This Easy Chicken Alfredo Pasta Bake is a simple, no-fuss dinner that you can easily make right at home with very few ingredients and ready in just 30 minutes. Plus, it’s a definite crowd pleaser for even the pickiest eaters.
I love simple dinner recipes like this, dinners that you can literally put together in only 30 minutes. This is perfect, especially after a long hard day at work. All you really need is butter, flour and Parmesan cheese, ingredients that you most likely already have in the house. I wanted to make this a bit heartier though so that we wouldn’t be hungry half hour after eating it, so I added some chicken.
Chicken Alfredo Pasta Bake
- Quick and Easy Prepping Steps
- Simple Pantry Ingredients
- Crowd Pleaser
- Creamy Sauce
- Ready in Just 30 Minutes
We can all agree that pasta is almost always the answer to ‘what should we eat tonight?’ right? I say almost because sometimes you just want to switch things up a little, and a pasta bake is the perfect way to do just that and still have everyone love what you’re prepping for dinner.
This dish will work with many other types of pasta if you have some in the pantry you’d like to use up. The Alfredo sauce is just so delicious, it’s good with anything! I like to use a shaped pasta so that there’s lots of ridges for the sauce to cling to, I especially recommend something smaller like penne, fusilli, elbow, or bowtie.
Ingredient Notes
- Pasta – Use a small shaped pasta such as penne, elbow or shells.
- Butter – Unsalted as to control the sodium content of our dish.
- Chicken – Boneless and skinless chicken breast, cubed up into bite sized pieces. You can also use chicken thighs as well.
- Cheese – Shredded mozzarella and Parmesan.
- Flour – Just a bit of all purpose to help thicken up our sauce, for gluten free feel free to use cornstarch instead.
- Cream – We’re using heavy cream to form a beautiful creamy sauce.
- Pasta water – The starch in the pasta water will help our sauce thicken, be sure to grab some before draining the pasta.
- Seasoning – Salt and pepper.
- Parsley – Minced up nice and fine and sprinkled liberally over top.
How To Make Easy Chicken Alfredo Pasta Bake
- Prepare the pasta: Turn your broiler on. Cook pasta according to package instructions.
- Cook the chicken: In a large skillet melt 1 tbsp of the butter. Add chicken pieces and cook just until chicken is no longer pink and is beginning to slightly brown. Remove chicken from skillet.
- Make the sauce: In the same skillet, add remaining butter and melt it. Pour the heavy cream in the skillet and whisk it. Add the flour and continue whisking until sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper and add the Parmesan cheese. Continue whisking. By now the sauce should be pretty thick, use some of the pasta water to thin it out a bit. Add chicken and pasta to skillet and toss well.
- Finish the dish: Top with mozzarella cheese and place under the broiler for about 5 minutes until cheese is bubbly and gets golden brown, checking often to make sure the top doesn’t burn. Garnish with parsley and more Parmesan cheese if preferred.
FAQ’s and Expert Tips
FAQ’s
This dish will work with many other types of pasta if you have some in the pantry you’d like to use up. The Alfredo sauce is just so delicious, it’s good with anything! I like to use a small shaped pasta so that there’s lots of ridges for the sauce to cling to, I especially recommend something smaller like penne, fusilli, elbow, or bowtie.
Pasta water will add flavor and seasoning to your dish (you’re always making sure to salt your pasta water right?). It will also help thicken our sauce and ensure the sauce sticks to our pasta. It will also add a sheen to your sauce, so be sure to always reserve a little bit! This is the secret to all great pasta sauces.
This rich, creamy dish pairs beautifully with light and simple sides like salads and roasted veggies. This pasta bake is completely satisfying on its own so if you’d rather just curl up on the couch with a big old bowl, I won’t stop you. Or you can add on the side some of these:
Creamy Cucumber Salad
Greek Salad
Mediterranean Couscous Salad
Kale And Quinoa Salad With Lemon Vinaigrette
Tabbouleh Salad
Italian Roasted Mushrooms And Veggies
Expert Tips
- The sauce will seem thin when you start to mix in the pasta. Don’t worry, just keep tossing. The starches from the pasta will mix into the sauce to give the the perfect consistency. If you use flour or cornstarch to thicken the sauce, it may come out with a gluey consistency once it’s cooled down a bit.
- You can add a few tsp of Italian seasoning, a pinch of nutmeg or red pepper flakes to add some flare to this sauce. Feel free to get creative with seasoning.
- You can adjust the ratio of cream to milk in this recipe to suit how rich you’d like it to be.
Leftovers
You can store this recipe easily in the fridge. In an airtight container it’ll keep for 3 – 5 days just be sure it’s properly cooled before storing. Unfortunately this dish doesn’t freeze well so I recommend either making it day of or a few days before and storing in the fridge.
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Easy Chicken Alfredo Pasta Bake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 16 oz pasta uncooked, I used elbow macaroni
- 3 tbsp butter unsalted
- 1 chicken breast cut into small pieces
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3/4 cup parmesan cheese grated
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
- salt and pepper to taste
- parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Prepare the pasta: Turn your broiler on. Cook pasta according to package instructions.
- Cook the chicken: In a large skillet melt 1 tbsp of the butter. Add chicken pieces and cook just until chicken is no longer pink and is beginning to slightly brown. Remove chicken from skillet.
- Make the sauce: In the same skillet, add remaining butter and melt it. Pour the heavy cream in the skillet and whisk it. Add the flour and continue whisking until sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper and add the Parmesan cheese. Continue whisking. By now the sauce should be pretty thick, use some of the pasta water to thin it out a bit. Add chicken and pasta to skillet and toss well.
- Finish the dish: Top with mozzarella cheese and place under the broiler for about 5 minutes until cheese is bubbly and gets golden brown, checking often to make sure the top doesn't burn.
- Garnish and serve: Garnish with parsley and more Parmesan cheese if preferred.
Recipe Notes
- The sauce will seem thin when you start to mix in the pasta. Don’t worry, just keep tossing. The starches from the pasta will mix into the sauce to give the the perfect consistency. If you use flour or cornstarch to thicken the sauce, it may come out with a gluey consistency once it’s cooled down a bit.
- You can add a few tsp of Italian seasoning, a pinch of nutmeg or red pepper flakes to add some flare to this sauce. Feel free to get creative with seasoning.
- You can adjust the ratio of cream to milk in this recipe to suit how rich you’d like it to be.
- You can store this recipe easily in the fridge. In an airtight container it’ll keep for 3 – 5 days just be sure it’s properly cooled before storing. Unfortunately this dish doesn’t freeze well so I recommend either making it day of or a few days before and storing in the fridge.
Made this last night, was a bit confused with “1 chicken breast” they come in all different sizes, ended up putting 450g in and it was perfect, defenately didn’t feed 6, only 3 and again that was perfect for us. Don’t have an oven proof pan so transferred it to an ovenproof dish, took a picture of it when it was ready and sent it to my friend and she is demanding that I make it again this weekend when she comes over. It was soooo tasty and cheesy (I did add a few red chilli flakes because I like a bit of heat) Will be making again and again, thank you so much for sharing this 🙂 x