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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
Can you use boneless chicken thighs or did you use bone in?
Thank you!
I would use boneless! xT
Love the flavors but the wild rice was still really chewy after 1 hour and 15 minutes plus by then the orzo was overcooked. I’d recommend precooking the wild rice then adding it all together for the recommended cooking time. I bought the wild rice in Minnesota so it’s the real deal not a boxed mix.
Hi Nancy! Thank you for the feedback! xT
This turned out so good! Super flavorful and easy to make.
Thank you so much! Sooo happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! 🙂 xT
We really enjoyed this overall! I didn’t have any issues with too much liquid or rice not cooking (used a wild rice blend). I think there was too much chicken for the rice ratio and the chicken wasn’t super flavorful but the rice was delicious. I also added broccoli.
Thanks sooo much! Love to hear that this recipe was a success! xT
Im not sure about putting my skillet lid in the oven, if I use a 13×9 pan, can I use foil to cover it?
We made this tonight. Rice/orzo mixture came out perfectly. We used chicken breasts that we had on hand – they turned out a little dry, but we will try again with thighs next time. We also subbed the Gouda with cheddar and havarti we had left over from a party last weekend, and it worked out well. Good one-pan recipe!
Hey there! Thank you for trying out the recipe!
Just okay. The recipe is missing something. I seasoned a bit more to my taste. The apple cider vinegar flavor and smell was too strong for me, wish I used the white wine instead. I got the same kind of wild rice and it cooked just fine in the amount of time posted in the recipe.
I think you mistakenly used apple cider vinegar instead of just regular apple cider. I can imagine it wouldn’t taste good with vinegar!
The recipe calls for apple cider. Not apple cider vinegar. I bet that was pretty bad.
Thank you for the input! I appreciate it! xT
Hey Tieghan , tried this recipe last night. I had no problems everything turned out perfect. The Gouda is a nice touch. I’ve cooked through quite a bit of your catalog I appreciate your ideas and creativity with food. Clutch recipes help keep me motivated to make dinner every night. Thanks!
Thank you so much Ashlee! 🙂 xT
It’s not apple cider vinegar. It’s apple cider,that you drink.
The vinegar taste was too strong because you weren’t supposed to use vinegar. The recipe calls for apple cider, not apple cider vinegar
I’m surprised to see so many complaints! This was a PERFECT cold night meal. Warm, comforting, yummy. The whole family loved it including a picky 13 year old who doesn’t like mushrooms. Warms well also. I cooked exactly as the recipe directs. No trouble with the rice being hard (it was a wild rice blend). I cook mine in a large Le Creuset. Doubled the recipe tonight and keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks!
Aw thank you Pamela! Love to hear that you enjoyed this recipe! xT
Hi Tieghan!
I loved this recipe. It was super convenient to make ahead and refrigerate before throwing it in the oven. Do you think I could double the chicken thigh amount but keep everything else the same? Maybe we’re heavy on the protein but we ate that up quick compared to the rice mixture.
Hi there! I’m not sure that would work/if everything would cook evenly with the extra chicken! xT
I’m generally a huge fan of your recipes but this one was unfortunately a big miss for me. It took almost two hours to get the chicken to cook and by then the orzo was mushy but the wild rice was somehow still crunchy. It was an unfortunate end result for such a long wait. I also had issues fitting everything in a 13×9 baking dish, when I uncovered it some of the cheese boiled over and got burnt at the bottom of the oven and I had a smoke filled house for the rest of the night. I am begging you to please repost this with some edits to the cooking steps for clarity and cooking time for your readers safety. Thanks for sharing but I definitely will not be making this one again.
Hey Jesse, I am so sorry you have had so much trouble. Wild rice can be really so tricky to cook, especially depending on the brand of rice you use. Mine takes about 45 minutes in the oven. What if you tried using just regular white rice? I think that will solve your issue. It’s should cook between 30 to 40 minutes. Really hoping this helps you and again, so sorry for any trouble! xx
This recipe improperly calls for ‘wild rice’ and not ‘wild rice blend’. Wild rice did not cook in the time the recipe states. I’ll look forward to retrying this recipe with a blend or different type of rice. The gouda also doesn’t really melt, so it stays in its cubed chunks. But I would make again with these tweaks.
Can I use an rotisserie chicken? If so, what time adjustments would I need to make since the chicken would already be cooked?
Hi Wendy! I haven’t ever tried that before so I can’t say for sure! xT
Hi!
Is there another type of cheese I can use ? We do not like gouda but assume I need something similar in texture for melting purposes?
Hi Michele,
Sure, you could use some white cheddar, that would work well for you! I hope you love this recipe, let me know if you give it a try! xT
Too much liquid for the measurements of orzo and rice . I don’t think the author accounted for the average American kitchen when putting this recipe together . I had to bake the dish for 3 hours and drain the excess liquid in order to have a decent dish.
Hi Jack,
Thanks for giving this recipe a try and sharing your feedback. Sorry to hear you felt there was too much liquid…how much did you use? Please let me know how I can help! xx
What wild rice brand are you using?
Hi Angie,
I like Lundberg wild rice. Please let me know if you have any other questions! xT