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One Pan Roasted Herb Chicken and Wild Rice. I turned my family’s favorite dinner into an easy and delicious one-pan recipe that makes weeknight cooking easy and delicious! Wild rice is cooked together with vegetables, chicken, and herbs. This oven-roasted chicken dinner is the coziest thing you’ll make this week. And also, the simplest and most delicious! The trick is a few slices of butter over each piece of chicken. The butter drips down over the chicken and creates the most flavorful all-in-one recipe! So easy to prepare and enjoyed by all.
It’s always the simplest of recipes that I end up loving the most. This chicken and rice dish is just that, and I’m so excited to share it. I hope the recipe finds its way into your kitchen all fall and winter long – it’s that perfect.
I love creating more one-pot, sheet pan, or crockpot recipes for you all. Anything simple and easy is what I’m all about. When I was dreaming up this recipe, it started out a little more complicated than the recipe I’m sharing today.
After making this twice, I was actually going to move on. The dish just wasn’t working the way I had envisioned in my head.
And at the time, I didn’t feel it was special enough to share. So I left the recipe alone for a bit. But then it was my mom who reminded me how delicious this sounded on paper. She is a sucker for any chicken and rice style dish. Actually, I guess I am too.
I decided to give the recipe one more try, but this time I simplified the process and made the dish even easier. It turned out so delicious, and pretty. I quickly fell in love with it.
I’ve now made this multiple times since. And just like Monday’s pot roast recipe, it’s almost effortless, and a dish that everyone in my family really enjoys.
Here are the details
Step 1: the ingredients
This is not my first one pan chicken and rice, but it’s my simplest to date, and yet still so flavorful. You’ll of course need chicken. I love to use a skinless chicken thigh in this recipe since the dish will cook for a longer period of time. You can use thighs, breasts, or even a mix of the two.
You’ll need shallots, garlic, fresh and or dried herbs, your favorite Italian seasoning blend, a touch of chili powder, wild rice, orzo, mushrooms, and celery.
You’ll also need some gouda cheese, cider or white wine, broth, and butter.
Step 2: mix everything
Now, working in a large casserole dish with a lid, or oven-safe skillet with a lid, toss the chicken with olive oil, shallots, garlic, thyme, sage, Italian seasoning, and chili powder. Then season very well with salt and pepper.
Mix in the wild rice, orzo, mushrooms, and celery.
Add apple cider, or if you don’t have cider, try using white wine. Then add bone broth (or chicken broth). Now arrange pats of butter all around the chicken.
Step 3: bake
Slide the entire dish, covered, into the oven. Now bake for a good amount of time. The wild rice takes a little longer to cook. This needs about 45 minutes with the lid on.
After 45 minutes, I remove the lid and continue to roast the chicken until it’s browned and golden on top, the rice is fluffy, and the liquid in the pan has mostly cooked into the rice.
And that’s simply it, the dish is done.
Step 4: serve
There is not one fancy finishing step or detail. I scoop the rice and veggies up and serve them underneath the juicy herb butter chicken.
Totally no fuss and so delicious. I know this is a recipe I’ll be coming back to time and time again. Perfect dinner to make for family and friends in the next few cozy months ahead!
Looking for other weeknight meals? Here are a few ideas:
Creamy Broccoli Cheddar Chicken Rice
One Pan Chipotle Honey Chicken and Rice
Creamy White Bean Noodle Soup with Rosemary Bacon
Mustard Herb Chicken and Creamy Orzo
Crockpot Crispy Buffalo Chicken Tacos with Jalapeño Ranch
Slow Cooker Saucy Sunday Bolognese Pasta
Crockpot Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Bolognese
Crockpot Herb Butter Chicken and Wild Rice
Lastly, if you make this One Pan Roasted Herb Chicken and Wild Rice, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
One Pan Roasted Herb Chicken and Wild Rice
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 679 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Watch the How-To Reel
Ingredients
- 6 chicken thighs (skin on or off)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 shallots, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped thyme
- 1 tablespoon fresh chopped sage
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- 1 1/2 cups dry wild rice
- 1/2 cup dry orzo
- 1 cup sliced mushrooms
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 cup cubed gouda cheese
- 1 cup apple cider or dry white wine
- 2 cup chicken or chicken bone broth
- 6 tablespoons salted butter
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 400°. 2. In a 9×13 inch baking dish or oven-safe skillet with sides, toss together the chicken, olive oil, shallots, garlic, thyme, sage, Italian seasoning, chili powder, and season with salt and pepper. Add the wild rice, orzo, mushrooms, celery, and cheese. 3. Pour over the apple cider and broth. Position the chicken pieces over the rice. Add slices of butter. Cover and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 15-20 minutes, until the rice is fluffy and the chicken is cooked through. If the rice is hard, add 1/3 cup water and cook for an additional 10 minutes.4. Serve the chicken and rice topped with fresh thyme. And enjoy!
