Just before I get to this DELICIOUS looking recipe for an Easy Creamy Chicken Pasta Bake…a note of apology and thanks.
For those of you who subscribe, and so receive every new recipe via email (for free, no catches! See box below the “About Me” section on the right hand side →→→ of this page if you’re interested!) my apologies because the last one was really hard to read!
I had some technical issues (not due to me thankfully!) so when my IT person – me asking Dr Google – fixed it, she obviously didn’t do a very good job!
Lucky for you AND me that my cooking skills far outweigh my IT skills!
I do apologise, hopefully the email of this post will be nice and clear with normal sized text and photo! Thank you to every one of you who didn’t just hit unsubscribe!
Anyway…on to the recipe!
Easy Creamy Chicken Pasta Bake. Just as advertised, super simple creamy sauce with only 2 ingredients, then just add your bacon and ziti/penne pasta and bake this pasta casserole in the oven.
This creamy chicken pasta casserole would be perfect for those nights when you don’t have a lot of time, but need something filling to feed the family.
It’s a great way to use up any leftover rotisserie chicken, or in Australia what we call a BBQ Chicken – don’t know why because it’s not barbecued! I have also used smoked bacon, you can taste the extra flavour from the smoke through the whole dish. Yum. Plus who doesn’t love a creamy pasta bake?
I hope you enjoy this creamy chicken and bacon pasta bake, or bbq chicken pasta bake to us Aussies!
Some more leftover chicken recipes you might like
One Pot Creamy Chicken Gnocchi – creamy chicken gnocchi soup made with leftover rotisserie chicken but NO cream!
Chicken Mornay Baked Potatoes – loaded baked potatoes topped with a creamy chicken, bacon and avocado mornay sauce.
Chicken Stuffing Bake – so easy to make from scratch, no stuffing mix required.
Lee-Ann ♥
Easy Creamy Chicken Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 2 cups leftover shredded chicken about 200g
- 250 g dried macaroni pasta (see notes)
- pinch of fine salt very small pinch!
- 4 rashers smoked bacon roughly chopped
- 2 large garlic cloves crushed
- 1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
- 300 ml pure cream
- 2 tsp butter
- ⅔ cup fresh parmesan cheese grated (50g)
- ⅓ cup shredded mozzarella not fresh (40g)
Instructions
- Pre heat oven to 180c ff / 355 f
- Cook pasta according to packet directions (I only add a very small pinch of salt to the water) minus 1 min, then drain & return to pot, adding 2 tsp of butter and stirring lightly to coat
- While pasta is cooking, place bacon in a small non-stick fry pan/skillet and fry for 6-8 mins, then add garlic and rosemary to pan & continue to fry for 1 min then remove pan from heat
- Add bacon mixture to cooked pasta & stir lightly to mix, then add cream & shredded parmesan to pasta, mixing to coat, then add chicken & mix again until incorporated
- Tip chicken and pasta mixture into an a baking dish, top with shredded mozzarella and bake uncovered for about 20 mins, or until peaks are lightly browned, then serve immediately
This was such a simple but delicious dinner! The only change I made was adding some leftovers peas right before baking. Perfect weeknight dish!
Glad you enjoyed it Marie, and the peas sound like a great addition!
Thanks for taking the time to let me know,
L x
What is real cream. Pet milk. half and half?????
Hi Darlene, I have used pure cream in this recipe, here in Australia that is cream with 35% milk fat and with no thickeners added. Hope this helps!
L x
Delicioso!!! Fácil y una manera diferente de usar los restos de un pollo rostizado!!👍🏻 Lo acompañe con ensalada verde con gajos de mandarina y nuez garampinada!!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Hi Nenis! I’m making an educated guess that you enjoyed the recipe and had a green salad with it? Excellent!
Is pure cream, Heavy cream?
In Australia pure cream is 35% milk fat with no thickeners added. Hope this helps Denise, L x
I’m going to try this tonight but I’m concerned with measurements…..cups, grams, teaspoons, milliliter. Kind of confusing.
Hi Susan!
Something like this may help – https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/cooking/cooking-calculator.php this is just one I found when I googled it, there seem to be many available! Hope it helps,
L x
Honestly this looks like a good recipe but a real pain for measuring. You are using SI mixed with cups, T,t. Then direct us to another site for conversion! C’mon!
