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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.
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 was almost a 5 for us! My husband said 10/10 but I had an issue with the texture. I didn’t realize until after I made it that the recommended rice that’s linked is actually a brown rice/wild rice blend. I made it using wild rice and had to add an extra 20 minutes uncovered to get the rice cooked. I didn’t have to add liquid and the extra cook time made the chicken nice and crispy on top (love!) but the orzo was mush by the time it was all done.
Will definitely be making this again using a different rice blend – the taste was fabulous!
Hi Heather,
So glad to hear this recipe turned out well for you, thanks for making it and sharing your feedback regarding the rice! Have a great Friday! xT
This was SO good!!! I halved the recipe and used a smaller sized Dutch oven and the timing and everything worked perfectly!
Hi Meral,
Thanks so much for trying this recipe and your comment, love to hear that it turned out well for you! Have a great Monday! xT
My husband and I really enjoyed this recipe. We are looking forward to the leftovers tonight. I sent the recipe to my three grown kids and three daughters-in-law, as I think this is a great weeknight dinner that is not only easy but has tons of flavor.
Thanks so much Kim!! Love to hear that this dish was enjoyed, I appreciate you making it! Xx
Changing my review to 5 Stars!! Make sure to make enough for another night!! The leftovers were spectacular. I added more broth, reheated it in the microwave, and presto! Easy, wonderful leftovers!!
**Side note: I opted to use Apple Cider Vinegar instead of wine for fun. It was soooo good. The balance of vinegar with chicken bone broth was perfect. …and who doesn’t need a little apple cider vinegar in their life?
Thanks again Kym:)
So, I used ACV instead of apple cider on accident and came on here to see if anyone else made this mistake. I’m shocked to see a reviewer who did this on purpose, lol. Not the flavor the recipe is going for – it came out super tart and not savory or creamy like it should. Will try again and use white wine instead!
Do you think this recipe would work in a crockpot?
Hi Angie,
I would go ahead and follow this recipe:
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/herb-butter-chicken-and-wild-rice/
I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions! xT
This is a go to family meal now. I’ve made it multiple times now with different amounts of liquid based on the ingredients I had in hand and it tasted great each time. I love adding in spinach/kale as well. I use a Dutch oven and it’s perfect for this recipe. Highly recommend trying this one!!
Hey Brooke,
Awesome!! Thanks a lot for trying this dish, so glad to hear it was enjoyed:) xx
The flavor was good and chicken turned out fine (if you picked off the rice) but the rice and celery never cooked even after 2 hours at 400. I wouldn’t recommend this one. Maybe it would turn out better in a slow cooker
Hi Molly,
Thanks for trying this dish and sharing your feedback! So sorry to hear the rice and celery didn’t cook correctly for you! xx
I’m also shocked at the negative comments. My partner and I read some of the comments first and we made some adjustments that worked out great. This is what we did:
– We used a dutch oven…we just think certain recipes cook better in one and this is one of them.
– We like an equal rice/orzo to chicken ratio, so I doubled the orzo.
– We also used a wild rice/brown basmati blend (Whole Foods 365 brand) as we thought it would absorb the liquid better than just wild rice alone.
– We have a lot of dried herbs we need to make use of, so we used 1tsp dry herbs (thyme & sage) to equal 1 tbsp of fresh herbs. This came out great.
– We opted to use apple cider because we had some leftover from the holidays and it was fine.
– My partner does not like mushrooms (texture thing), but doesn’t mind the flavor. Since I love them we used whole Cremini mushrooms and halved them so they can easily be picked out for the non fans.
Hoping these tips help out the ones who say there’s too much liquid etc.
Thank you so much for all of this input! I really appreciate it! xT
Ok the wait is over, on the menu this week! Comments are interesting, but I’m excited nonetheless! Def gonna use the Dutch oven and most likely chicken breast and white wine. I do have a quick question though. Tieghan, if I skip the wild rice all together (husband not a fan) would you recommend making it with just orzo and doubling it to 1 cup, or sub in long grain rice at same amount as wild? Just trying to figure out the rice to liquid ratio due to omitting the wild rice. Many thanks in advance.
