The five-ingredient dump dinner that broke TikTok
Melissa Jo’s original “stick of butter rice” went viral in 2020 — it was her first video on TikTok and racked up around 10 million views. The concept was almost deliberately absurd: you put uncooked rice, canned soup, and a full stick of butter in a dish, cover it, bake it for 90 minutes, and open it to perfectly cooked rice that tastes like you slow-cooked it all day. The chicken version adds five boneless thighs on top and turns a side dish into a complete dinner.
The only thing that goes wrong is the foil seal. The rice cooks by trapped steam — a loose foil is the cause of 90% of failed attempts.
Why French onion soup + consommé, not chicken broth
This is the question everyone asks after seeing the recipe circulate in multiple versions. You’ll see “cream of chicken soup + chicken broth” variants online, but the original and best-tasting version uses condensed French onion soup and beef consommé. Here’s why:
Condensed French onion soup contributes deep caramelized-onion sweetness and the thick, starchy body of a concentrated liquid — it thickens as it bakes into the rice rather than staying watery.
Beef consommé is clarified beef stock reduced to a higher concentration than regular broth. It’s richer, more savory, and contains more natural gelatin — which is what makes the finished rice have that silky, risotto-adjacent texture instead of the drier, grainier result you get with broth.
Together, they produce a rice that tastes like it was slow-cooked in a French onion soup for hours. Chicken broth is much milder and doesn’t replicate this.
The foil seal: why it matters more than timing
This recipe works by creating a mini steam oven inside the baking dish. The liquid evaporates from the base, turns to steam, and cooks the rice from the bottom up AND from the steam pressure above. The foil contains that steam.
A properly sealed dish has no visible steam escaping around the edges during baking. If you see wisps of steam, re-press the foil immediately.
Press the foil against the full rim of the dish — not just the long sides, but all four corners, which are the hardest to seal. If your dish has any chips or warping at the rim, add a second layer of foil and press harder. When in doubt: more foil.
The butter: why a full stick, and why it works
A full stick (½ cup / 113g) across 4–6 servings is about 1–2 tablespoons per person — the same as a restaurant side dish with a pat of butter stirred in. It’s not as wild as it sounds.
More importantly, the butter performs a job. Scattered in pieces on top of the rice, it melts during the first 20 minutes and distributes across the entire surface. As the steam circulates under the foil, it carries butter vapor upward, depositing fat on the chicken and the top layer of rice continuously. The chicken bastes in butter for 90 minutes without any intervention. A half stick produces noticeably drier chicken and a rice that doesn’t have quite the same richness.
The cheese layer
Pecorino romano is sharper and saltier than parmesan — both work, but romano is the traditional call in Melissa Jo’s version and adds a little more punch. Freshly grated from the block melts better than the pre-shredded kind (which is coated in cellulose to prevent clumping). If you use pre-shredded, the flavor will be similar but the cheese won’t melt as smoothly into the rice.
The ¾ cup in the rice layer partially melts into the base during baking, enriching the texture. The ¼ cup on the chicken browns slightly in the final uncovered blast.
Variations that work
Mushroom version: Add 6 oz sliced cremini mushrooms to the rice layer before adding the liquid. They release their moisture into the dish as it bakes, adding another layer of earthiness.
Classic “cream of chicken” version: Swap the French onion soup and consommé for one 10.5 oz can of condensed cream of chicken soup + 2 cups chicken broth + one 1 oz packet of dry onion soup mix. Bone-in skin-on thighs work well here (bake 1 hr 45 min covered). Different flavor profile — more classic comfort food than French onion.
Cajun: Add 1 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning to the chicken seasoning blend. Add ½ cup sliced andouille coins into the rice layer. Swap half the consommé for canned diced tomatoes with liquid.
Make-ahead: Assemble everything in the dish and refrigerate uncovered up to overnight. Add the foil tightly right before it goes into the oven — don’t foil it overnight, or the rice will start absorbing liquid unevenly.
