Easy chicken spinach pasta bake is a delicious family pasta bake. Made with a healthier low fat cheese sauce this quick healthy all in one meal can be on the table in less than an hour. Plus hiding the spinach is a perfect way to get kids to eat it!
This easy chicken spinach pasta bake is winter comfort food at its best!
It's just so tasty and packed full of flavour.
With every mouthful it feels like you're eating some kind of rich and decadent creamy carbohydrate packed meal and, in essence you are but just a much healthier "lightened up" version.
Simple to make (because I know you hate washing up as much as I do) this is an ideal weeknight meal!
You see there's not a drop of cream in the delicious cheese sauce.
Nor is it made from full fat cheese, although you'd be forgiven for initially thinking it was!
Nope, to make the low fat cheese sauce it's a simple blend of skimmed milk, low fat cheese and some corn flour to thicken it.
That's it. Nice and easy, as the recipe title goes.
This easy chicken spinach pasta bake is perfect to eat right away or if you're lucky enough to have any left over (unlikely) you could freeze the leftovers for another day.
This is a great recipe to get kids to eat their greens too. I've used spinach here but you could easily substitute that with broccoli, peas or even cabbage.
Talking of cabbage, when I was just a wee lad I remember that my mum and dad used to grow tons of winter cabbage in their garden.
Generally that was served as a side with mince and tatties.
Now as much as I liked the mince and tatties part of the meal, that didn't really disguise the taste and texture of the cabbage enough, hence it was often left on the plate.
Oh if only I could have had something like this chicken spinach pasta bake then. Here the creamy cheese sauce and succulent pieces of chicken mean you can't taste any of the greens!
Things could have been so much more different if I'd been able to eat those greens and perhaps I'd have had muscles like Popeye! 😉
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Easy Chicken Spinach Pasta Bake Recipe
This healthy chicken spinach pasta bake came in at about £8 to make. That's just £2.00 each if you're feeding a family of four.
All you need to go with it (if anything) is a simple green salad of lettuce, cucumber and some chopped cherries tomatoes, as a suggestion!
I’d love to hear what you think of my recipe in the comments below and please do rate my recipe if you like it! 🙂
Easy Chicken Spinach Pasta Bake Recipe
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 200 g penne pasta*
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 500 g chicken breasts cut into bitesize chunks
- 400 ml skimmed milk
- 20 g corn flour mixed with 2 tbsp. cold water
- 150 g low fat cheddar cheese grated
- 150 g baby spinach
- Freshly Ground Salt and Pepper
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 180C Fan
- Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, add the penne pasta, bring back to the boil then turn down to simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- Whilst pasta is cooking gently heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat, stir in the chicken pieces, cook, stirring until they have turned white, about 5 – 6 minutes then add the milk and corn flour mixture. Bring to the boil, then turn down to simmer. Season to taste.
- Keep stirring the pan until the sauce begins to thicken, about 6 minutes, then add half of the grated cheese and stir in for a further 2 minutes until combined and then stir in the baby spinach for about 3 minutes until it has wilted.
- Add the pasta to the pan with the chicken and stir for combine well for about 1 minute.
- Turn off the heat under the pan, again season the sauce to taste and empty the chicken, spinach and pasta mixture into a casserole dish, top with the remaining grated cheese and bake for about 15 minutes until the cheese has melted on top and is golden in colour.
- Serve with a green salad.
David @ Spiced
I am all about less dishes to do! I feel like the dishes are a never-ending mountain in our house. (In actuality, they kinda are...I just keep cooking, and that just keeps making dishes to wash!) I am a huge fan of pasta bakes, and they often make great leftovers. In fact, pasta bake leftovers are sometimes better on the second day! I'm definitely going to give this one a shot sometime...perhaps sooner than later as it's snowing (again!) today, and I definitely need some easy comfort food!
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
I am the same David. I just keep cooking and the dishes seem never ending! I'm constantly clearing the dishes area, and even when I think I've finally finished, some new unclean dishes magically appear (normally from Lynne! ha ha)!
I'm glad you like the pasta bake it would be perfect for your snow days!
Agness of Run Agness Run
I love chicken but I've never tried to cook it with a pasta bake, Neil. This is a truly mouth-watering dish which I am very intrigued to try! 🙂
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Thanks Agness. This dinner dish is a good way of getting your protein and carbs all in one, then you're all fired up for a good run the next day!
Ashika | Gardening Foodie
This pasta bake looks so good and full of flavour Neil, that it is seriously difficult to believe that it is made without cream. I absolutely love the combination of ingredients which create this awesome pasta bake...definitely want to give this recipe a try.
Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe 🙂
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Thanks Ashika. I love creating recipes like this where it's hard to believe that it doesn't contain any cream! Hope you enjoy it! 🙂
Ben|Havocinthekitchen
I'm a huge fan of baked pasta, and I do like this version. I make lighter kind of sauces as well, normally with milk and cream cheese, but I fancy the idea of thickening it up with some corn flour. I need to try this!
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
I think that either using corn flour to thicken the sauce or cream cheese are both great ways of keeping the calories down without ruining the taste. Thanks for your comment Ben!