Dump-and-Bake Chicken, Broccoli and Rice Casserole (No Browning, Timed)
This chicken broccoli rice casserole needs no knife and no stove. Whole chicken tenderloins, uncooked rice, frozen broccoli, soup and broth go straight into one 9×13 dish. It bakes 75 minutes at 375°F. We timed it at 123 minutes from fridge to sink, with only 19 minutes of real work. The chicken is done at 165°F in the thickest piece.
Fridge-to-Sink: 123 min · 19 min hands-on · 5 things to wash · Jump to recipe
No knife. No stove. One dish in the sink. Some nights, the cutting board is the whole obstacle. So we built this bake around one rule: everything goes in whole, frozen or from a can. Our Fridge-to-Sink Test timed it, like the 11 other dinners in our more weeknight dump-and-bakes, timed.
Can You Put Uncooked Rice and Chicken in One Dish and Just Bake It?
Yes. Uncooked rice and whole chicken tenderloins cook together in one 9×13 dish in 75 minutes at 375°F. Three conditions make it work. First, use long-grain white rice. Instant rice turns soft and pasty, and brown rice needs more liquid and time. Second, the liquid must cover the rice.
One can of condensed soup plus 2 cups of broth does it. Condensed soup is the thick canned kind you do not dilute first. Third, the foil must be tight, because trapped steam is what cooks the rice. So no, you do not have to cook the rice first. That is the whole idea of a dump-and-bake. Every ingredient goes into the baking dish as it is. The oven does the rest, with no skillet and no pot of boiling water.
Popular dump-and-bake versions still add a knife step. The Seasoned Mom dices the chicken. Christie’s Love Story minces 2 garlic cloves. Ours skips both.
Why Use Whole Chicken Tenderloins Instead of Diced Chicken?
Whole tenderloins take the knife and the cutting board out of the job. A tenderloin is the thin strip under the chicken breast, sold in packs. Most run about ¾ inch (2 cm) thick, so they cook evenly without cutting. Diced breast cooks fast, but it asks for a knife, a board and a wipe-down of the counter. Skipping that step keeps 2 items out of the sink.
By our estimate, it also saves about 4 minutes of cutting and cleanup. The tenderloins go straight from the pack to the dish. USDA FSIS does not recommend rinsing poultry before cooking, because the oven does that job. There is also nothing to brown. Browning adds color and flavor, but it is not a doneness step. The thermometer is.
A 1½ lb pack holds 10 to 12 pieces. Lay them flat, thickest ones near the edges.
The full recipe card, with exact quantities and times:
Dump-and-Bake Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
Equipment Needed
- 9×13-inch baking dish (3 qt) · aluminum foil · measuring cup · fork · can opener · instant-read thermometer.
Ingredients
- 1 cup 185 g uncooked long-grain white rice (not instant, not brown)
- 1 can 10.5 oz condensed cream of chicken soup
- 2 cups 480 ml low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp smoked or sweet paprika
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- 12 oz 340 g frozen broccoli florets, straight from the freezer
- 1½ lb 680 g boneless chicken tenderloins, whole
- 1½ cups 170 g shredded sharp cheddar
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 375°F. Let it preheat fully before the dish goes in.
- Open the can. Spoon the soup straight into a 9×13 baking dish.1 can
- Pour in the broth. Add the garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt and pepper. Whisk with a fork until smooth.2 cups 480 ml low-sodium chicken broth, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, ½ tsp smoked or sweet paprika, ½ tsp kosher salt, ½ tsp ground black pepper
- Stir in the uncooked rice and the frozen broccoli. Spread them flat so the liquid covers the rice. (photo)1 cup 185 g uncooked long-grain white rice (not instant, not brown), 12 oz 340 g frozen broccoli florets, straight from the freezer
- Lay the chicken tenderloins on top in one layer, with the thickest ones near the edges. Press them into the liquid. Do not rinse them. (photo)1½ lb 680 g boneless chicken tenderloins, whole
- Cover the dish tightly with foil. Crimp the edges so no steam escapes.
- Bake for 60 minutes.
- Remove the foil. Check the thickest tenderloin: it should read 165°F. If it reads lower, keep going and check it again before serving. Taste a spoonful of rice from the center. (photo)
- Sprinkle the cheddar over the top. Bake uncovered for 15 more minutes, until the cheese melts. (photo)1½ cups 170 g shredded sharp cheddar
- Let the casserole rest for 10 minutes before serving.
Alex’s Tips
Glass or ceramic dish? It can take a little longer than metal. Glass should not go under the broiler, so melt the cheese in the oven.
Leftovers: refrigerate within 2 hours and eat within 3 to 4 days (USDA). Reheat with a splash of broth, since the rice keeps absorbing liquid.
How Do You Know the Chicken Is Done?
An instant-read thermometer tells you, not the color of the meat. This thermometer is a thin probe that shows the temperature in 2 to 3 seconds. Push it into the thickest tenderloin, the one that looked chunkiest going in. USDA FSIS says casseroles and other combination dishes are done at 165°F, measured with a food thermometer. FoodSafety.gov lists the same target for chicken.
