Chicken and Wild Rice in a creamy Parmesan sauce - easy and delicious comfort food! It's just like a casserole, except everything is cooked in the skillet on a stovetop!
Easy Recipe
The best thing about this Chicken and Wild Rice skillet is that it's so easy to make. The only time-consuming portion of the recipe is cooking the wild rice. As you know, wild rice cooks a long time, about 45 minutes, so plan accordingly. After the wild rice is cooked, the recipe is done very quickly.
A great variation of this recipe is a Creamy Chicken Pot Pie Wild Rice with carrots and peas.
Gluten Free Recipe
The creaminess here comes from adding half-and-half and shredded Parmesan cheese, which makes this recipe gluten-free. There is no flour added to thicken the sauce!
How to Cook Wild Rice on Stovetop
- Combine 1 cup of wild rice, 4 cups of water (1 to 4 proportion), and salt in a saucepan. Bring to boil on high heat. Reduce heat low and simmer (cook) the rice for about 45 minutes, covered.
- After 45 minutes of cooking, stir the rice. If there is still water in the pan, cover, and let the rice sit, covered, for 10 more minutes to absorb the remaining water.
- Season the rice with extra salt, if desired.
- For more details, check out this article How To Cook Wild Rice.
How do you know when wild rice is cooked
- Cook until the rice is soft but not mushy and until most of the grains are popped. You don't want the rice to be tough and chewy, so be patient and cook just until it's of the right softness.
- Once the rice is cooked to the desired softness, drain extra water from the pan.
Substitutions
- Don't have half-and-half? To make 1 cup of half-and-half, combine ½ cup of milk + ½ cup of heavy cream.
- What other cheese can you use besides Parmesan? Use Romano cheese, Asiago cheese, or Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese.
- Instead of skinless boneless chicken thighs, you can use skinless boneless chicken breasts.
Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups wild rice , uncooked
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion , small, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 pound chicken thighs , skinless and boneless, chopped into smaller slices
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon dried parsley
- salt
- ⅔ cup half and half
- ⅓ cup chicken broth
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese shredded
- ⅓ cup fresh parsley , chopped
Instructions
- Rinse the wild rice until the water is clear. Cook wild rice + ¼ teaspoon and ⅛ teaspoon salt in a large pot of boiling water according to the cooking instructions on the package (usually, wild rice cooks about 45 minutes, so plan accordingly).
- When wild rice is almost cooked, heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add chopped onion and minced garlic, and cook on medium heat, stirring, until onion is translucent, about 1 minute.
- Add chopped chicken, sprinkle generously with salt, oregano, thyme, parsley, and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through.
- When the wild rice is done, add cooked wild rice to the skillet with chicken and mix everything.
- Add ⅔ cup half and half, ⅓ cup chicken broth to the skillet with chicken and rice and bring to boil. Add shredded ½ cup Parmesan cheese. Stir, until the cheese has melted, on medium-low heat. Taste and add more salt if needed, about ⅛ teaspoon or ¼ teaspoon more.
- Remove from heat, stir in ⅓ cup chopped fresh parsley.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Great results every time making. My kids even love it. Made several times.
Sarah, I am so glad you made this several times and enjoyed it! 🙂 Thanks for letting me know!
This recipe was incredibly amazing !
My husband loves wild rice but in my opinion i can never cook it properly to enjoy...until now! I did add a bit of wine to the onions and garlic before adding chicken chunks. But the recipe doesn't need adjusting.
Erika, your comment made my day - thank you! I am so glad the recipe was enjoyed! Thank you for stopping by and sharing this positive feedback!
Not bad. Not amazing. Took a bit more effort than the result was worth. Definitely good enough for a weeknight dinner though! Should add I used 1 cup wild rice, 1.5 lbs chicken thighs, and didn’t have oregano on hand, so I used a little more parsley and thyme. Thinking it may be more flavorful leftover.
Emily, I am glad you gave this recipe a try! Wild rice does take a longer time to cook - I am still looking for the best and more efficient ways to use it in my recipes.
Another great recipe from Julia! Thank you!
Cheryl, you are very welcome! 🙂
Thank You! This recipe was delicious. It’s my second time making it and even though I was short on wild rice, I still made it.
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I love this recipe! I added fresh thyme, some rehydrated mushrooms and substituted the mushroom rehydrating liquid for the chicken stock. Sooooo good!!!
Just made this dish for my adult son. Used frozen whole grain medley rice, because that's what I had on hand. Added grated carrot and softened diced celery. It is delicious!
Can you use just milk if no heavy cream is available
Can this be made the day before?
Can you use pre-cooked chicken in this recipe?
Yes, you can use pre-cooked chicken.
Loved it!
Thank you!
I made this in the instant pot today. I used bone-in chicken thighs and brown them on the stove. Then saute the onions, garlic and 1 tbsp of ginger. Added the rice with onions and saute for an extra minute. Then I put the rice mixture in the instant pot with the spices and parsley, I added 2.25 cups of liquid (1/4 c water, 2/3 c of half n half and 1 1/3 c of reduced sodium chicken broth). I put the chicken thighs on top, pressure cooked for 10 minutes, with natural release of 15 minutes. Then added parmesan cheese and frozen peas. Stir and Voila!!! Thanks for the recipe!
You are very welcome! I am glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thank you for your tips about how to make this in an instant pot.
You can pre-cook wild rice (or any rice, for that matter) at your convenience, then freeze it in recipe size portions, in flat zipper freezer bags. Thaw package in warm water for a few minutes before adding to recipe.
That's a great idea - it really saves time! Wild rice does take a long time to cook.
Can you add sliced veggies to the mix (carrots, celery). Any thoughts?
Yes, you can! I've added vegetables to this recipe. In fact here is a recipe you might like that is very similar to this one but with more veggies: https://juliasalbum.com/chicken-pot-pie-wild-rice/