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French Onion Ground Beef and Rice Casserole – Three comfort foods all stirred into one delicious casserole dish.
The savory taste of French onion soup, the heartiness of ground beef, and rice to soak up all that goodness! You can’t go wrong serving this meal for dinner any night of the week.
Casseroles are filling family meals that can be made ahead and frozen or prepared on the spot. Not to mention, who doesn’t love coming home to the smell of a hearty casserole baking in the oven.
With your protein and starch taken care of, add Southern Style Green Beans or collard greens on the side, so you are sure to get those veggies in. Then finish off the savory meal with the sweet taste of Apple Butter Cheesecake Tart or a Candied Cranberry Walnut Oatmeal Cookies for dessert.
Why you’ll love this French Onion Hamburger & Rice Recipe!
- Classic comfort – Casseroles are traditional comfort foods for cold evenings and delicious home-cooked meals.
- It is simple – You won’t get bogged down with endless measuring in this straightforward weeknight meal.
- Double it up – This recipe is easy to double for a larger crowd. Did the kids bring home friends?
Okay, let’s just get real here. Our lives are so busy these days, we need a simple go-to recipe on hand to make dinner prep a cinch. This is that recipe, y’all.
Recipes made with onion soup pack lots of flavor without a lot of work.
Once you make this onion soup recipe for your family, they will be asking for it on days when they are tired and need the comforts of home. I promise.
And the family will especially be begging for this delicious casserole on cold nights.
I remember when casseroles were all we used to eat as a child. They called it “Depression Era Cooking” because the ingredients included what you had on hand and were not too expensive. Not to mention, the recipes could feed a large number of people. But I think the reason they became so famous in family homes was that they enveloped a feeling of warmth and love in the kitchen.
Well, that is my take anyhow. Tell me what you think!
Ingredients
- Lean Ground Beef – I always have this on hand. It is flavorful and easy on the wallet too.
- Garlic Salt – This is my staple seasoning when cooking my ground beef. You can use want you have on hand or like. Just leave this off if you are watching your sodium intake.
- Beef Consume – There is a lot of flavor packed into this little can. If you can’t find it go for beef stock or broth.
- French Onion Soup – Recipes with onion soup are great because they do all the caramlizing of the onions and developing that delicious flavor. Grab these when they are on sale and stock up.
- Water – Just a little bit is needed to give enough liquid for the rice to cook fully.
- Long-grain White Rice – This is a staple I always have around. Rice along with the ground beef are the base of this dish.
- Butter – You know what they say? Butter makes everything better! It gives a creaminess to the dish. You can cut it back to ½ cup (1 stick), if you would like to cut back on calories.
How to make French Onion Ground Beef and Rice Casserole
✱ Be sure to see the recipe card below for exact ingredients and full recipe instructions!
Step 1 | Getting Ready
Preheat oven to 425°F. Then spray a 9X13 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Be sure to get in the corners, so the rice does not stick.
Step 2 | Browning the Ground Beef
In a large skillet (I like to use my cast iron here or a nice heavy non-stick pan), add the ground beef and garlic salt to season. Cook and crumble the ground beef until browned and cooked through, and be sure to drain off the fat.
Step 3 | Putting it All Together
In the previously prepared baking dish, add the uncooked rice and ground beef. Then pour in soup, broth, and water and stir until combined.
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Step 4 | Top it Off
Now that everything is in the dish add the goodness that will help brown the top and leave the family begging for more. Cut the butter into slices and place on top of the mixture.
Step 5 | Bake in Oven
Cover the baking dish with foil and place it right into the oven. Bake at 425° for 30 minutes.
Step 6 | Uncover the Dish
After the first 30 minutes, you can remove the foil and bake for 30 minutes more. This will brown the top for that crunchy yumminess.
Step 7 | Fluff and Serve
Once the whole hour is up, your rice will be tender and just right. Fluff the dish with a fork and serve.
Yep, it really is that easy to make this yummy casserole for the family. And they will thank you for it, I guarantee!
Tips
- One-Pot Method – Want to cut down on the dishes? Try a cast-iron Dutch oven or large 12-inch cast-iron skillet to brown the ground beef, then add the rest of the ingredients as listed above.
- For a Quick Version – If you want the yummy goodness but just don’t have the time for the baking, try this. Pre-cook rice and then continue the recipe. You will cut out about 30 minutes this way.
FAQ
It means to cook the meat until no more pink is visible. I like to take a step further and make sure the meat has a few crispy edges. This gives the ground beef tons of flavor!
Absolutely yes! Brown rice will take a little longer to cook, though.
