This cheesy chicken pasta bake is easy to make with a simple homemade marinara sauce, tender chicken and pasta with loads of Italian spices, and melted mozzarella topped with Parmesan. Serve with crusty bread and a garden salad for a simple but delicious weeknight dinner.
🐓Ingredients
Chicken breasts
Aromatics—garlic and onion
Tomatoes—crushed, diced, and paste
Pasta—ziti, penne, or other dry pasta
Cheese—mozzarella and Parmesan
Pantry Ingredients—olive oil, basil, crushed red peppers(optional), salt and black pepper
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This chicken pasta bake uses an easy homemade tomato sauce, much better than any jarred sauce. The recipe makes a large amount, but see the instructions below for a half recipe.
👨🍳How to Make Cheesy Chicken Pasta Bake—Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
1. Trim chicken breast and cut into smaller cubes.
2. Saute the chicken with some diced onion and garlic.
3. Add spices and tomato products. Simmer on low while cooking pasta and cubing mozzarella.
4. Cook the pasta al dente and cube the mozzarella cheese.
5. Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the pasta and mozzarella.
6. Pour the mixture into a prepared baking dish, such as a 9X13 or 12-inch round, and top with ¼ cup Parmesan. At this point, refrigerate or bake.
7. Bake in a preheated 375° convection oven until bubbling and browning, about 30-40 minutes.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
🥣Options and variations
Use skinless boneless chicken breasts or thighs. Precooked rotisserie chicken may be used—see instructions below.
Use other meat, like Italian sausage, ground beef, ground chicken, or ground turkey.
While you can use a jar sauce, you will love the easy homemade sauce. You will need 7 cups of sauce for the full recipe.
Use a smaller pasta, such as ziti or penne, or smaller pasta, like farfalle or rigatoni.
Add a touch of heat with the optional red pepper flakes. Or leave it out for kids.
🤔How to use rotisserie chicken
You can use precooked rotisserie chicken. Cook the onion and then add the rotisserie chicken and pasta. Use 3-4 cups.
🤔Adding ricotta cheese
Add small glops of ricotta cheese throughout the dish after moving to the baking dish for a more lasagna-like dish.
Combine 1 cup (8 oz.) ricotta cheese with one egg white, ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese, ½ teaspoon dry parsley, and ½ teaspoon salt—do not over-mix
📋Related Recipes
Check out other great Italian dishes such as Baked Chicken Spaghetti, Baked Pasta and Sausage, Creamy Smoked Sausage Pasta, Parmesan Chicken Alfredo, and Crock Pot Chicken Italian Chicken Pasta.
Crock Pot Italian Chicken Pasta
Delicious Crock Pot Italian Chicken Pasta is loaded with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, tender chicken, and pasta. It is cooked in an easy homemade marinara sauce that cooks the dry pasta and chicken while it simmers.
⬇️How to make a smaller half recipe
The full recipe makes about 8 large servings. A half recipe fits nicely in a 6X9 baking dish for 4 servings.
- Use the recipe card and adjust the number of servings from 8 to 4.
- Use the amount of each ingredient in the ingredient list, not the instructions—those do not adjust.
- Bake for about 25-30 minutes until bubbling. Use the broiler if you need more browning.
📅Make ahead and bake it later.
Yes. You can make ahead, and instead of baking, cover well and refrigerate for a day.
You can also freeze it uncooked for up to 3 months. Cover it with plastic wrap, then double wrap with foil. To cook, thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Baking time will be about 10 minutes longer for a cold casserole.
🍽️Serving
Serve with a garden salad and a nice bread like Basic White Stand Mixer Bread or Julia Child's French Bread.
Peasant Bread
Peasant bread is a rustic artisan bread with a soft grain, crispy crust, and nutty flavor. It is an excellent beginner bread recipe because it is easy and quick to make with simple ingredients.
❄️Storing reheating leftovers
Store leftovers in an airtight container refrigerated for 4 days or frozen for 3 months.
To reheat, first, if frozen, thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Reheat in the microwave, cover in the oven, or in an air fryer.
❓FAQs
Using this recipe will not cook raw pasta adequately. So you must boil and cook the pasta to al dente according to the package instructions.
👨🍳Recipe
Cheesy Chicken Pasta Bake
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Ingredients
- 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts
- 1 pound dry pasta
- ⅕ cup Parmesan cheese - shredded
- 1 pound mozzarella - cubed or shredded
Sauce Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion - medium
- 4-6 cloves garlic - crushed
- 1 tablespoon basil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper - optional
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 28 oz crushed tomatoes
- 14 oz diced tomatoes
- 6 oz tomato paste
- 6 oz water
Instructions
- Trim and dice 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts into approximately ½ inch cubes. Chop 1 medium onion.
- Chop one medium onion.
- In a large pan over medium-high heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. When shimmering, add the chicken. Saute for 3 minutes, then add onion and continue to saute for 5-6 minutes more until onion is clearing and chicken is 165°. Add 4-6 cloves crushed or minced garlic and saute for 1 minute until fragrant. Remove from heat.
- Add 1 tablespoon basil, 1 teaspoon salt, ¼-½ teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional), ½ teaspoon black pepper, 28 oz crushed tomatoes, 14 oz diced tomatoes, 6 oz tomato paste, and 6 oz water. Simmer on low while cooking pasta and cubing mozzarella.
- Cook the pasta al dente according to package instructions. Cube mozzarella cheese into ½ inch cubes or use shredded cheese.
- Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the pasta and mozzarella.
- Pour into a prepared baking dish, 9X13 or 12-inch round, and top with ¼ cup Parmesan and refrigerate or bake at this point.
- Place in a preheated 375° convection oven until bubbling and browning—about 30-40 minutes.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- This is an easy recipe to cut in half. Adjust the ingredients in the servings area of the recipe card. It will change the ingredients but not the instructions. You will need to adjust those yourself.
- For a full recipe, use a 12-inch round or 13X9 casserole dish. For a half recipe, use a 9X6 casserole dish.
- Use the pasta of your choice. I prefer smaller pasta, so I use penna.
- Adjust your red pepper to taste.
- You can save some time using jarred sauce, but you really don't want to do that. It will not be as flavorful, and it will cost more.
- Good refrigerated for 3-4 days and frozen for 3-4 months.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Editor's Note: Originally Published May 13, 2010. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Dr Dan says
I called it 8 servings. This is one of the "with lots of left overs" recipe. I will usually make this on a Sunday and use the left overs for quick weeknight suppers.
TwoTabsOfMesc says
Just made for the second time.. Very good but have to say that this IS NOT a 2 person serving. More like 6. Would like to see more scaled down recipes.