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 a man who lives in his van 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
Baked Ziti – the mother of all pasta bakes!
Tuna Pasta Bake – the highest and best use for canned tuna!
Baked Mac and Cheese – and try the Shrimp version!
Cheeseburger Casserole (Homemade Hamburger Helper)
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
- 400g / 14 oz 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)
- 250g / 8 oz spiral pasta, uncooked (See Note 1 for other shapes)
- 1/4 cup flour (all purpose / plain)
- 1 1/2 cups chicken broth/stock , warmed
- 2 cups milk , warmed (any fat %)
- 1 large garlic clove , minced
- 2 tbsp / 30g unsalted butter , recommended but optional
- 1 large broccoli or 2 medium broccoli or cauliflower, broken into small to medium florets (Note 2 for subs)
- 1 1/2 cups (tightly packed) shredded cheddar or colby cheese (or tasty cheese, pizza mix etc, Note 3)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F (180°C fan-forced).
- Sprinkle chicken with salt (be generous), pepper and thyme, toss to coat.
- Spread pasta in a 23 x 33cm / 9 x 13" baking dish. Sprinkle flour all across the surface (don't dump in clump else it won't dissolve). 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!!!
You crack me up Nagi! LOVE your Dozer stories – keep ’em coming – and love this simple recipe. I would have never guessed there is no cream – and all the broccoli looks wonderful!
So pleased the size of bottom is useful for something other than giving me angst every day I check it out in my jeans!!!! (Slimming jeans are a LIE!)
Cooked tonight and everyone loves the flavour.
People a word of warning, when Nagi says stir and stir again, do it properly. My sauce ended up very thin with a thicker layer at the bottom. I obviously did not stir enough.
Will definitely cook again with more stirring
Thank you for the tip Jenny! I put STIR WELL in CAPS!!! I’m so pleased you enjoyed the flavour though and it was still tasty! N xx
This looks awesome Nagi!
However, I am not going to get a chance to try I it out for 5 weeks…as my partner and I are headed to NYC on Monday! Therefore your foodie map would be very much appreciated. 🤗
We’re leaving behind our puppy too…I’m torn between not wanting him to be sad and wanting him to miss us. 😐
Thanks for all that you do,
Emma
It’s coming it’s coming! I promise 🙂 Early next week if I can’t manage it for this weekend. You’ll be able to download it onto your Google Maps on your phone and refer to it wherever you are – that’s how we use it! Have a FAB trip – but be prepared for serious heat. August is the hottest month of the year, I really really hope you are staying somewhere with AC. Make sure you make whoever is looking after your puppy to send you daily updates! He will grow up so fast in 5 weeks! N xx
Hi Nagi,
At 34C and 70% it’s making you feel right at home just don’t forget to come back, besides Dozer would have to learn to distance swim to find you. Gotta love that dog, he’s so cute.
As for this so simple and easy recipe I’ll be trying it over the weekend as we’ve been asked out to dinner over the next two nights other-wise I’d be making it tonight. Can’t wait to try it.
God bless the homeless man and all the other homeless people.
Bugger. I forgot for a moment there that it’s freezing back home!!!!!
Hi Nagi,
This looks super delish and right up my alley! I want to make this for my daughter who is 10 months old, she can’t eat massive bits of chicken, do you think I could use a pre-roast chicken and shred it before putting in the bake, or would this alter and change the cooking method and time?
Thank you!
