Creamy Oven Baked Chicken And Rice With Bacon
A delicious creamy casserole made with bacon, oven baked chicken and rice. The perfect family dinner that takes just 10 minutes to prepare (and always gets the tick of approval!).
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Servings: 6 serves
Calories: 482kcal
Equipment
- Oven
Ingredients
- 420 g can cream of chicken condensed soup see notes
- 1 cup water
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 200 g streaky bacon
- 1 cup white long grain rice rinsed and uncooked
- 4-6 chicken thighs approximately 500g
- salt and pepper to season
- ½ tsp ground sweet paprika
- ½ tsp cajun seasoning see notes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius fan-forced (300 degrees fahrenheit).
- Lightly grease the base of a medium casserole dish (approximately 33 X 23cm or 9 X 13 inch).
- Whisk together the cream of chicken condensed soup, water, garlic powder, oregano and parsley. Set aside.
- Lay the streaky bacon across the base of the casserole dish.
- Sprinkle over the uncooked rice.
- Place the chicken thighs on top of the rice and season with salt, pepper, paprika and cajun seasoning.
- Pour the creamy liquid over the top - do not stir.
- Firmly cover the casserole dish with two layers of foil (sealed tightly).
- Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 2 hours (without opening the foil at any stage).
- After 2 hours, check that the rice in the centre is cooked (if not, reseal it and continue baking until cooked through).
- Serve by scooping down through the casserole to get the layers of bacon, rice, chicken and creamy sauce.
Video
Notes
RECIPE NOTES & TIPS
Bacon – use streaky bacon or side bacon. This type of bacon comes in long strips and has more fat than shortcut bacon. It’s important to use streaky bacon in this chicken casserole as it will flake into small pieces throughout the entire dish when served.
Rice – use uncooked long grain white rice. It’s important to use uncooked rice as we want it to slowly cook with the creamy sauce – this gives it the most INCREDIBLE flavour!
Seasoning – the chicken is seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika and cajun seasoning. Use sweet ground paprika (not hot or smoked) which gives a beautiful boost of flavour but without any heat or spice. Cajun seasoning does have a hit of spice so go easy on it if you’re serving this casserole to young kids. Alternatively, add extra if you’d like an extra bit of heat!
Condensed soup – You can buy cream of chicken condensed soup in the tinned soup aisle of the supermarket. It’s a VERY thick (condensed) soup that has had most of the water removed. Generally water or milk is added to a tin of condensed soup to make a tasty soup, but in this case, it’s used to make our delicious creamy sauce! You can substitute the cream of chicken condensed soup for other varieties – such as cream of mushroom condensed soup or cream of chicken and corn condensed soup
Cuts of chicken – the best cuts of chicken to use in this casserole are chicken thighs (bone-in or boneless) or chicken drumsticks. Avoid using chicken wings, chicken breast or chicken tenderloins.
Let it cook low and slow – this casserole bake is cooked in a low oven (150 degrees celsius fan-forced or 300 degrees fahrenheit) for 2 hours. After this time, the rice will be cooked, the chicken will be so tender and the creamy sauce will have coated everything perfectly.
Cover and seal with two layers of foil – it’s important to completely seal the casserole dish with layers of foil so that the steam cannot escape. By sealing it, the steam will cook the rice while keeping the chicken incredibly moist.
Don’t peek – do NOT be tempted to open the oven or peek through the foil at any stage. Because this casserole cooks low and slow it’s important not to allow any heat to escape at all.
Serving – grab a large spoon and scoop all the way down to the bottom of the chicken bake. Scoop up pieces of bacon, layers of creamy rice and the tender cajun spiced chicken.
Storing – this dish can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 days. The reheated leftovers are SO good!
Freezing – this dish freezes perfectly. Store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Allow to defrost in the fridge overnight and then reheat. Alternatively, defrost in the microwave and reheat until hot through.
Nutrition
Calories: 482kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 20g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 101mg | Sodium: 774mg | Potassium: 290mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 363IU | Calcium: 30mg | Iron: 2mg