Ground Beef and Rice Casserole is a hearty and comforting combination of flavors.
Simply mix rice, frozen veggies and ground beef into a simple easy to make sauce. Top it all with cheese and bake until bubbly!
Why We Love This Rice Casserole
Casseroles are easy to make, comforting and delicious, this recipe is no exception!
It’s versatile since you can use whatever veggies (or meats) that you happen to have on hand!
Cooking ground beef with onion adds lots of flavor. Using instant rice keeps the cook time quick while making a hearty meal.
Prepare this recipe in advance and bake just in time for dinner.
Ingredients/Variations
This recipe is so easily adaptable.
- Make it with chicken instead of ground beef.
- Make it with any “cream of” soup you have on hand
- If you don’t have Instant rice, add in any type of cooked rice can replace instant rice. If using cooked rice, reduce water to 1/2 cup.
- To replace frozen veggies, steam fresh veggies until tender crisp or use leftover veggies.
To Make a from scratch sauce, use the same sauce we add to our Broccoli Rice Casserole or create your own homemade condensed cream of mushroom soup.
How To Make Ground Beef and Rice Casserole
It’s hard to find something this easy to make that still tastes terrific, but here it is!
- Brown ground beef with onions and garlic.
- Add all other ingredients and bake (per recipe below).
- Top with cheese and broil until bubbly and golden on top.
What To Serve With Ground Beef and Rice Casserole
This casserole is a full meal itself, especially with the addition of veggies. To stretch the meal or feed a crowd, add in one of the following:
Side – Grilled or boiled corn on the cob or steamed veggies are the perfect addition!
Salad – Try a simple salad or a more make-ahead layered salad if you have time!
Dessert – How about a slice of strawberry cheesecake pie or some peach cobbler!
Got Leftovers?
Seal all leftovers in an airtight container. According to the USDA food storage guidelines, leftover dishes with meat added can be refrigerated for 3 to 4 days, and frozen for 2 to 3 months.
To reheat:
- Defrost overnight in the refrigerator.
- Mix well and place in a covered casserole dish.
- Reheat at 325° F until steaming hot and bubbly.
This can also be reheated in the microwave.
Easy Beef Casseroles
- Cheesy Beef & Macaroni Casserole – full of flavor
- Beef Taco Casserole – great freezer meal!
- Baked Penne Casserole – with meatballs!
- Beef Stroganoff Casserole – ultimate comfort food
- Ground Beef Casserole – easy and delicious
- Stuffed Pepper Casserole – one-pot meal!
- Hamburger Potato Casserole – made with simple ingredients
Did you enjoy this Beef and Rice Casserole? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Ground Beef and Rice Casserole
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 onion diced
- 1 can mushrooms sliced, drained
- 1 clove garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- 10 ounces spinach chopped, frozen and squeezed dry
- 1 cup instant rice
- 1 ¼ cup water
- 10 ½ ounces cream of celery soup condensed
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
- ½ cup frozen veggies
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Brown beef, onion and garlic until no pink remains. Drain any fat.
- Combine beef mixture with all remaining ingredients except cheese.
- Spread mixture into a 9x13 pan and bake covered for 40-45 minutes or until rice is tender.
- Add cheese, broil for 3 mins or until golden.
Notes
- Replace ground beef with ground chicken (or rotisserie chicken).
- Any “cream of” soup will work in this recipe
- Replace instant rice with any type of cooked rice (reduce water to 1/2 cup if rice is cooked).
- To replace frozen veggies, steam fresh veggies until tender crisp or use leftover veggies
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dinner, Main Course
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Like our recipes?
Follow us on Pinterest!
I love love love your recipes. My only comment is that they always take longer for prep time. Do you have a sous chef in your back pocket? I want one, too!
