Dinner

Chicken Pasta Bake That’s Easy to Make

Chicken Pasta Bake recipes are perfect to have any time of the year. Winter especially makes them a great thing to throw together to keep the family warm.

Plus, it’s like, chicken and pasta together, I mean, hell you got the best of both worlds. One of the best sources of protein known to man combined with an incredible carb. I’m not saying that I’m ready to eat chicken pasta bake for breakfast lunch and dinner, but I could easily eat this once a week.

You could even change up the sauces or cheeses if things get boring with it. There’s enough variations of pastas and cheeses out there that you probably couldn’t even cover all of them in this lifetime.

Here’s the ingredients you’ll need to make this chicken pasta bake:

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

2 cups of water

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

8 oz uncooked campanelle pasta (that’s 2 and 3/4 cups)

2 cups chopped cooked chicken

1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped up

1.5 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese for this chicken pasta bake

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2 cups packed fresh baby spinach leaves

1 jar of alfredo sauce

Directions to Make the Chicken Pasta Bake

The first thing you need to do is cook your chicken. This can be done in a frying pan or by baking it. If you want to bake it, put the chicken on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and parchment paper over that. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and put the chicken in for 18-20 minutes.

It may need a little longer than 20. Once the chicken has cooled off enough, chop it up into pieces on a cutting board with a knife.

Once that’s cut up for this chicken pasta bake, throw it into a large bowl. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees F, too.

Prepping The Other Ingredients

Measure out 1/3 cup of sun-dried tomatoes and 2 and 3/4 cups of the pasta. Dump those into the bowl and mix everything around with a wooden spoon or a spatula.

Grab your jar of alfredo sauce and pour it in the bowl. This should be about 15 ounces for the chicken pasta bake. Pour two cups of water into the bowl, too.

Mix all of that around. Put the half teaspoon Italian seasoning in along with the half teaspoon of garlic powder and the 1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes. Mix all of that around really well.

Spray a 3-quart glass baking dish with cooking spray. The actual dimensions need to be about 13×9-inch, a little bigger or smaller is fine too, though.

Pour the mixture of ingredients in there and cover it with foil. Do your best to get it tightly on there, too. Stick the chicken pasta bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

After 40 Minutes

Once the time’s up, take it out and put the two cups of baby spinach leaves into it. Stir that around and then spread the 1.5 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese around on top of it. Put that back in the oven (uncovered) for about 5 more minutes.

Let it cool for a few minutes before serving. Ten is a good amount of time.

Bob Buckley

Bob Buckley writes about food and business.