Broccoli, Rice, Cheese, and Chicken Casserole Recipe

My husband and I love this recipe, although I did adapt it to use fresh broccoli, 8 oz each finely shredded cheddar and mozzarella, and half of a rotisserie roasted chicken. I have made it several times and it is one leftover that is gladly eaten. It really does freeze well. I make several small casseroles at a time.

With some help, this is a winner. A pound of processed cheese is enough to overwhelm any meal, and the canned chunk chicken is not so good either. Here's how we make it: Bake 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts and shred. Make rice in our rice cooker just like always, then scoop 2/3 of the cooked rice into the 9 X 13 pan with the chicken. (Our rice cooker calls for 3 cups uncooked to be used so we save the rest of the rice to make rice pudding so nothing goes to waste. It's also cheaper than instant rice) Then I take 16 oz of whatever cheese I have in the house and shred it. 1/2 Jack and 1/2 cheddar work great. Add a packet of onion soup mix INSTEAD of chopping onions, then 2 cans of whatever condensed creamy soups you like (we use 1 chicken and 1 brocoli), a cup of milk, the butter, and a bag of frozen brocoli. Then we top with sliced provolone cheese which we always have in the house anyway, and bake as per instructions. Between the soups, cheeses, and dry soup mix, no additional salt or pepper is necessary.

What an easy delicious casserole!! I’ve made some changes and it did require a little extra steps/work, but I like to use fresh ingredients wherever I can. Instead of using one can of cream of mushroom I opted for 2 cans of healthy request cream of chicken. The healthy request doesn’t have any MSG in it. Also, I used shredded chicken from a whole chicken that I used from a homemade broth that I made. The chicken from the broth was full of flavor and extremely tender. I’m not a fan of processed cheese like Velveeta, so I opted for a block of sharp cheese that I cut into cubes. And as for the rice, I’m 1/2 Korean so I cooked my rice in a rice cooker and don’t ever use ‘instant’ rice. But for the purpose of this recipe I added olive oil and slightly less water than usual so the rice didn’t end up sticky but separate and fluffy. I chopped up fresh broccoli vs using frozen and instead of an onion I opted for a small shallot and added a couple of cloves of mined garlic. I think next time I’ll sauté the shallots and garlic before adding them. Cooking them directly with the casserole sorta made them over powering instead of ‘enhancing’ the flavors. When you take it out to stir it, you may want to check the flavor and season it with salt and pepper or whatever flavors you want to add. Next time I’m considering adding paprika or maybe ground sage which sets off the flavors of cheese! When the casserole was done I topped it off with some cheese that I shredded myself and broiled it for an additional 5 mins until it was toasty golden and slightly brown. Overall this was a hit and my family enjoyed it! I look forward to continuing on tweaking this and adding it to my cookbook of favorite recipes.

This is a VERY OLD recipe! Decades old. Kraft originally published it, I think, using Cheese Whiz and Minute Rice, plus their soups. I've been using it for 30 yrs, if not more. I modify it in all types of ways as follows: 1. Instead of adding in Chicken, I just leave that out so I can serve it with Beef or Chicken or whatever protein I'm cooking. 2. I've switch out Cream of Mushroom and Cream and Chicken in many variations, sometimes combining them in 1 can of each, or only the Mushroom, and it's ALWAYS delish! 3. The ORIGINAL RECIPE uses 1 jar of Cheese Whiz, instead of using Velvetta or natural cheese - just use same amount. If using Cheese Whiz, we use 2 small jars, one with Jalapeno's and one plain cheese to control the heat. Even makes it easier. 4. I ALWAYS sauté 1 stalk of celery (really increases flavor) and onion in butter, while Microwaving my Broccoli, then mix in all together...EASY PEASY! 5. I usually make it on Stove Pan, in covered 12" skillet, to keep from heating my kitchen (it's HOT here in TX!), and it works the same! Cook onions, celery in butter while Microwaving Fresh or Frozen Broccoli, and pre-cooked Minute Rice, then mix in soups, add cheese and Broccoli, mix well, heat to melt cheese. Done in 15-20 minutes and no heating up the kitchen. 6. Works GREAT with a grilled London Broil! Or any grilled meat, really. My fam loves this and looks forward to it. 7. Can add in Jualpeno to sautéed veggies if you like some heat. I've done this many times...but fair warning, watch the heat of the actual pepper you're using! 8. Also have added in 1 tsp Dried Red Peppers, so this way it's easier to adjust to heat. Raw peppers like Jalapeno's are unpredictable in their heat. Enjoy!

We LOVE this recipe so much. My eight year old begs me to make it. I use a whole rotisserie chicken cut up. I steam my rice and broccoli (frozen or fresh) in the microwave. Then I find a giant bowl and mix it all together. Some changes I make (because, why not?): instead of the processed cheese, I sub 16 oz of shredded mozzarella. I also add crumbled Ritz crackers mixed with melted butter to the top before baking. A lot of times I will put this all together and freeze it before I bake it. When we want to eat it, I transfer it from the freezer to the refrigerator for 24 hours or so and then bake it. It freezes very well!