I made a quick, vegetarian version, using veggie ground beef substitute (no need to cook and drain or wash a fry pan), and increased the vegetables to 1C. Then I nuked the onion and garlic in a very small amount of olive oil in a mixing bowl and then used the bowl to combine the other ingredients. I used 2C leftover rice that was cooked with vegetable broth and reduced the liquid (more veggie broth) to 1/2C as shown in the “notes”. I used reduced fat sour cream, instead of full fat and topped it with reduced fat mozzarella. Because of the salt in the veggie ground beef substitute, broth, and soup, I didn’t need to add salt. I may try subbing Pepper Jack and using corn another time for something different.
Can I make this without the half cup veggies? Perhaps more rice?? Thank you.
You can skip the veggies in this recipe! It’s a very small amount so it won’t affect the recipe.
what would be the measurements to make this for say 300 people. Would like to try this for our meals on wheels program. Thanks
I am not sure how it would turn out at that scale but you can use the print recipe option and change the servings sizes before printing (at the top) to the servings you are trying to make for an updated ingredients list.
Just found this recipe. Looks so yummy and simple. But I bet it would be fantastic as stuffing in bell peppers too!
I made this last night with some substitutions with what we had on hand and it was AMAZING! Keeping this recipe in my rotation. Thanks!
My family was back for seconds before I got all the first plates made.
I took a few liberties, just working with what I had and it was amazing. Swaped the instant rice for an instant wild rice and quinoa mix, used beef froth instead of water, subbed cubed cream cheese for the sour cream and used Colby Jack instead of mozzarella. (Again, ingredients that were on hand.) This is a solid dish. I feel like you could tailor this to any pallet, any month and make it delightful and seasonal. Total winner, can’t wait to make it again!
Just an update. I love this dosh so much, and its leftovers, that I am making it again
Made this tonight for myself, I substituted a lot of stuff because I really don’t like spinach but I like kale which is perfectly fine. I also spiced it up a bit with ancho chili powder, chili flakes, cumin, and a sprinkling of chili powder and cayenne pepper. I also didn’t have cream of celery so I used food cream (I live in Finland, this is all we had). Otherwise this was a great base for a good dinner!
hello and thank you for recipes
You’re welcome David! Enjoy!
I made this recipe tonight and my husband and I both loved it. Easy to put together and didn’t require a lot of time. I’ll make this again.
Very nice recipe.
Modifications I used 2 lbs pork and grd beef 2 cups cooked brown basmatti cream mushroom soup and added some apple cider vinagar paprika Chipotle pepper and ground ajuwain bound all together with 2 eggs and Cheddar cheese on top
If you use cooked rice, then should you add two cups of it since minute rice swells to about twice what it is dry?
You can add two cups of cooked rice Vicki. Enjoy!
If using cooked rice how long should it bake ?
You’ll want to reduce the liquid if the rice it already cooked. The dish will just need to heat through so about 25-30 minutes should be good. Let us know how it goes!
Any recommendations for not using the cream of celery soup?
I’ve only tried this as written but any “cream of” soup should work just fine or you can make your own homemade cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soups.
I had some cream of tomato soup with pumpkin leftover in the fridge so I will use that. Any cream soup can be made from scratch with whatever you have on hand. Chicken, celery or mushroom.
Enjoy recipes
I really like that you suggested leaving out the veggies and using steamed along side, as we really like our veggies tender crisp, and would have done it that way anyway. Also, you suggested types of rice to use is a welcome suggestion as we don’t use instant rice.
Glad to hear those tips worked for you Kathy!
This looks good, will definitely try it out.
Looks delicious gonna make it tomorrow nite for dinner
This sounds really good, going to try it tonite. Just have to coach my sweetie, broken hips sure change a life!!!
Oh no, hope he’s feeling better soon!
Do you think instant brown rice would work in this recipe?
I haven’t tried it but it should work just fine. The water ratio for Instant Rice and Instant Brown Rice is the same however the cook time is longer so you may need to add additional cook time. I would make sure the rice is cooked before adding the cheese on top.
Let us know how it goes!