Check at the 60-minute mark, right when the foil comes off. Aim the tip at the center of the piece, not at the bottom of the dish. The glass runs hotter than the chicken and can skew the number. Thin pieces finish first, so one reading on the thickest piece covers the whole dish. It takes about 10 seconds, and it ends the guessing.
How to know it’s done: Check the thickest tenderloin with an instant-read thermometer. It should read 165°F. Color is not a test.
Can you put raw chicken in a casserole?
Yes, if the thickest piece reaches that target. USDA FSIS applies it to casseroles.
How Long Does It Really Take, Fridge to Sink?
This chicken broccoli rice casserole took 123 minutes from fridge to sink, with 19 minutes of real work. Fridge to sink means the clock starts at the fridge door. It stops when the last dish is put away. Two Traceable timers ran side by side, one for the clock and one for hands-on work.
The oven time is fixed at 75 minutes. The extra time sits around it. The preheat wait took 6 minutes, the rest took 10 and soaking the glass dish took 15. The Seasoned Mom’s card lists 10 minutes of prep and 1 hour of cook time. Its total is 1 hour 10 minutes. That is accurate for the oven. It just leaves out the preheat, the rest and the sink. Clock stops when the last dish is away.
| Phase | Clock minutes | Hands-on minutes | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pull ingredients | 3 | 3 | 7 items + dish |
| Assemble | 7 | 7 | Pour, whisk, spread, cover |
| Preheat wait | 6 | 0 | Oven on at minute 0 |
| Oven (60 covered + 15 open) | 75 | 2 | Foil off, thermometer, cheese |
| Rest | 10 | 0 | Rice sets |
| Soak | 15 | 0 | Hot water |
| Wash and put away | 7 | 7 | 5 items |
| Total | 123 | 19 | 5 things to wash |
Want the full protocol? Here is how we time every dinner.
Why Is the Rice Still Hard, and How Do You Fix It?
Hard rice almost always means steam escaped. A loose corner of foil lets the moisture out, and the rice on that side stops cooking. Three things usually cause it. The foil is not crimped around the rim. The dish is glass or ceramic, which heats more slowly than metal.
Or the ingredients went in very cold, straight from the fridge and freezer. The fix takes about 10 minutes. Pour ¼ cup of hot broth over the firm area. Crimp the foil tight again. Bake 10 more minutes, then taste a spoonful from the center. The Seasoned Mom suggests 5 to 10 extra minutes when the rice is still firm after an hour. The broth replaces the liquid the lost steam took with it. In our glass-dish session, the rice was tender at 60 minutes.
So this fix follows the published range plus extra liquid, not our own log. Prevention is simpler: crimp every edge before baking.
What Didn’t Go as Planned?
One tenderloin did not match the rest. At the 60-minute check, the thinner pieces had cleared the target. The thickest one was close to 1 inch. It sat in the middle of the dish and read a few degrees short. The center of a glass dish heats last, and that piece had the most distance to cover. We added the cheese anyway and baked the 15 uncovered minutes.
The same piece then read 171°F, and the rice under it was tender. Two changes went into the recipe card. Step 5 now places the thickest tenderloins near the edges of the dish. Step 8 now says to check again before serving if the first reading is low. The broccoli also came out softer than we planned. Frozen florets spend 75 minutes in steam, so expect tender, not crisp.
The cheese went to plan: fully melted, lightly browned at the edges, no dark spots.
Where Do These Numbers Come From?
Every time in this article comes from one full session in our test kitchen. One cook ran it with two Traceable timers. The dish was a Pyrex Easy Grab 3-quart glass baking dish. The oven was fully preheated before the dish went in, as the Pyrex care guide asks. Doneness was confirmed with an instant-read thermometer in the thickest piece and photographed.
The count of things to wash was taken at the sink when the clock stopped. Calories per serving come from an ingredient-by-ingredient sum, then a check in the recipe card’s nutrition calculator. External figures come from the pages below, each checked on September 26, 2026. We link to the exact page, never to a home page, so you can read the exact source line yourself.
- USDA FSIS: Doneness Versus Safety (July 10, 2024)
- FoodSafety.gov: temperature chart
- USDA FSIS: Washing Food
- USDA FSIS: Leftovers
- The Seasoned Mom: chicken broccoli rice casserole (Dec. 3, 2025)
- Christie’s Love Story: dump-and-bake casserole (Apr. 15, 2026)
- Pyrex: FAQ
What to remember
- Whole tenderloins go in straight from the pack. No knife, no board.
- The rice cooks under tight foil. A gap in the foil means hard rice.
- The thickest piece tells you it’s done: 165°F.
- The clock runs long, but the work is short. Most of it is oven time.
Ready for the next one? See how 11 more dump-and-bakes timed out, fridge to sink. The free Dump-and-Bake Timing Card waits on the same page. Or browse more dinners that skip the knife.
Assisted by AI, reviewed by our human editorial team. View our Pages : Editorial Promise / Methodology / Disclaimer. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or nutritional advice.
