Chicken Broccoli Rice Skillet with Cheddar Cheese skips the canned cream soup and is ready in less than 30 minutes.
Lately I’ve been obsessed with skillet dinners. It’s too hot to turn on the oven and since my boys aren’t old enough to help with the dishes after a meal, I’m fairly strategic with the number of dishes I use. Call it selfish but no one else seems to notice or care that our dinners are a hodge-podge of protein, grains, and veggies. Oh and don’t forget the melted cheese on top. That’s essentially a skillet meal, right?
Last week a good friend of mine texted and asked if I had a recipe for Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole. You know, the one with canned cream of chicken soup in there. Now I’m not opposed to canned cream soups; one of my favorite beef stew recipes uses canned cream of mushroom. But I do try to replace them with healthier ingredients when possible. Hence, this Chicken Broccoli Rice Skillet. Better than the casserole, and easier to cleanup too!
Skip the canned cream soup and make this healthier version of the classic chicken broccoli casserole! Share on X
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces [about 1.5 cups]
- ½ medium yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 cups broccoli florets, cut into bite sized pieces
- 2 cups brown rice, cooked
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup of cheddar cheese, shredded
- In a large skillet or pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add chicken and cook for 5-7 minutes. Remove chicken from skillet and set aside.
- Add the onion and garlic to the same skillet. Stir frequently and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in rice and cook until coated, about 1 minute.
- Add chicken broth to the skillet. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and stir in broccoli and chicken. Cook for an additional 5 minutes.
- Top with shredded cheddar cheese. Serve once cheese is melted.
You’ll notice one thing with my recipe: I use cooked brown rice rather than cooking the rice in the skillet meal itself. I always have a frozen batch of cooked brown rice ready to use in dishes as this OR I like the microwaveable Uncle Ben’s Brown Rice packs— they cook in 90 seconds in the microwave! Want to make this recipe even easier? Cook a batch of shredded chicken over the weekend and you’ll skip a whole cooking step the night of! Whatever your pleasure, this one-skillet comfort meal will please those who do the dish-washer’s in your kitchen!
