Hi! I’m back today from The Seasoned Mom with another delicious, family-friendly recipe to share. My one-dish Dump and Bake Italian Chicken and Rice is an easy dinner that comes together in just a few minutes, requires minimal clean up, and pleases even the pickiest palates! Even the rice cooks in the baking dish making this a fast, wholesome, and easy meal.
I love a recipe that doesn’t require me to spend too much time pulling out equipment, dirtying (and washing) dishes, or slicing, chopping, and prepping a variety of ingredients. Instead, I want something that I can toss together in advance (preferably while my boys are at preschool in the morning or while my youngest is napping), and then just pop it in the oven when my crew gets hungry. Can you relate?
Oh, and whatever I’m serving better be tasty and kid-friendly! I’m not interested in making a variety of dinner options to please every tastebud in our house. It’s one meal for everyone…and that’s IT! Fortunately, I have an arsenal of quick and easy recipe ideas that I can turn to on even my craziest weeknights. This Dump and Bake Italian Chicken and Rice is definitely one of those gems!
You just need some very basic ingredients, and I bet that many of you already have these items in your kitchen. Shall we take a look?
Start with some Italian seasoning, a jar of marinara sauce, and a can of Italian-seasoned diced tomatoes (don’t drain them).
You will also need some uncooked rice, some uncooked chicken breasts, and some Parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Simple AND delicious, right?
Then you just combine the ingredients right in your baking dish, based on the instructions below. You don’t need an extra mixing bowl, you don’t need to cook the rice in advance, and you don’t even need to bake your chicken ahead of time. It all cooks together!
Enjoy it now, make your family smile, and you can thank me later! Oh, and be sure to join me over on my blog for even more great recipes that will have you in and out of the kitchen in no time!
Dump and Bake Italian Chicken and Rice
Ingredients
Instructions
Looking for other delicious and easy dinner options? Try these:
Lightened-Up Taco Crescent Casserole
One-Dish Chicken, Broccoli & Cheese Pasta
Yummy! I’ll pin this to my dinners board.
Thanks, Nina! I hope that you get to try it soon. 🙂
Can you replace rice with quinoa
Hi, Jewel! You can probably replace the rice with quinoa, since quinoa uses the same liquid-to-grain ratio as regular white rice. BUT, I have never actually tried it, so I don’t know how the cooking time would be affected. Let us know if you give it a shot!
I love that you don’t have to precook the rice. And I love that it’s a gluten-free meal!
Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Isn’t that the best, Lynn? I”m all about efficiency, and this is pretty much as easy as it gets. 🙂
I cooked a whole chicken in the crockpot last night, so my chicken isn’t raw. Will it still work ok in this delicious-looking recipe?
Hi, Janessa! I honestly don’t know! 🙂 I use cooked chicken in casseroles regularly, so I think that it would probably be fine. I’ve just never tried it with this particular dish to see whether or not it significantly changes the amount of liquid in the dish (since the rice is obviously going to absorb a lot of the liquid). Let us know if you give it a shot!
I’m using this for a potluck dinner, so people will only be taking a bit. Can I cut up the chicken into small chuncks before cooking or will that cause them to cook too much? Should I wail right before I sprinkle on the cheese?
wait*
Hi, Grace! Yes, you can definitely cut up the chicken. I would just check the rice as it cooks, and as soon as the rice is cooked through you can pull it out of the oven (since the chicken should cook relatively quickly). I wouldn’t worry about overcooking the chicken, though, since it should stay pretty moist inside the casserole. 🙂 Enjoy!
I made this tonight. I had made a spiralized antipasto italian salad and was looking for something to go with it and this was PERFECT! I did make a couple adjustments. I used parboiled rice because it is what I had on hand and I SUCK at cooking rice. I vetoed the diced tomatoes and only used 3/4 of my jar of chunky marinara sauce. I garnished with fresh basil instead of parsley. I will be making this again. My two year old gobbled it up like nothing I have ever seen and the picky husband loved it too! Thanks so much for sharing such a yummy and easy recipe!!
Hi, Amanda! That’s so great that you liked the recipe. Thanks for letting us know!!
Yay!!!!! Sounds delicious!
I used thin-sliced boneless, skinless chicken breasts. The chicken was done perfectly and had great flavor. The rice had great flavor with the sauce, but……. half the rice (particularly immediately underneath the chicken) was undercooked!!! I think I would rather have overcooked mushy rice than crunchy undercooked rice. Suggestions on how to fix?? I would love to make again, but the crunchy rice undercuts all the benefits of the one-pot cooking. And I don’t just want to cook longer because I don’t want to dry out the chicken.
Hi Kristi!
Did you use brown rice? That wouldn’t cook as quickly as white. I’ve made this recipe from Blair a bunch of times and it did work for me so I am happy to help you troubleshoot! The only other thing besides the type of rice I can think of is if you aren’t covering it tightly enough. The steam really needs to stay inside until the very end to help everything cook through. Let me know if you’re still having trouble!
🙂 Megan
I am wondering if this could be done in the slow cooker and then put in oven for last step. Have you tried that?
I haven’t but that sounds like a great idea! If you try it let us know how it turns out.
This was great! Used my small Dutch oven with a heavy lid and made a half batch. Didn’t change anything else. I think if anyone has trouble with the race, you have to make sure it’s very stirred into the tomato and sauce before you put the chicken in and make sure you have a tight tight lid. Fast easy and I was so tasty!
That is a really great tip Karen! Thank you!!!
I used minute rice, fire roasted tomatoes, canned chicken and jar maranara sauce. I added some chopped black olives and artichokes.it all cooked up great. Husband loved it. I’m gluten free so this will be a pasta replacement.
Yum!!!!