I don’t usually leave reviews, but I was dumbfounded by how delicious this recipe was! I halved the recipe so I only used one can of cream of mushroom soup, I sautéed onions and a clove of garlic in some olive oil, then I added brown rice, one packet of Velveeta sauce, a bag of pre-cooked Tyson chicken, with a little shredded cheese (stirred that) Then I baked that for 30 minutes in a cast iron skillet and I added bacon and more shredded cheese on top and broiled it for 10 minutes. It turned out AMAZING! My picky son that NEVER eats broccoli even tried it and loved it. I’m telling you this will be a GO-TO recipe for our family from now on!

For ease of ingredients and prep time this is 5 stars. Flavorwise, I'd put that at 2.5 to 3, so I settled on 4 stars. As many others, I did make my own adjustments, mostly for personal tastes that brought this back to 5 stars for me. I halved the recipe and used long grain rice that I partially cooked with the water from the canned chicken (losing lovely flavor if you throw it out) and added enough water to make 2 full cups. To that I added one Knorr homestyle chicken stock cup (the little concentrated one), parsley, onion flake, garlic powder, onion powder 2 tbsps. butter, couple shakes of Mrs. Dash garlic and onion seasoning let it boil, added the rice, let it come to a boil again, covered and turned off the heat. Waited 20 minutes and in a large bowl, combined 1 can of chicken, 1 lb. of thawed broccoli chopped small, rice, 1 can of broccoli cheese soup (no Velveeta) and 1 soup can of milk. Once stirred I layered in half of the rice mixture topped with 4 Kraft Deluxe American cheese slices and added the rest of the rice, smoothed over the top and covered and baked for 15 minutes, took it out to stir but it was barely warm so returned to oven for 15 more minutes. I did not want it to be too cheesy, but I also did not want it to not have enough cheese either. The cheese soup and American cheese slices were perfect. I did suffer a bit of the "soupiness" that others encountered as well and I should have not added the milk, or perhaps a smaller amount. I will try this again with half a soup can of milk next time. I did bake mine for a total of 45 minutes, mostly trying to bake off the extra liquid, but the first 15 minutes in the oven were not enough to heat through the casserole. This was delicious. -Em

This is good!! I didn’t have instant rice but I whipped up jasmine rice in my instant pot. I also used up queso and pimento cheese in the fridge for the processed cheese. The French onion suggestion was excellent.

Delicious!! I used a cooked chicken breast, fresh broccoli slightly steamed and onion in butter slightly cooked. I cooked up Balsamic rice instead of using Instant rice. I also sprinkled 1/2 pkg of Lipton’s Dry Onion soup and used less processed cheese and butter. I sprinkled a little shredded cheddar on top of the casserole before baking and baked 20-25 minutes before stirring and incorporating all the ingredients. Seasoned with salt and pepper. This dish is definitely a keeper and one I will use when we have dinner guests.

I made this recipe but I made quite a few changes. I used only cream of chicken soup, cooked jasmine rice, about a cup and half of shredded cheddar cheese instead of pound of processed cheese cube, and 3 large chicken breast that I seasoned with garlic and onion powders, salt and pepper. I cubed the chicken and mixed in with all the ingredients. Baked in the oven with a little additional cheese on top. We need more protein than cheese, so I tried to make it chicken heavy. It was good, everyone liked it. I would put 5 stars, but with all the changes it wasn't the exact recipe, a good guide though.

I should have read some of the other reviews before trying this. I like to make exactly as written the first time, to give an honest review. I loved the recipe, and the hubby was happy too. The reason I should've read the other comments; I used fresh broccoli that needed to be used up from my fridge. I didn't even consider it different than frozen broccoli, so I didn't pre-stream it. The casserole was still excellent, but that, along with the chopped onion made it a bit more crunchy than normal. Update: I've now made this using a mix of fresh broccoli and cauliflower. I've also added some shredded sharp cheddar on the top, five minutes before cooking is completed, but I'm in Wisconsin, so there's no such thing as too much cheese. Thanks for sharing!

I used Campbells broccoli cheese soup and added colored peppers, onion and broccoli, and extra cheese. EXCELLENT!

ITs a go-to for years! Often use green onion instead of chopping up a regular onion..Love the lady who subbed oatmilk because she is lactose intolerant, but evidently the pound of cheese in it didnt bother her, LOL! I just take a Lact-Aid before eating.....

Epic fail! I don’t know what I did wrong. This isn’t a casserole. This is soup!! Added ALOT more rice and we’ll see what it tastes like tomorrow. SMH

Used fresh broccoli from the garden. Cooked chicken tenders. It turned out great. Made several frozen meals

Loved it, I added Mushroom pieces and a bit of garlic powder, also half canned chicken and half precooked chicken breast pieces and a touch of rosemary.

Everyone loved it ❤️

I followed the recipe without modifications and it was okay. Not bad but missing something.

I didn’t think it would be this good on the first try.

Delicious and easy to make, but used all fresh ingredients instead of processed. Very creamy with good flavors.