Experienced cooks will raise their eyebrows when they see how this HEALTHY Creamy Chicken and Broccoli Pasta Bake is made. But don’t judge until you try it – it works!!! Made from scratch, not a drop of cream, this is a complete meal that takes 5 minutes to prep, made in ONE baking dish and it’s absolutely delish. {350 cal per serving!}
The World’s EASIEST Chicken and Broccoli Pasta Bake!
This is comfort food for busy people, dedicated to all those back home in Australia and everyone else around the world suffering through a blustery cold winter!
The method I use for this Ultra Lazy Healthy Chicken Pasta Bake certainly is unorthodox. Just plonk flour, uncooked pasta, raw chicken, vegetables, milk and chicken broth into the baking dish, give it a quick stir, then pop it into the oven. Pull it out partway through cooking, stir through cheese, then finish baking.
And what comes out is quite extraordinary. When you crack through that golden topping, you will be greeted with perfectly cooked pasta smothered in a creamy sauce that you’ve just made without a single drop of cream, without having to make a roux on the stove the traditional way béchamel and cheese sauces are made.
Not a hint of flouriness (thanks to the gluten in the pasta which also helps thicken the sauce) and the pasta is perfectly cooked – I blame my Japanese mother for raising me as a total snob about overcooked rice and this snobbery extends to pasta. There is actually sauce (hands up if you’ve suffered through dry pasta bakes!), and it’s a complete meal that’s light on the pasta, and heavy on broccoli + lean chicken.
I’m going to be completely honest with you about the difference between this and the traditional way of making creamy pasta bakes. My “go to” way is to start with a roux – like in this Seafood Gratin Pasta Bake, my Baked Mac and Cheese and my mother’s Chicken and Mushroom Macaroni Gratin ( <<— Childhood favourite, right here!). The sauce is silken and there’s more of it compared to this Ultra Lazy way.
If you look very closely, you will see that the sauce is a tiny bit split on the base of the baking dish. But you need to look really close to see it and it doesn’t taste split.
Very, very small compromise for a quick meal, in my humble view. 🙂
(Here’s a close up – you can see what I am describing in the bottom left corner)
I didn’t create this Chicken and Broccoli Pasta Bake as a hack. It came about because of the homeless man at the local dog park who I regularly take hot meals to. He always insists that I mustn’t go out of my way to bring him meals, and that in itself plus me being me just feels some sort of obligation to ensure I take meals to him regularly.
I had skipped a few days and I was standing in my kitchen, flustered at the mound of dirty dishes and peeved because of a failed video shoot and wanted to make something quickly.
Threw this Ultra Lazy Pasta Bake together using leftover vegetables thinking it “should be ok”, was blown away how well it actually worked, got the thumbs up from the homeless man, had it myself for dinner then decided to share it here. 🙂 – Nagi x
More big, juicy pasta bakes
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Baked Ziti – the mother of all pasta bakes!
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Tuna Pasta Bake – the highest and best use for canned tuna!
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Baked Mac and Cheese – and try the Shrimp version!
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Cheeseburger Casserole (Homemade Hamburger Helper)
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Browse all pasta recipes
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Ultra Lazy HEALTHY Chicken and Broccoli Pasta Bake recipe video!
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Ultra Lazy Creamy Chicken and Broccoli Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 300 - 400 g / 10 - 14oz chicken tenderloin (raw) , breast or thigh, cut into 1.5cm / 3/5" pieces
- Salt and pepper
- 1 tsp dried thyme (or other herbs and/or spices of choice)
- 250 g / 8 oz spiral pasta, uncooked (See Note 1 for other shapes)
- 1 1/2 cups / 375 ml chicken broth/stock , preferably warmed
- 2 cups / 500 ml milk , preferably warmed (any fat %)
- 1 large garlic clove , minced
- 1 - 2 tbsp /15 - 30g butter (optional)
- 1 large broccoli or 2 medium broccoli or cauliflower , broken into small to medium florets (Note 2 for subs)
- 100 - 150 g / 1 - 1.5 cups shredded cheese , any melting type (Note 3)
- 1/4 cup / 35g flour (all purpose / plain)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200C/390F (standard) or 180C/350F (fan forced / convection).
- Sprinkle chicken with salt (be generous), pepper and thyme, toss to coat.
- Spread pasta in a baking dish. Sprinkle over flour.
- Pour over milk and broth, add garlic and butter. Stir.
- Spread chicken over the top, then broccoli.
- Cover with foil, bake for 15 minutes (or 20 minutes if milk & broth were cold).
- Remove foil, STIR WELL. Add most of the cheese, then STIR WELL again. Top with remaining cheese.
- Return to oven. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until top is golden and sauce is thickened (See note 4 for troubleshooting).