Hi Cristelle! Definitely – just stir it through with the cheese 🙂 But other than that, same method and cook time. Or cut a thin slice of chicken just for her, add it in with the rest of the chicken (per recipe) and keep it at the top of the baking dish so at the end when it comes out of the oven and the chicken is cooked, then you can shred it and stir it through her portion. Just saves you cooking the chicken separately! N x
Love it, we are ALL about the easy and healthy eats in our household. Currently working on dishes that can be pulled from the freezer after a hard day at the beach with Little Chef the moodle. Thanks Nagi. 🙂
I bet your freezer looks so much more organised than mine 😩 N xx
It’s just as hot in Western Massachusetts at the state line border of Connecticut, but if I had some broccoli or another likely vegetable in the fridge or freezer (instead of just carrots, yellow summer squash, and yellow wax beans!,) I’d be making your recipe for dinner, anyway! I’ve used cooked roux and whisked/shaken flour-water mixtures all my life for “creamed” sauces, chowders, creamed chipped beef, and that old army mess stand-by of “s**t on a shingle,” having emulated my late-parents who’d both cooked at home throughout my childhood, but haven’t ever made a pasta casserole using raw chicken, so definitely want to try it the way you’ve made it. It opens up an entire vista of possibility to no longer be restricted to only those occasions when I happen to have a quantity of leftover cooked chicken on hand or don’t want to run out to buy a store-roasted rotisserie chicken! I have no clue why it never before occurred to me to Use raw chicken in this way, but thanks for posting such a great and very useful recipe for a quick and ultra-streamlined meal! (I’ve been in NYC when it’s been this hot, and it was brutal! The heat and humidity doesn’t seem quite so bad in the more leafy and countrified areas of the Northeast, thankfully.) At least you have a kind, generous, and tactful friend, by the way! When I was young and quite thin, I’d once worked with humorous (but dear friend) joker, who’d turned me around by the shoulder when I’d remarked to him that I’d been freezing my butt off, and informed me it would Never be cold enough to do that! And, of course Dozer misses you!
You know, I think it’s all the concrete in NYC. It sucks in the heat and radiates out so you feel like it’s an oven!! My friend is hilarious, I almost wet myself laughing!!! Re; chicken in bakes like this, it works quite well because it leeches juices and adds flavour into the broth the pasta is cooked it 🙂 I do prefer to caramelise where possible, but for this quick bake, it’s very handy! N xx
You are very right, of course. All that towering brick, metal, glass and concrete, plus the darker asphalt and tar on the streets below, absorbs all that sun and heat, transforming the entire city into a seasonal stone oven that never cools down much in the treacherous heat-blasts of summer–and also transform the city into giant corridors of blustery and brutal wind tunnels during winter storms and blizzards too.
I just had the most vivid scent-memory of NYC’s very distinct aroma in the summer, too! Pungent! My husband and I used to bop into the city (approx. 120 miles) frequently for long weekends in all seasons, mainly because we used to be such deli-fiends, but a lot of the classic and famous delis have closed in the past several years, unfortunately! We’d sometimes go to the theaters for a show, too, but we mainly went to stuff our faces. Corned beef or pastrami on hard rolls with coleslaw, bowls of half-sour pickles, crispy latkes, and densely creamy cheesecakes–deli heaven! We’d patronized other great restaurants too, for Maine lobsters, wonderful steaks, and numerous ethnic dining delights as well, but it had been the allure of great Kosher delis that had been the irresistible lure for us. If reincarnation is actually a thing, then we might both have been Jewish in a previous lifetime, or perhaps not, since we both enjoy variety in dining, also. And, NYC seems to have it all, too. Hope you are enjoying your time there in spite of the gruesome weather.
Let us raise a glass tonight in a toast to hysterically funny friends; those treausures who so enrich our lives with laughter! And, to our pets, past and present, who have often done so, too!
Cheers!
The smell is ok now! NYC is actually very clean 🙂 And trust me, I had my share of stuffing my face…..
We enjoyed the casserole! Used your recipe exactly, and it turned out great. Will definitely use the recipe for leftover chicken also, and/or with ham for a Cordon Bleu version or a ham & broccoli version, perhaps with some Coleman’s dry mustard and maybe some Shredded Swiss cheese, etc. It’s too bad asparagus season has just passed! Had to stop by to add some stars!
The weather has certainly gotten more crazy! It didn’t even quite reach 65-degrees F yesterday, with some monsoon-worthy downpours, and today has yet to reach 70-degrees. I can’t remember a time when it’s Ever been this cool in July before, but am enjoying such an unprecedented break from a heat wave.