Sure you can! Just make sure you get a beef consume and French onion soup that is certified gluten-free. The rest is already gluten-free.
Variations and Substitutions:
- Want a lower carb option? Try riced cauliflower! Just reduce the water in the recipe by one-half, as cauliflower releases moisture as it cooks rather than soaking it up.
- You can use ground turkey or chicken in place of beef. I would add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to the pan to sauté.
- Mushrooms are a great addition. Just add a can of mushrooms when mixing everything or sauté fresh ones with your ground beef. I would add 1 cup of water instead of ¾ cup if you do this.
- Make it cheesy! Once done, fluff rice and then add cheese on top (you can use shredded or sliced) and return to oven until melted. Mozarella, provolone, gouda, or chedder would all be delicious.
Storage and Reheating for Hamburger Onion Soup Casserole:
Storage:
Once cooled, cover the hamburger onion soup casserole with foil or plastic wrap or place it in an air-tight container and store it in the refrigerator for 3 days.
This ground beef casserole makes delicious leftovers. It reheats well in the microwave; just pop it in for a minute or so.
Freeze:
Freeze: To freeze, I recommend cooking it for the first 30 minutes, removing it from the oven, cooling it, and covering it tightly.
Then, the night before you want to serve, thaw it out in the refrigerator, remove the covering, and cook the remaining 30 minutes. You may need to add a little water to finish off the cooking.
You can also cool the cooked casserole, let it thaw overnight, and reheat it covered with foil in a 350℉ oven until warmed through.
Reheat:
To reheat individual servings, place the desired amount on a microwave-safe dish and reheat. Start with 1 minute and stir. Then, add 30-second intervals until heated to your liking.
Serving Suggestions
Pair this savory casserole dish with a fresh green veggie, corn on the cob, or salad. A dinner roll or cornbread goes perfectly as well. That is what is excellent about comfort dishes; they don’t need much else to make an unforgettable meal.
Allow the comfort and goodness of this hamburger and onion soup recipe to warm you – and your tummy!
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French Onion Ground Beef and Rice Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef, lean
- ½ to 1 tsp garlic salt , or to taste
- 2 (10.5 ounce) cans beef consume
- 2 (10.5 ounce) cans french onion soup
- ¾ cup water
- 2 cups long grain white rice, uncooked (not minute rice)
- ¾ cup butter, 1 ½ stick, cut into slices
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray a 9X13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- In a large skillet, add ground beef and garlic salt to season. Cook and crumble ground beef until browned and cooked through.
- In a prepared baking dish add rice and ground beef. Pour in soup, broth, and water and stir until combined.
- Cut butter into slices and place on top of the mixture.
- Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove foil and bake 30 minutes more.
- Once done fluff with a fork and serve.
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Notes
- One-Pot Method – Want to cut down on the dishes? Try a cast iron Dutch oven or large 12 inch cast irion skillet to brown the ground beef, then add the rest of the ingredients as listed above.
Nutrition Information
Nutritional Disclaimer
Soulfully Made is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
©️Soulfully Made
How salty is this? My Husband hasn’t completely gone no sodium, but we try and do low sodium, so not sure if this will be a salt shock to him? He LOVES anything French onion, so I really want to make this!
The dish is naturally salty with the soup mixes. You could substitute a lower sodium beef broth for the consume, use unsalted butter, replace garlic salt with granulated garlic, and just be sure to check your french onion soup cans to verify it fits within your restrictions. It really is delicious and hope it will work for you.
Oh my goodness, this was so delicious, my family devoured this hot dish! I added mushrooms and didn’t drain them, then I added Beef stock instead of beef consume, and the rice was very moist. My family wants me to make this really soon again!
Thank you, Reba! It makes me so happy that your family loved this one! It’s my granddaughter’s favorite dish and thrills me to know your family wants to enjoy it again.
Great taste! Making it again I will halve the recipe and make it as a skillet meal rather than very full 9×13. That will be easier than carrying the dish and placing in the oven without spilling the liquid on the way and will make plenty for our family.
You can definitely make this as a skillet meal as well. I am so thrilled to hear you are making it again.
Hi Nikki,
This sounds great! However, I’m in Ecuador and can’t get those soups often. When I can find Them, they’re $3-$4 each. However, I’ve got envelopes to the dry French Onion soup and can get beef broth. Can you give me your best guess on how I can substitute the? Thank you in advance for your help.
The soup cans are 10.5 ounces each. I would try one packet of dry soup mix to 21 ounces of beef broth to start. Give it a taste and adjust from there. I have thought I would test this before, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Please let me know how it goes for you.