Most cooks, be it in South Africa, UK, Australia, Europe, most of the world for that matter always have to convert a receipe’s measurements if it’s written by a Yank, so now its your turn to do some work, its worth it. The world doesnt revolve around the US way of measuring. Usefull tip: only three countries still use the old british imperial system: The USA, Burma and Liberia – so no use complaining!
Siri and Alexa do the conversions for you in seconds!
Great simple dish, I especially love the fact that its so versatile. Having so much more time due to Covid lockdown, I marinated some chicken breasts in dry white wine and thyme the night before, added sautéed mushrooms to recipe, outcome was rich & divine! Definite keeper! Thanks for this one Lee-Ann, oh and I loooove your blog! 👌🏻
Hi Laurie, glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Thanks so much for your support too, it means a lot.
L x
Do you think I could use cheddar instead of Parmesan? I don’t have enough Parmesan.
Sure Suzann, I would use all the parmesan you have then top up the difference with cheddar.
L x
What is four rashers of bacon? Four strips ?
Hi Melinda, yes 4 strips.
What is the conversion of a “rasher” of bacon to slices? Every source I’ve found states it’s 3 slices, so does that mean use 12 slices?? That just sounded like a lot. Thank you!!
Hi Tonya, we refer to the long streaky slices of bacon as rashers here in Aus – who knew stuff like that would be so tricky haha! Sounds like 4 slices is what I would go with. Hope it turns out well, L x
I made this tonight, so easy and very tasty. I have 3 US stepsons and they can be incredibly fussy unless it’s fast food, but they ate every morsel of this. Thanks for such an easy and tasty fish
Wooooo hoooo!!! So glad it was a winner for you! Thanks for taking the time to let me know Juleen, I LOVE comments like this!!!
L x
Could this be made ahead of time and refrigerated?
Hi Celeste, I haven’t done this personally but I don’t see why you couldn’t! I would put it in the oven covered in foil to reheat. Hope this helps!
L x
Very tasty recipe. I added some mushrooms, leftover cooked diced sweet potato and peas to the bacon mix, and sour cream as I had no pure cream. Still delicious!
Thanks Jeanette, they sound like great additions! Glad you enjoyed it!
L x
Loved this recipe, I used heavy cream instead. This will be a regular for us and a great way to use leftover chicken.
So glad Pam! Thanks for letting me know!
L x
HI Leeann
Would this recipe be okay to freeze afterwards. If so would you recommend for reheating from frozen state or thawed. Making this tonight.
Thanks in advance
Patricia Smith
Hi Patricia, freezing should work fine (to be honest I haven’t) then thaw before reheating.
Hi Lee-Ann, I’m wanting to make this for a crowd and love to use 500g for other pasta bakes. Would I just do a simple doubling of the recipe do you think? I will throw in some mushrooms and peas as well I think. Will there still be enough sauce if I double?
Hi Lisa, if you double all the ingredients it should work great, still enough sauce. The mushrooms and peas sound like a great addition:)
L x
Would it be okay to use milk instead of cream?
Hi Angel! Sorry, but no milk won’t give you the same result.
I used this recipe as inspiration as I changed quite a bit just to use up leftovers and it was Omg 😋 delicious!!
A little bit of leftover chook goes a long way, it’s amazing what you can pick off the frame. I only had 2 bacon heads (meaty part not the tails) but was perfect for a bit of saltiness. Instead of cream I used creme fraiche and I mixed it in with cooked rigatoni, and a combo of sauteed Spinich, grated sweet potato, zucchini, finely diced mushroom and a blob of leftover pumpkin soup (maybe 3-4 tablespoons). A small handful of grated cheese, mixed all together and topped with a finely grated crust of sourdough crust (the end of the bread that no one eats). 20 mins to bake in the oven and it tasted Amazing! Used up all our leftovers and not one mouthful leftover
..thanks for the inspiration!
You go Tracy! Sounds amazing, leftovers for the win!
Thanks for sharing
L x
I didn’t see it in the recipe but I’m assuming I drain all the grease off the bacon ?
Hi Brenda! I actually add the whole lot to the pasta – bacon grease and all. It adds heaps of flavour! Completely fine if you want to drain the grease off if you like though, totally up to you! Lx