This Mexican casserole is an easy weekday dinner idea that is full of Spanish rice, chicken, and melty cheese. It’s flavorful and everyone will love it!
If you love Mexican food, you’ll love this casserole! It has all the flavors of Spanish rice, chicken, salsa, and taco seasoning all combined into one cheesy and delicious dish!
for Mexican Food Lovers
Do you love Mexican food? Do you love rice, chicken, and cheese? Then this casserole recipe is for you! This is a super easy recipe you can whip up during the week when you forgot to think about what to make for dinner.
Use any leftover Mexican or Spanish rice you have, or you can use a box mix of rice too. Throw everything into a casserole dish, bake in the oven, and dinner is served.
This is a GREAT dinner idea to bring to a friend or family member who is in need of a meal. It’s easy to transfer from your house to someone else’s. Bring along a fresh fruit salad and you’ve got the perfect dinner.
We also make this Mexican casserole when we have company coming over. It’s easy to put together and throw into the oven. So many reasons to make this Mexican casserole!
How to Make It
INGREDIENTS. You’ll need 1 ½ cups of Mexican rice and 4 cooked chicken breasts that are cut into cubes. Add the cubed chicken to a large saucepan with vegetable oil and cook with taco seasoning and minced garlic. While the chicken is cooking, combine the cream of chicken soup, green chiles and salsa.
ASSEMBLE. Layer ½ the rice, ½ the chicken and ½ the soup and salsa mixture in a greased 9×13 baking dish. Add 2 cups of the cheese on top. Repeat layers once more ending with the cheese.
BAKE. Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Take the casserole out of the oven and sprinkle with chopped cilantro. That’s it!
Easiest dinner ever, right?
Mexican Casserole Topping Ideas
No Mexican dish is complete without the classic toppings, right? Add any of the following to individual servings of your casserole:
- Sour Cream
- Greek Yogurt
- Homemade Salsa
- Guacamole
- Cilantro
- Pico De Gallo
perfect for freezing!
Making Ahead. This Mexican casserole is great for making ahead of time. Just prepare everything in the casserole dish up until cooking. Instead of cooking it in the oven, keep it covered in the fridge until you’re ready to make it.
It will last about 3-4 days in the fridge. Or you could put it in a freezer-safe container and freeze it for 3-4 months until ready to bake. Perfect for meal prepping, taking to friends in need and more.
Leftovers. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge- which should last for 3-4 days. Leftovers of this casserole make a great lunch for the next day- yummy!! Just heat it up in the microwave when you’re ready to eat it.
great sides with this casserole:
- Easy Fruit Salad
- Quick Fruit Salad
- Black Bean and Corn Salsa
- Mexican Cornbread
- Summer Corn Salad
- Creamy Refried Beans
For more mexican-style casseroles, try:
Mexican Casserole Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups Mexican Rice
- 4 chicken breasts cubed
- 1 package taco seasoning
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 4 cups Mexican cheese
- 1 1/2 10.75 oz. cans cream of chicken soup
- 1 can green chiles
- 1 1/2 cups salsa
- cilantro
Instructions
- Add cubed chicken to a large saucepan with vegetable oil and cook with taco seasoning and minced garlic.
- Preheat oven to 350 and grease 9x13 dish.
- Combine cream of chicken soup, green chiles and salsa.
- Layer ½ the rice, ½ the chicken and ½ the soup and salsa mixture in your baking dish. Add 2 cups of cheese on top. Repeat layers once more ending with the cheese.
- Bake for 40 minutes and sprinkle with chopped cilantro.
This was amazing!! It had so much flavor & was very simple to make. We love Mexican food, so having it in a casserole form is a great idea! Perfect for feeding a crowd.
This casserole is so easy to make and is already being requested by the littles for an encore! Back on the weekly menu this week!!
This is so perfect for a quick and tasty weeknight meal!
I know what I will be having for dinner tonight! This looks amazing; so excited to give this a try!
This will be a family favorite for sure!
Total comfort food. And love how easy it was to make!
Delicious! I always make your mexican rice when we Have MEXICAN food then freeze the LEFTOVERS specifically to make this casserole!
Mexican food is a must for me. It’s my all time favorite cuisine. This was very simple and fed a lot of people.
If you like mexican food casserole style, thiS is the one to try! It has everything you need in one. feeds many!
Is the rice supposed to be pre-cooked?
Yes, the rice is cooked first 🙂 Enjoy!!
In your recipe you ask for Mexican rice. Is this a particular kind of rice as in short , long grain, or Jasmine rice?
Here is a recipe for the Spanish rice we use…https://lilluna.com/food-tutorial-spanish-rice/. Or, you could buy any kind of boxed Spanish rice. It’s just rice flavored with spices, to make it a Mexican rice.
What kind of salsa?
Whatever you like 🙂 I would use whatever your favorite is.
Well, by the end of making this I don’t know if I truly “followed” the recipe, but it was delicious whatever it was. Haha. Very flavorful, creamy, satisfying.
Here are the changes I made: I added cooked yellow and green pepper (chopped) to add some veggies; I used about 4 cups of leftover chicken instead of cooking it with garlic and taco seasoning; I accidentally used all of both cans of the cream of chicken soup, so to compensate I cut the cheese down to 3 cups; I used a combination of pepper jack, cheddar, and colby jack cheeses; and I didn’t bother with the cilantro since there was so little involved.
Anyway, it was fantastic. The flavors were a bit much for my two year old, so I added some leftover white rice to his to make it a little more bland, and he gobbled it up.
LOL..well, I am glad you liked it! Thank you for sharing what you did!
Is the rice measurement before cooking it or after cooking it? I assume you cook it before assembling the casserole? Thanks!
Yes, cook it before. The measurement will be cooked rice. Hope you like it!
It was good. I didn’t bother with layering it, I just mixed everything together and topped it with cheese. Delicious! Also, it didn’t need the full 40 minutes, everything already cooked so just did 20 minutes.
I’m so happy you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for sharing what you do!
We LOVE Mexican food around here. This quick fix meal was quite delicious! I used a prepared box of Zatarain’s Spanish rice mix in this recipe (it’s my fav!) and it came out great! If you need something that doesn’t require a lot of work and is delicious, then this is it! Thank you for this recipe!
So I’m stupid here but are you talking about already cooked rice or just pour it in out of the package? You make no mention of cooked rice or uncooked.
I would like to try this recipe but the rice issue has me confused.
Thank you.
You’ll want to use cooked rice. I like to use leftover Mexican rice from when I have made it or you can just use a box/bag mix from the store. Cook it fully, then begin this recipe. 🙂 Hope that clears up any confusion and that you enjoy the recipe!
WHERE DO YOU GET MEXICAN RICE
We have an amazing recipe for homemade! https://lilluna.com/food-tutorial-spanish-rice/ You can also get it at most grocery stores where they sell rice.
This was way too salty for my taste.
We LOVE this casserole. It is SO good. IF there are any leftovers they are almost better the second day. And I LOVE cilantro.