Notes
Trouble Shooting the Rice: some are having issues with the rice cooking properly. Wild rice takes longer to cook than white, it’s also a bit tricker. If you are having issues, you can start with pre-cooked wild rice (Trader Joes and Whole Foods sell cooked, frozen wild rice) and cook the entire dish, 30-40 minutes. Or, add 1 cup of additional broth, plus 20-30 extra minutes of cooking time. My rice cooks perfectly as directed, but ovens and wild rice brands all vary.
This post was originally published on October 25, 2023
We thought the flavor was wonderful, the chicken was moist and delicious, but my wild rice was still undercooked after 50 minutes, and it probably sat for another 5-10 covered – with enough liquid left. I should’ve tried the rice before everyone started digging in! I’ll definitely make this again, maybe using partially cooked rice to ensure it’s done.
Thank you so much for giving this recipe a try! Hope you’re having a great Halloween weekend! 🙂 xT
While a good place to start, my family and I found this a bit bland. I used the cider, so next time I’ll use dry white wine, twice the chili powder and a bit of cinnamon. We’ll see.
Hey Judith! Thank you for the feedback!
Tried this recipe, and it really didn’t work – the rice didn’t cook, and the chicken ended up so overcooked. Not a winner.
I used 1 1/4 c wild rice and 3/4 orzo after reading some other comments. The wild rice stays harder than I would like but at least provides some texture. I did keep it in about 20 minutes longer than the recipe calls for. The gouda got soft but stayed clumpy – didn’t feel necessary. I would prefer more flavor, but a solid, easy recipe to work from.
Thank you for the comment! xT
This really appealed to me as a one-pot “dump it all in” recipe but the result just wasn’t there. For anyone hoping to make this, I would definitely suggest pre-cooking your rice or forgoing rice altogether and using only the orzo, which might help. Chicken was bone-dry by the time everything else was cooked.
Followed this recipe to a t and it turned out perfectly – moist chicken and grains were just right! Used chicken thighs. This was such an easy dish to throw together (love the one dish receives!) I’ll defiantly be making this again.
So glad you are enjoying this recipe! Thanks so much! xT
Not the best, I’m sorry to say. I’m all for one-pot low-effort meals, which is why this appealed to me, but the orzo was mush, the rice was hard even after adding more liquid, the celery was not cooked enough, the chicken was overcooked. All of these ingredients definitely have different cooking times, which is why I don’t think this worked out well.
I LOVE taking shortcuts in the kitchen and will do so whenever I can, but the chicken probably should have been browned and the aromatics should have been pre-cooked, not to mention the rice.
Thank you for the feedback Carmela, I’m so sorry this didn’t turn out for you! xT
This recipe was so delicious! My favorite HBH recipe so far and I’ve made many! I still had thyme left over from the smothered chicken. I used dried sage and substituted a cup of broth for the apple cider. My house smelled so delicious I could not wait to eat it! I will make this again and again! Thank you!
Wow thank you so so much Melissa!! xT
This was great–made as described except subbed red onion for shallot and doubled the mushrooms and used more chicken (9 thighs). I used boneless skinless chicken thighs. Because I used “soup grade” wild rice (smaller broken pieces) –it was perfectly cooked after the 15 minutes lid-free. So easy and delicious !!
Hi there! Thank you so much! So glad you loved this recipe 🙂 xT
I just made this today with chicken thighs (bone in +skin.) I found it easy (basically throw everything in one pot) to prepare and very delicious. The only thing I would do next time is increase the amount of chicken because I have big meat eaters so the ratio of chicken to rice was lacking for our taste.
Thank you so much Mary! xT
Made it tonight. Such good comfort food! I used basmati rice instead because not a huge fan of wild rice. Absolutely delicious!
Thank you Samantha! xT
Stupid. Flavors are great. 1 hour and 30 minutes later, though, I have over cooked chicken breast and not even cooked wild rice.
Hey Brad! I’m really sorry about that. Is there anything I can do to help improve the recipe? Thanks for trying it out
This was not great. The wild rice was not cooked, and the orzo was already mushy before I added more liquid and cook it more.
I also had a feeling that the chicken should be browned and the shallots, celery, garlic, etc, sautéed before tossing everything into the oven, and I should have followed my instincts because the flavors and textures of all these without doing that were pretty lacking. The random cheese cubes thrown in are also just kind of pointless.
Dang this one was a miss. Really wanted to love it. I got spooked by another reviewer so I seared chicken in pan first, then sautéed veggies and then added orzo (and didn’t do rice). Used white wine and water and added some spinach for a veggie. Threw Gouda on top then put in oven to finish cooking chicken and orzo. My husband asked if it was a French onion chicken soup?! It kind of was! Just wished there had been more flavor, it was a little boring after a few bites.
Hey Margaret! I’m really sorry about that! Thank you for letting me know! xT
Hey! If I’m using dried herbs should I use the same amounts if you have listed for fresh herbs?
Could you substitute another liquid for the cider. Not sure I would like that. Thinking beer, wine of more broth.
Hi there! You could definitely use more broth or wine! xT