Fast and Fabulous Tomato Chicken Pasta Bake
This is a super recipe when you want to prep dinner to cook while you go about doing other things on a busy day. You simply put all the ingredients into a casserole, cover, and let the oven do the rest! Serve with a simple green salad and prepped ahead salad dressing and you have a nutritious, delicious dinner for the family! Leftovers are really good heated up the next day for lunch! I see my glass of white wine made it into the ingredients’ photo! Salut!
As always, when you make this recipe, please post a photo of your Fast and Fabulous Tomato Chicken Pasta Bake goodness and tag my IG account #RenataCollective or leave a comment with your thoughts!
Prep Time: 10 minutes / Cook time: 65 minutes / Serves: 4 - 6
Ingredients:
4 Cloves Garlic – sliced (and let to rest)
1½ Cups Whole Wheat Elbow Macaroni
1½ Cups Crushed Tomatoes
1 Cup Passata (strained tomatoes)
3 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts – cut into small pieces
1 Cup Peas - fresh or frozen
1 teaspoon Dried Basil
1 teaspoon Dried Oregano
1/8 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
Herbamare and Grinds of Fresh Black Pepper - to taste
2½ Cups Water or veggie bouillon
2½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese (divided)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 Cup Panko Breadcrumbs
How It’s Made
Preheat your oven to 425°F.
Prepare your baking casserole dish. I like to season the dish by spraying or brushing the dish with some olive oil and sprinkling garlic powder over the dish.
Slice your garlic and let it rest while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Put the uncooked noodles, the crushed tomatoes and the passata, the chicken, the peas, 1/2 cup mozzarella and the spices, the garlic, Herbamare and a few grinds of fresh black pepper in the casserole dish. Stir to mix the ingredients together well.
Add the water. The liquid must cover the chicken and the pasta. If it doesn’t, add more water. Stir the mixture to distribute the water and mix all the ingredients together.
Bake covered, with a lid if your casserole has a lid, or cover tightly with foil, for 45 minutes. Uncover and cook for 15 more minutes. Check to make sure the chicken is cooked through, the pasta is soft and there is no liquidy tomato sauce left – the pasta should have absorbed it all. Depending on your oven, you may need to cook the casserole longer.
While the casserole is in the oven, in a medium bowl, mix the parmesan, 1½ cups of the mozzarella and the panko crumbs together.
When the casserole is cooked, sprinkle the cheese/panko crumb mixture over the top and add a few more grindings of pepper. Lastly, sprinkle the remaining ½ cup mozzarella on top. Bake for another 5-10 minutes until the crumb mixture is golden brown and the mozzarella has melted.
Remove the casserole from the oven and let it rest for a few minutes.
Serve with additional cheese sprinkled on top!
Enjoy!
Variations:
Use mixed veggies, cut green bean and/or broccoli florets in place of or in addition to the peas.
This is a good recipe to meal plan. You can cut up the chicken and have it ready in a baggie or an air-tight container in the fridge (or freezer – thaw before using in the recipe), and the cheeses can be bought already grated/shredded or prep ahead and store in the fridge. The other ingredients come together quickly.
