How long it takes: 20 minutes of prep, with 4 hours of cooking Equipment you’ll need: slow cooker Servings: 6 Crockpot chicken and rice brings both convenience and comfort to the table, with tender chicken, fluffy rice, and a blend of flavorful seasonings and veggies, all simmered together in a slow cooker. (Plus: cheese!) It’s a wholesome one-pot meal, much like a casserole.
Crockpot Chicken and Rice
A complete meal. While you can round things out with a salad or crusty bread, this crockpot chicken and rice recipe is a balanced dish on its own with protein, whole grains, vegetables, and dairy. Perfect for busy schedules. Thanks to the minimal prep time and slow cooking process, this dish is perfect for hectic weekdays when you don’t have much time to cook. Set it and forget it! The chicken remains juicy, the rice absorbs the broth and seasonings as it cooks, and your house smells amazing in the process. Comforting and cozy. Crockpot chicken and rice is exactly the kind of meal I find myself craving on a cold evening—and we have a lot of those in Michigan! It’s hearty comfort food that warms you up and fills you up.
Ingredient Notes
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs: Use whichever you prefer or have on hand. Just make sure it’s boneless and skinless for easier dicing. Brown rice: Do not use instant or minute rice; the long slow cooking will make the instant rice go mushy on you! We found that brown rice works better than white rice in this recipe. Vegetables: Lots of healthy vegetables, like bell pepper, carrot, celery, onion, and green peas (frozen) make this crockpot meal colorful, hearty and nutritious. Low-sodium chicken broth: Broth adds flavor to crockpot chicken and rice, and it’s the cooking liquid for the rice. Seasonings: Use simple pantry ingredients like garlic powder, dried thyme, paprika, kosher salt, and coarse ground black pepper. Shredded cheddar cheese: For the meltiest cheese, shred it off the block yourself. If you’re in a time-crunch, bagged shredded cheese is fine too. Fresh parsley: Optional, for garnish.
How to Make Crockpot Chicken and Rice
Assemble. Finely chop the carrots, celery, onion, and bell pepper into similarly sized pieces so they cook evenly. Coat your slow cooker with nonstick spray, then add the chicken, rice, chopped vegetables, and seasonings. Pour the broth over the top and stir. Cook. Make sure all the ingredients are submerged in the liquid, then cover and cook on high for 4 hours, or until the chicken and rice are both fully cooked. Finish. Take the chicken out of the crockpot and stir in the peas and cheese. Dice the chicken, then stir it back into the crockpot. Season to taste. If you’re not quite ready to serve the meal, keep the crockpot on warm until dinnertime. If it’s not going to be very long, simply turn it off. The heavy crock will keep it warm for quite a while. Serve. If you like, add a handful of chopped parsley to garnish the chicken and rice, and then serve it. Add a simple house salad or a Caesar salad to your meal to round it out.
Helpful Tips
Don’t swap in white rice. I tested this crockpot chicken and rice recipe with both white and brown rice, and the results were significantly better with brown rice. White rice tends to become mushy when cooked for an extended period in a crockpot. Cook on high. While a lot of slow cooker recipes have the leeway to cook on low or high, this isn’t one of them. I tested this recipe several times on the low setting, and the rice (both white and brown) ended up mushy. The texture is much better if you cook it on high. Use low-sodium chicken broth. This ensures that the dish isn’t too salty. If you only have regular broth on hand, omit the salt from the recipe and season to taste at the end of the cooking time. Don’t open the lid. Each time you lift the lid, heat escapes, which can affect the cooking time and temperature of the slow cooker. Only open it when you’re ready to remove the chicken to dice it.
Storage & Reheating
Refrigerate: Transfer leftover crockpot chicken and rice to an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 4 days. Freeze: This dish will freeze, although it does thicken and the rice will be much softer. If this doesn’t bother you, portion it into freezer-safe containers or bags and store them in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge before reheating. Reheat: Reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop over medium heat, stirring occasionally. You may need to add a splash of chicken broth or water to loosen it up a bit.