I’m so pleased you enjoyed it Wynn! Thank you for letting me know – N xx
On my must-do list before anything else! I like easy, tasty, and lunch-packable…this recipe will do major work for me! 😀
That photo is precious! As for Dozer looking for you, I totally get it. My cats do the same thing…we’re they’re bestest friends and favorite playtoys! 😀
Ohhhhhhh! I love hearing that 🙂 So many cats aren’t like that! N xx
Hello Nagi, this dish looks so yummy however I’m not a broccoli lover and frozen veggie not so much either, I was wondering if that would work using fresh cauliflower?
Let me know what you think
Thank you
Yes yes YES!!! Cauliflower is my other favourite veggie to have in pasta bakes and it goes SO WELL with white sauces. 🙂 (In fact, it’s an actual dish – Cauliflower Gratin!)
Another recipe pinned! I’m in a hot California summer right now but this will be perfect when a mac & cheese loving friend of mine comes to town in the fall. Either that or the Chicken Gratin you linked. Decisions decisions…
But I have to admit that I mainly came here to comment on that picture of you and Dozer– oh my gosh, SO endearing! Then I almost missed the video of him. That poor tortured pup! Too damn cute.
Ba ha ha!!! Right, that does it. I have decided. I’m adding a JUMP TO DOZER button at the top of my posts!!! You are definitely not the first person to say that!! N xx
Hi Nagi. This dish seems too easy to be so good! Do you think the recipe should be altered in any way if I use frozen (and thawed) broccoli? There is nothing “fresh” about the broccoli I see in the stores. I’m still laughing at your commentary on Dozer and you!
Hi Dorothy! I was lazy and tried frozen broccoli and it dropped too much water. I am sure it will work if thawed and drained of excess water though. Or cauliflower 🙂 I find frozen cauliflower doesn’t drop as much liquid when it thaws, do you find that too? My mum honestly almost wet herself when I told her what Dozer’s boarder said!!!!!
Well, I went ahead and pinned this recipe to make ASAP, as well as the other three you mentioned. PLUS — I went and pinned your mom’s tips for making perfect rice. I’ve never bought sushi grade rice and I’m anxious to try it. See, I bought some chop sticks and I’m determined to learn how to use them. The worst think that can happen is that I’ll lose weight cuz I can’t shovel the food in my mouth. Awwww!! I knew Dozer missed you. 🤗
It’s SUMMER here Marisa!!!! If there was ever a time to stock up on fabulous summer salads! What’s your favorite? I must confess I don’t know many proper Italian salads other than bread salad. N xx
Hi Nagi,
Shades of Julia Childs-No Roux!-OMG! – Nagi, this looks and sounds fabulous. I, too, am lazy and love one pot meals,
and have come to learn, your one-pot meals, are definitely cookable.
I love broccoli and chicken, so this will become a favorite for lazy me when I don’t have the time for something more
elaborite. Cody won’t mind either, as since he’s almost 10 years old, and I have been cooking broccoli with chicken in
many forms, he got to eat lots of broccoli and chicken too. He won’t be complaining for sure.
Thanks for a great recipe and keep on publishing.
Robert & Cody
PS: Just wanted you to know that I was born and raised in NYC and lived on 154 East 63rd Street in my GrandParents Brownstone Town House. Miss NYC, haven’t been back now almost 50 years, but I love Florida better. Ciao!!!!
Julia probably rolled over in her grave when she saw this!!! I figure there is a time for one pot recipes and a time for taking time in the kitchen to make this properly 🙂 This one is for the former! Lucky Cody 🙂 And lucky you, raising in NYC! What a city! N xx
Let me just say that if I didn’t make a paste bake yesterday, I would be doing this tonight. (Note: It is “summer” here in Ireland. Inverted commas not accidental!) Lazy works for me. Also, I would love to be a homeless man (for the lack of a name) in your neighbourhood. Just sayin’.
I should introduce him properly one of these days, shouldn’t I!!!! Not quite stinking hot over there (yet?) 🙂 N x