• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary

Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary

fuel that adventure

  • Home
  • The Food
    • All Manner of Sweet Things
      • Cake
      • Chocolate
      • Cookies
      • Ice Cream
      • Squares
      • Everything Else
    • Veggie
      • Salad
      • Vegetarian
      • Vegan
    • Carbohydrates
      • Bread
      • Pasta
      • Potato
      • Gluten Free
      • Rice
      • Pastry
    • Soup
    • Hoof & Feather
      • Beef
      • Chicken
      • Lamb
      • Pork
    • Fin & Shell
    • Breakfast
  • The Adventures
    • Shetland
      • Hike Shetland
    • Belgium
    • England
    • France
    • Italy
    • Latvia
    • Norway
    • Scotland
    • Spain
    • The Caribbean
    • USA
  • About Me
  • As Seen
  • PR & Disclosure
  • Contact Me

Creamy Chicken Pasta Bake

Published on January 11, 2013 • Last updated July 22, 2017 by Elizabeth Atia
creamy-chicken-casserole

There are times when one needs a proper rich, fat filled, carbohydrate packed feast. If the middle of a winter with very little daylight isn’t one of those times, I don’t know what is. This is winter comfort food at its best. Creamy pasta, succulent roast chicken and green vegetables topped with a crunchy, golden cheesy topping. Delicious!

I fancied a creamy pasta bake of some sort to use up some leftover roast chicken from the night before, but I didn’t have any cream. A quick search online found a recipe from Cooks.com for a creamy cream-less sauce and since I had the ingredients I improvised improved it with some other ingredients hidden in the vegetable crisper which desperately needed using up before the monthly supermarket shop the next day.

You could substitute the milk for cream for an even richer sauce, or, if you are watching the calories, use Lighter than Light mayo and skimmed milk. Change the vegetables for whatever you happen to have on hand or prefer. We prefer green things.

This is frugal cooking using up leftovers, the ends of bits in the fridge and store cupboard ingredients. This recipe was created with a nearly empty fridge – once I’d used up the veg for this recipe all that was left was a single courgette and a half tin of cat food. There’s only 30 grams of cheddar cheese because that’s all that was left; the bag of spinach was starting to wilt and the leek was starting to yellow as it had seen better days. As this is a frugal recipe I am entering it into Fuss Free Flavours’ (alternately hosted by FabFood4All) revamped Credit Crunch Munch food blogging challenge, which asks us to share our frugal cooking recipes and tips. This is a Blog Hop, so scroll down to the bottom of this page to see what other foodies are making.

Creamy Chicken Pasta Bake
by Elizabeth
The ultimate winter comfort food – using up leftovers!
Ingredients
  • 300 grams fusilli pasta
  • 200 grams fresh spinach leaves, trimmed
  • 1 large leek, trimmed and sliced
  • 20 grams + 1 tbsp butter, divided
  • 300 grams leftover roast chicken, shredded
  • 230 grams mayonnaise
  • 250 ml full fat milk
  • 25 grams + 2 tbsp grated parmesan, divided
  • 2 tsp dried parsley, divided
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • 2 tsp garlic granules, divided
  • 2 generous handfuls breadcrumbs
  • 30 grams mature cheddar, grated
  • salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 200 C.
2. Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling water until al dente, about 7-8 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, whisk together the mayonnaise, milk, 25 g parmesan, 1 tsp parsley, basil and 1 tsp garlic granules together in a bowl until combined. Set aside.
4. Heat the butter in a pan and saute the leek until it begins to soften.
5. Drain pasta; stir in the leek, spinach, chicken and sauce. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a large casserole dish.
6. To prepare the crumble topping, combine remaining parmesan, parsley, garlic granules, breadcrumbs and cheddar with a fork, season well and sprinkle over the top of the pasta.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and bubbly.
Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 30 mins Total time: 50 mins Yield: Serves 4

Category: Chicken, Pasta, Recipe

About Elizabeth Atia

Daydream adventurer. Expat Canadian. Foodie. Calls Shetland home.

Previous Post: « Triple Death by Chocolate Cherry Cookies
Next Post: Lemon Prune Honey Butter »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Fiver Feeds

    January 4, 2015 at 5:35 pm

    It really looks great, I love this type of dishes!

    Reply
  2. Sarah Lambert

    November 9, 2014 at 1:51 am

    This looks super yummy will have to try this

    Reply
  3. Emma Birley

    October 20, 2014 at 9:19 pm

    Looks exactly like my kind of meal; chicken is my favourite meat! Yummy <3

    Reply
  4. Tracy Nixon

    June 23, 2014 at 4:43 am

    This sounds lovely and I think the kids would like it too!

    Reply
  5. Camilla @fabfood4all.co.uk

    January 11, 2013 at 5:51 pm

    Your dish looks very appetising indeed and is making my mouth water. Thank you for entering the 1st Credit Crunch Munch:-)

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Paprika and garlic mayonnaise, made from scratch - A Mummy Too says:
    February 24, 2015 at 11:04 am

    […] You could also try using the mayo in this comforting cheese toastie by Tinned Tomatoes or this creamy chicken pasta bake by Elizabeth’s Kitchen […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Sidebar

About Elizabeth

Adventurer. Expat Canadian. Foodie. Loves bikes. Calls Shetland home. Read More…

Inspiration

“Every day is another chance to get stronger, to eat better, to live healthier, and to be the best version of you.”

Recent Posts

Image of a stainless steel camping bowl filled with chorizo chowder. There are a few slices of toasted focaccia on the side with gorgeous black grill lines.
Image of The Face of Neeans with its very steep cliffs.

Copyright © 2011–2022 Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary Ltd · Privacy Policy · All Rights Reserved · Website by Callia Web

Company Number: SC643807 · Registered Business Address: 42 Carden Place, Aberdeen, AB10 1UP