Recipe is great and thanks Anthony for you comment. My family like brown basmati rice. I did as you recommended and cook the rice first using 2 cups rice, 2 cans of beef consume and 1 can of french onion. I then browned the ground beef as instructed and placed the meat along with the remaining can of french onion in the casserole dish along with the cooked rice, no additional water. Butter on top and all went in the oven for 30 minutes. I recommend 15 covered then 15 or so uncovered. I will be making again.
This was so good! My picky children loved it too! So nice to please everyone in a family of 5!! I halved the recipe because I wasn’t sure if everyone would eat it… next time, it will be a full recipe because there were no leftovers! I also used ground turkey.
Thanks for an easy, yummy addition to our dinner rotation.
Thank you, Crystal! I am so glad your family enjoyed it. It really is as delicious as leftovers too! We love easy recipes here!
I had some Success rice that I wanted to use up, so I opted for the Quick Version. Using an instant rice I wasn’t sure if I needed to change the amount of rice and/or if I should use less liquid. But I made some guesses and went for it and it came out perfect – nice crisp rice along the top edges, moist and flavorful, good beef to rice ratio. Here’s what I did:
-Add the 2 cans of beef consumme & 2 cans of french onion soup to a pot and bring to a boil. I didn’t add any water.
-Added 3 bags of Success rice to the pot. (I emptied the rice from the perforated bag directly into the pot. Each bag contains 1 cup rice). Note that I started with 2 cups, but was concerned there would be too much liquid, so I added the third.
-Boiled the rice for about 8 minutes.
-Combined the rice/soup mixture with the ground beef in a 9×13 pan and added the butter on top as instructed. Baked for exactly 30 minutes in a 425 degree oven.
Excellent. I added some Swiss cheese , about half a cup, to the top when it was done. Melted in a couple minutes. Will make again
Flavor was delicious, but it had to cook well over an hour which I wasn’t a fan of
Sorry, yours took longer to cook. Mine is usually spot on in an hour. You could adjust with instant rice and test the cook times. Maybe 1/2 hour.
I found this recipe to be easy and very flavorful. My picky husband did not. I’m a “foodie” he is a food chicken.
I put some Swiss cheese on top of mine. It tastes good either way, I’m just a cheese addict.
I am so glad you love it, even if hubby wasn’t a fan! I bet swiss cheese was amazing! I agree with you about cheese – YUM!
Has anyone tried this in the crockpot?
I made this today for dinner. I used white jasmine rice instead, because that was all I had. It was delicious! My whole family loved it! Thanks for the great recipe!
Thank you so much, Mary! I am glad the jasmine rice worked well for you. Perfect to sub what you have on hand.
Made this 2 times with modifications to use what I had. One with hot Italian sausage and wild rice blend. One with sweet Italian sausage and jasmine rice. Both times I added 2 cups of mixed veggies that I microwaved first and added after the sausage/rice came out of the oven. Both were very good!!
So glad you enjoyed the recipe. Love your additions and changes to change it up every once in a while – and it’s always good to improvise with what you have on hand.
I used my 12 inch cast iron skillet with my cover. I used brown jasmine rice. I noticed I have to cook it longer than the overall one hour. Close to an hour and a half. I don’t recommend this option. Recipe though is delicious.
Sometimes brown rice can take a little longer. But the flavors are worth the wait.
If you use precooked rice how will it affect the amount of soups/water?
I haven’t tested the recipe with already cooked rice so it’s hard to say for sure. I’d try half the amount of liquid if I were to start testing it.
I don’t have regular rice, would minute rice work? Would I need to adjust anything?
I have not tested the cook time with minute rice, but it will be less. Test it at 30 minutes to see if done and then cook further if needed.
I’m always looking for easier weeknight dinners, and this casserole was AMAZING last night. Comforting, hearty and delicious. Will definitely make again.
This is my kind of comfort food! I love French onion flavors and never thought to use it like this.
Thank you, Julie! I love french onion too and love how easy this dish is.
Yum! This is looks amazing I cannot wait to try it!
Thank you! Hope you enjoy!
I was so tired of our usual recipes with ground beef, found yours, this was so yummy. The family devoured it!
Thank you, Kathleen! Using ground beef is economical and delicious! It’s nice to change it up and glad you found that in this recipe!
Do you think I could use 2 lbs og ground beef but keep the rest the same as far as amounts and cook time
I think it would be fine. I haven’t tested it. I would check half way through cooking and you can add a little water if needed.
I love French onion anything! This recipe turned out so well and I can’t wait to make it again soon.
What would you serve as sides with this dish?
Thank you!!
I love to serve green beans or a salad with this dish to keep it easy. But we also love lima beans or corn as well with it.