Chicken Baked Ziti has tender chicken and pasta, melted mozzarella, and homemade marinara sauce, all topped with Parmesan cheese—an easy Italian comfort food.
Easy to make with step-by-step photo instructions. It will make your day and warm you to the bone. Great for an easy 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 has a wonderful homemade sauce, much better than jar sauce. It does make a larger amount, but see the instructions below for a half recipe.
👨🍳How to make baked ziti with chicken
Trim and dice 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts into approximately ½ inch cubes. Chop 1 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, ¼-1/2 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.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
✔️Tips to make it your way
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.
While this is called baked ziti, many people use penne pasta, which is smaller and angle cut. Other smaller pasta like farfalle or rigatoni can be used.
Add a touch of heat with the optional red pepper flakes. Or leave it out for kids.
Related Recipes
Check out other great Italian dishes like Baked Chicken Spaghetti, Baked Ziti with Italian Sausage, Spicy Sausage Pasta, Parmesan Chicken Alfredo, and Crock Pot Chicken Baked Ziti.
⬇️How to make this a "for two" friendlier 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.
How to use rotisserie chicken
You use precooked rotisserie chicken. Cook the onion and then add the rotisserie chicken with the pasta. Use 3-4 cups.
Can I make chicken baked ziti 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 Stand Mixer Bread—Basic White, Stand Mixer Peasant Bread, or Julia Child's French Bread.
FAQs
Baked ziti is a baked casserole dish made with cooked macaroni and combined with tomato sauce and cheese. It may include meat, sausage, mushrooms, peppers, onions, etc. There are variations, but that is it.
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
Have you tried this recipe, or have a question? Join the community discussion in the comments.
📖 Recipe
Chicken Baked Ziti
Ingredients
- 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts
- 1 pound dry pasta
- ¼ 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
- ¼-1/2 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, ¼-1/2 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.
Your Own Private Notes
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.
- Use a 12-inch round or 13X9 casserole dish for a full recipe. Use a 9X6 for a half recipe.
- Use the pasta of your choice. I prefer smaller pasta, so I use penna.
- Adjust your red pepper to taste.
- You can save a lot of time using jarred sauce, but you really don't want to do that.
- Good refrigerated for 3-4 days and frozen for 3-4 months.
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
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
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.