size of your pan. When browned, remove to the casserole dish. [You can also omit this step completely and just throw all ingredients into the casserole dish, as my Gran used to].
4. Then add the condensed cream of chicken soup to the casserole dish with the rest of the ingredients, mix well, cover and place in the oven. I use a covered Stonewear Le Creuset casserole dish to cook this.
5. Cook in the oven for 40 minutes at 180C.
6. In the meantime rinse the rice well under the cold water tap and soak in cold water until you are ready to cook it. I cook my Basmati rice in 2 x 5 minutes on full power in my microwave rice cooker.
7. When the casserole is finished, stir well before serving.

Notes

Serve the rice together with the chicken casserole and garnish with some chopped cilantro (coriander).

If you did not use a 'condensed' cream of chicken soup you may wish to thicken the sauce by mixing the cornflour in some water and stirring into the sauce before serving.

Recommended Products

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• 
  Le Creuset Stoneware Casserole
• 
  Microwave Rice Cooker 
• 
  Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup 

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 304Total Fat: 10gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 82mgSodium: 586mgCarbohydrates: 20gFiber: 1gSugar: 2gProtein: 31g

This nutrition information was automatically calculated by Nutritionix, but may not be 100% accurate.

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