Vegan Chicken and Rice Casserole
This Vegan Chicken and Rice Casserole recipe contains everything about comfort food that we all love, including a cheesy topping. With only a few ingredients and less than 30 minutes to prepare, you can plan to make this recipe on repeat!
Other Vegan Comfort Food recipes you can make in less than 30 minutes include our One-Pot Macaroni and Cheese recipe and our Two Vegan Pizzas For Under $15 recipe.
It seems like every family dinner involves some kind of broccoli casserole dish, topped with lots and lots of cheese.
It’s one of those dishes I used to camp out next to, eating spoonful after spoonful. Don’t worry, I always wipe the spoon off on my sleeve before plunging it in for another bite. 🙂
Can you tell I’m a joy at family gatherings?!
Of course, now I’m vegan so I don’t eat Chicken and Cheese Casserole any more.
Or do I????
The Best Vegan Chicken and Rice Casserole
If you like creamy, cheesy, delicious casseroles, this recipe might just be your jam.
For me, it’s all about the combination of the mushrooms, the creamy sauce, the vegan chicken, and vegan cheese. It tastes like a comfort food party in every bite.
As I’ve said before, the benefit of using vegan meats is that they’re mostly pre-cooked, so you can skip that step. Once you create the sauce and add the mushrooms, you’re halfway there to a finished dish.
You can even make your own vegan chicken and it’s easier than you think.
More about this dish
Also, there’s a lot of nutrition in this dish, including brown rice which adds fiber, manganese, selenium, and more.
And broccoli is a cruciferous vegetable, providing Vitamin C, Vitamin K, iron, and more.
Getting your greens in is important too, so that’s why we prepare a side salad, like this vegan Caesar salad, with most of our meals. We love to include dark green leafy greens, steamed broccoli, cherry tomatoes, and more in our salads.
Also, I used a gluten-free vegan chicken product and I used all-purpose gluten-free flour for the sauce. That makes this a gluten-free casserole. Of course, if you like a little gluten in your life, you can find vegan chicken products that are not gluten-free and use regular, all-purpose flour.
So that means this recipe is:
- Creamy!
- Cheesy!
- Healthy!
- Easy!
- Gluten-free!
I have other words I could add to that list, but I like the rhyming pattern going on there. Let’s just go with that.
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Vegan Cheesy Chicken and Brown Rice
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion chopped
- 10 oz package Gardein Chick’n Scallopini chopped
- 2 cups sliced mushrooms
- 3 cups small broccoli florets
- 3 tablespoons all purpose gluten-free flour*
- 1 cup plant-based milk plain, not vanilla
- 1 cup cooked brown rice**
- 2/3 cup vegan sour cream
- 2 tablespoons vegan mayo
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 cup vegan cheddar cheese shreds
Instructions
- Heat your oven to 350F. Spray a 9 inch square baking pan with vegetable cooking spray.
- Pour olive oil in a large pot with the chopped onions and cook over medium heat until tender.
- Add vegan chick’n, mushrooms and broccoli to the skillet. Cook until the mushrooms are tender.
- Sprinkle the flour over mushroom mixture and stir to incorporate. Cook for about 2 minutes. Gradually add the plant-based milk. Cook and stir for about two minutes until a sauce forms.
- Stir in the cooked brown rice, vegan sour cream, vegan mayo, nutritional yeast flakes, and thyme. Stir to combine.
- Transfer this to a baking dish and sprinkle with the vegan cheddar cheese.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the cheese melts.
- Serve warm.
Recommended Equipment
(The products above contain sponsored links to products we use and recommend)
Notes
The nutrition information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator and should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Check out these other Vegan Cheesy Rice Casseroles:
- Vegan Broccoli Cheese Casserole by Connoserious Veg
- Pumpkin Seed Pesto Rice Casserole by Keepin’ It Kind
- Vegan Tofu and Cheesy Rice Casserole by yours truly!
Whatever Vegan Cheesy Rice Casserole is on your plate, enjoy!
So excited to make this. What size baking dish do you recommend? Is 9×13 too big?
Great question! I added a note to the instructions to use a 9″ square baking or casserole dish. I think you’d want to double the recipe to make it in a 9X13 dish. Hope you love it!
Very good recipe. I adjusted it for laziness, adding all the ingredients in the casserole dish + 2 cups vegan chicken broth. Cooked for 1 hr. It’s delicious!
What would you recommend subbing for mushrooms? Would any veg work or is the end product reliant on their flavor?
Thanks!
Hi Sarah. Well, I really love mushrooms in this recipe, but you could try something like artichokes or maybe even some broccoli or cauliflower. Hope that works!