- Stand for a few minutes then serve immediately!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
More chicken and broccoli recipes
For those of you who, like me, find yourself putting both of these in your trolley week after week…
LIFE OF DOZER
I always joke about how when I’m away, Dozer doesn’t miss me at all because he’s too busy enjoying his own holiday with a Golden Retriever boarder.
But apparently, when she takes Dozer to the beach, he breaks away from the pack and sprints up to “dark haired people of my shape”, then bolts back when he realises it’s not me.
I didn’t know what to react to first – pleased as punch at the first sign that he does actually seem to miss me, or bursting into laughter at her delicately phrased description that Dozer only runs towards vertically challenged, dark haired women with generously sized bottoms!!!
Whatever you do, don’t use chickpea pasta haha. It turned into complete mush halfway cooking. I can’t wait to try it again with regular pasta! However, it looked delicious- I wish I could have eaten it!
I’ll keep that in mind!! N x
Hi Nagi! I usually have great luck with your recipes but this one wasn’t a hit. I baked it an extra 25 minutes and it was still extremely soupy, and it was lacking in flavor probably because of that. I will try to make it again but halve the milk/broth amounts. Definitely worth another try!
Hi there,
how do you do for the pasta not to be mushy ?
If you use a good quality pasta and follow the recipe exactly Melany, the pasta shouldn’t be mushy. N x
This is the dish I had in my head but all the recipes said isn’t possible
It is and it’s exactly what I wanted.
Thankyou.
I tried this because my garden had delivered an abundance of Broccolli & I had chicken in the freezer. Net result, a 10 out of 10 from my wife, “this is a keeper”. Full disclaimer, I did use Garlic powder as opposed to fresh.
Thanks Holly, I really appreciate your feedback. I think you are right on all accounts. Some extra cheese & a bit more attention to the pasta poking out and I think I’ll be much happier with the result. Thanks again x
Hi! Long time lover of your recipes. I use them on the weekly. I found that once I stirred in my cheese some of the pasta wasn’t submerged didn’t cook & was very crunchy. I just picked these out once it was cooked. Any tips for next time please?
Hi Danica, hope you don’t mind me chiming in. I occassionly have the same happen, where you get a few chewy/harder bits where the noodles poke out near the end of cook time. I think this is just the nature of the dish in order the achieve the right consistency overall. I do pay attention to make sure the pasta is as submerged as possible and I use the final bit of cheese topping to help minimize this. I think it’s a small trade off for a super fast and tasty one pot pasta bake. If you look at Nagi’s pics I would guess she has the same. Matter of taste, I don’t mind a few chewy/crisp bits…I sometimes get a bit of that around edges with some lasagna recipes too. I wonder if a slightly smaller casserole dish for more depth, or a little more liquid/flour component might remedy this but I suspect not.
Holly 🙂
Thanks Holly, I really appreciate your feedback. I think you are right on all accounts. Some extra cheese & a bit more attention to the pasta poking out and I think I’ll be much happier with the result. Thanks again x
It was great! So tasty!
Easy and yum! N x
What size baking dish does this recipe require?
Hey Karen, I adjusted the recipe for 3 servings and my trusty ancient 1.5 L baking dish was just right. It’s kinda deep so that helped with cooking the pasta, i figure. 5 stars is possibly not enough 😉
Hi Nagi,
Does this recipe work OK with wholemeal pasta?
made this last night as per recipe plus chopped cauliflower and carrots. Loved the easy method and flavour was amazing. thank you Nagi
I browned my chicken breast assembled it put it in a 3:50 oven after 15 min it was not even bubbling so turned the oven up to 400 baked for 20 min added the cheese baked for another 25 min it turned out delicious
Added: green onions
This is probably very good, but I used chickpea pasta and it turned out very gooey and had an awful aftertaste 🙁 DONT USE CHICKPEA PASTA
My first time to try this. Can I use fetuccine pasta instead? That’s all I have in my cupboard.
Hi Nagy! I made this last night and it was fantastic. My partner said to put the dish between and give us forks to jump into like an Olympic diver! I was thinking next time I make it to use asparagus but given it is a delicate vegetable, does it make sense to add in cut asparagus after removing the foil when you stir in the cheese so as to ensure it does not go too mushy? Also toying with the idea of adding cooked bacon pieces. Thoughts?
Yes I would do exactly that Darrin as it doesn’t take long to cook (and no one likes mushy asparagus!). Bacon is always welcome!! N x
Hi Nagy! This looks scrumpti-delicious! What size baking dish do you use, 9×13?
Loved this. I made this using leftover chicken from your chicken noodle soup recipe, where I put the cooked chicken in at the same time as the cheese. Worked great!
Wow, this was so tasty. The whole family loved this. Even my fussy teenage daughter ate it. Will be making this again and again for sure.
Forgot to rate. Definitely 5 stars! Delicious!
Thanks for another delicious recipe Nagi. I made this tonight and followed recipe however I added 2 tsp of curry powder to liquid. It was delicious! My husband and I enjoyed this very much. 💗