Oh no! I just noticed the rating on my above comment – but I didn’t rate it!! Maybe it’s a default rating. Sorry. I just corrected it here in my reply (I hope) I have no doubt it will be another 5 ⭐️. Your recipes are always spot on, for me! With thx.
Oh no worries! Thank you Sabrina! xT
Hi Sabrina! Hope you enjoy this recipe! I honestly think either will work in this instance! xT
I had similar issues with rice. There was a tremendous amount of liquid in the pan when I took the lid off. The rice was obviously still uncooked in the dish. I added 25 more minutes with lid and a total of 45 without lid. It was a mess and not edible. Chicken and orzo were overdone and rice uncooked still. I only came to the comments to figure “what the heck” because I have never had an issue with HBH recipes before.
Hi Tera! I’m so sorry this didn’t turn out for you! Thank you for letting me know! Is there anything else I can do to help? xT
Beautiful one pot dinner! Cut the wild rice by 1/3 and kept liquids the same .. added an extra 30 min to cook time .. and we’ve got a family crowd pleaser.
Hi there! SO happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for trying it out, and have a cozy week! 🙂 xT
Comforting meal on a cold day. I seared the boneless skinless thighs, reduced liquid 1/2 cup since the Aldi box of wild didn’t yield 1.5 c, transferred skillet to the oven and it turned out delicious. My family asked me to make it again. I will try with chicken breast next time because due to family preference.
Thank you so so much Dawn! So glad you loved this one pan meal! xT
The chicken was good but the rice mixture was awful. We couldn’t eat it. Apple cider overwhelmed the dish. Gouda was a strange add.
Hi! I am so sorry you didn’t enjoy this recipe! I really appreciate the feedback! xT
This recipe worked perfectly – so delicious!
Thank you so much Sarah! 🙂 xT
Ugghh. I so wanted to love this, but even with the rice tip (using pre cooked wild rice), it’s a soupy mess. I love HBH, so chalking this up to a bad day in the kitchen.
Hi Kate! I’m so sorry this recipe didn’t turn out for you! Sometimes different types of wild rice can cook differently, so that could be what happened here! So sorry again! xT
The flavor was amazing! I didn’t love the way the chicken turned out cooked this way. Do you think searing the thighs first would help with rendering the fat? I used the trader joe rice…was soupy. Would you suggest eliminating some of the liquid if using the frozen rice? Or cooking uncovered longer? Thanks so much!
Hi Beth! Yes, you could definitely sear the thighs before if you didn’t love the way the chicken cooked! As far as the rice, I think the frozen rice probably created more liquid in this dish! xT
One of mine and my husband’s favorite chicken recipes! Amazing flavor and really enjoy putting in extra mushrooms and celery. The gouda cheese is a nice touch. We do it with and without and I enjoy both! I’m now a huge fan of wild rice and will be cooking with it more often. Thanks for another great recipe!
Hi! Thank you so much for giving the recipe a try! Hope you have a wonderful New Year! 🙂 xT
We loved this – so flavorful! I used black/purple rice instead of wild rice – nice bit of nuttiness. My husband has requested wild rice next time! I may have cut the Gouda up in too small pieces because it got kind of lost. So I will try bigger chunks. All in all, this is a keeper!
Hey! Thank you so much for trying the recipe out! Love to hear that it was enjoyed! 🙂 xT
My husband is dairy free, if I skipped on the Gouda cheese, would this still have enough flavor and good texture?
Delicious! I used boneless skinless thighs and a box of regular wild rice from Aldi, which is seasoned and mixed with long grain rice. Couldn’t find just wild rice after two different stores and I gave up! I left out the shallots since that isn’t something I normally keep on hand and also the thyme and sage because I just don’t like those. Everything else was the same and it got a big compliment from the hubs!
Thank you so so much! Love to hear this recipe was enjoyed! xT