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Pesto Chicken and Rice Casserole is simple, delicious and, like any other casserole recipe, lets you sit back and relax as it bakes.
Here’s an amazingly easy Baked Pesto Chicken & Rice Casserole that comes together in a cinch.
Basically, you throw all the ingredients into a baking dish and bake for an hour. Stir in a few goodies at the end and voila! Dinner. Let it be known that these are my favorite kinds of dinners.
So, this dish just involves chicken, rice, pesto, parmesan cheese and….
chicken stock. I know, it’s so easy, right?! Stir it all up and bake for about an hour.
After its all baked and the rice is cooked to your liking, shred the chicken and stir it back in. That’s basically it. If you feel so inclined, stir in some diced fresh tomatoes, more parmesan cheese, more pesto {because I had a little bit left in the jar…haha!}, a little cream {because why not} and some Italian seasoning. All those little add-ins are optional, but very very delicious.
So, there you have it! Pesto Chicken & Rice Casserole. YUM.
Have a great weekend! And feel free to follow along our fun weekend on my Instagram page or the Indulge Conference Instagram page too 🙂
Pesto Chicken and Rice Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 cup long grain white rice
- 1 cup parmesan cheese divided
- 6 tablespoons prepared pesto divided
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts about 1 lb.
- salt & pepper to taste
- 2 1/4 cups chicken stock
- 2 roma tomatoes diced
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
- Italian seasoning optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- In a 9x9 glass baking dish, pour in rice, 1/2 cup cheese, 4 tablespoons pesto, and chicken. Sprinkle chicken with salt & pepper, to taste. Pour chicken stock over all ingredients and stir gently to even out the rice underneath the chicken. Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes to 1 hour or until rice is cooked to your liking.
- Remove chicken from baking dish and shred into large pieces. Add chicken back in and stir in cream, remaining pesto and 3/4 of the diced tomatoes. Spoon into 4 servings and top with tomatoes, more cheese {if desired} and Italian seasoning. Serve.
I made a variation of this a dozen times, yum. Has anyone swapped the rice for quinoa? Would that change the cooking time?
[…] Baked Pesto Chicken & Rice Casserole […]
[…] Baked Pesto Chicken & Rice Casserole […]
[…] Pesto Chicken and Rice Casserole […]
Thinking of making this for a friend who just had a baby. What is the best way to reheat this dish?
Maybe with a touch of chicken stock if it seems dry. Other then that, just in the microwave 🙂 Also, store the fresh tomato topping separately until you’re ready to serve.
This dish has enter my dinner rotation! I love it because everyone in my family will eat it. It was great this fall when I had a lot of basil and made fresh pesto! This is definitely one of my favs because it is so easy to make.
This is now a family favorite! LOVE this! Thanks for the recipe!
This is now a regular favorite in our family. We LOVE this! It is simple to make, too! ~ Charlyn Josey
We make this recipe all the time! It’s a super easy recipe – we sometimes even cheat and use rotisserie chicken and it’s still delish! Lots of leftovers too.
This recipe is so easy and delicious! My family loved it!
This dish looks delicious! I’m always looking for easy recipes to make for dinner on days that I work, and this one looks like a winner. Can’t wait to try this dish this week!
This has become a family favorite. Whenever I don’t know what to make for dinner, this dish it is. Great for meal prep on the weekends too!
This looks delicious! I am a HUGE pesto fan, but I never thought to make it a rice dish! YUM! I make a Chicken Pesto Pasta that is do die for, my family LOVES it! Usually I use Farfalle noodles, chicken slices or chunks that I have sautéed with a little olive oil and garlic, roasted red pepper strips (although I have started using sundried tomatoes instead and my family loves it! Then I usually add in sliced black olives, some sautéed pine nuts, sautéed garlic, pesto of course and I top it will a combination of fresh Parmesan and Feta Cheese. I have used both plain feta as well as sundried tomato basil feta, both delicious! One of our favorite meals and I cant wait to make this one using the rice. YUM! Thanks for the consistently amazing recipes! 🙂
A member of my family is prediabetic so we only use brown rice. Could we do that in this recipe?
Looks yummy. I’m going to try to convert it to a slow cooker recipe. To hot to turn the oven on where I am. Thanks!
What are the Nutrition values?
Have you ever steered me wrong? No. And that trend continued with this recipe. Made it Saturday and it was ridiculously good! I didn’t have regular rice so we used 5 minute rice and even cooking it 45 minutes didn’t mess anything up, if anything made it more like a risotto rice which was awesome. So, we’ll be putting this into the rotation. But just to be clear, let me say it one more way- this was OMG good! 🙂 🙂 🙂
What a great easy recipe! Pinning! Have fun at the conference!
Thanks Lauren, another great recipe! I make my own pesto so this one is calling my name. I use a medium/short grain rice – would you recommend halving the amount of chicken stock for this type of rice?
Looks delish! I love easy and quick weeknight dinner ideas. Thanks for the recipe!