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★ Why You'll Love this Recipe ★
5 Minutes, 5 Ingredients
This Mexican Chicken and Rice Casserole literally takes 5 minutes to prep and only uses 5 ingredients.
This chicken dinner dish is so unbelievably good and so easy! Using just a few simple shortcuts and some ready-made, fresh ingredients is the secret.
Toppings Optional
Toppings are optional, but can really take this casserole to the next level. Try toppings with avocado slices, sour cream, lime wedges and/or fresh cilantro.
★ Ingredients You'll Need ★
This is a layered casserole, similar to a lasagna with a Mexican or Spanish flair. You really and truly only need 5 ingredients to pull this off!
Here's everything you need:
- Cooked rice. I like to use seasoned rice to add flavor but any rice works as long as it's cooked. You can buy pre-cooked rice that works great to save time, you can use leftover rice (had Chinese food lately and have leftover white rice?), or you can make some quick minute rice.
- Cooked chicken. Grilled, rotisserie, or leftover chicken works great. You can even use canned chicken, just drain it first.
- Salsa. Use fresh salsa or your favorite jarred salsa. I like fresh salsa or jarred restaurant style salsa. Black bean and corn salsa will also work.
- Cream cheese. Whipped cream cheese spreads best or if using a block, letting it get to room temperature makes spreading easier.
- Mexican shredded cheese. A store-bought blend of cheese adds nice flavor or you can try creating your own blend of cheeses.
If you want to be fancy you can garnish with fresh cilantro or parsley but that's totally optional!
★ How to Make this Recipe ★
Here's a look at the steps. Essentially, you're just layering everything in a casserole dish.
- Add cooked rice rice to you casserole dish.
- Layer on cooked chicken.
- Spread a layer of cream cheese on to of chicken.
- Add a layer of salsa.
- Sprinkle with Mexican cheese.
- Bake. Slice and serve.
Garnish optional — cilantro or fresh parsley work well to add some bright green color to this dish. Sliced avocado and sour cream add creaminess.
★ Tips & FAQs ★
Since I love fresh avocado, if I have a ripe one, I'll slice it up and add this to the top right before serving. It adds a cool and refreshing yet creamy element to the dish.
Another topping idea that's super easy and adds some crunch is tortilla chips. Smash them up and crumble them on top, right before serving.
Love a little heat? Try adding a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce and/or sliced jalapeños.
Even though this casserole is made with just 5 ingredients, it's literally layered with delicious flavor.
The taste is similar to chicken tortilla soup with rice, no beans (unless they're in the salsa) and a really yummy creamy texture and flavor that comes from the cream cheese. It's a perfect balance to the tomatoes and bit of spice you get from the salsa.
There are no tortillas involved since we're starting with rice and quinoa but you won't miss them and it saves a bunch of time not having to roll things up. However, this dish overall, is similar in taste to chicken enchiladas. Definitely Mexican vibes but very subtle heat and that can be adjusted by choosing a mild salsa vs. a hot salsa.
Yes. It's easy prep chicken and rice casserole and freeze it before baking. Let it thaw then bake as directed. Or, if baking from frozen, add extra bake time. You want the sauce bubbling and cheese fully melted.
Yes. Use the sliding scale in the recipe card below to scale the ingredients depending on how many servings you need. Just use a large baking dish or multiple casserole dishes and you may need to extend the cook time by about 10-15 minutes or until the center of the casserole is nice and hot. Remember, everything is cooked, so you just need to heat this dish to get it hot enough to serve.
★ More Chicken Casserole Recipes ★
Want more easy chicken dinner ideas?
Browse all my easy chicken dinner recipes
This easy recipe for 5-Ingredient Mexican Chicken and Rice Casserole was featured on South Your Mouth and Menu Plan Monday!
Mexican Chicken and Rice Casserole (5 Ingredients)
Ingredients
- 8.5 oz cooked quinoa and brown rice or 1 ½ cups
- 9 oz Short Cuts Chicken Breast, chopped or 1 ¾ cups chopped cooked chicken
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 16 oz salsa (any kind works!)
- 1 cup Mexican blend cheese
Mighty Mrs. is a #WalmartPartner.
Instructions
- In an 8x8 square baking dish layer cooked quinoa and rice, then chopped chicken. Drop small chunks of cream cheese over top of chicken spread out evenly as best as possible. (Easiest when you use room temperature cream cheese or microwave it for 10 seconds or so to get it to spread better.)
- Next pour salsa evenly over the cream cheese layer.
- Finally, top with shredded cheese in an even layer.
- Cover with foil and bake at 375˚for 35 minutes. Remove foil for the last 5 minutes of cooking to melt cheese.
- Top with optional toppings and serve hot!
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