Packet Meals - Chicken Pasta Bake

Chicken Pasta Bake

I love a good pasta bake. They're simple, and very easy to make from not a whole lot of ingredients. And the jars of sauces for them make them even easier and tend to be pretty reliable. In the salvage box that I brought back from Mum's, I had this one. There's no serve photo as I took it over to my partner's place for dinner and we ate it all. It was however, delicious and well recieved by them.

^{I'd have a shot of it served up, but this is as close as it got before we devoured it}

Ingredients

• 200 grams spiral pasta
• 1 jar Dolmio Pasta Bake (Creamy Tomato & Mozzarella)
• 1 tablespoon Oil
• 1 Chicken Breast, diced
• 1 Broccoli, cut into bite sized florets
• 3 Spring Onions, finely sliced
• 2-3 Shortcut Bacon, diced
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 1 cup Shredded Cheese
• handful Shredded Parmesan

^{Another ingredients photo, another with a bunch of missing ingredients}

Method

• Prepare all the ingredients

^{I really could have sliced a bunch of the larger pieces and halved them}

^{Could also have done with ignoring the packet instructions and had 300 instead}

^{Onion and Spring Onion, Chicken, Bacon. All ready to go}

• Heat water in a saucepan and cook the Pasta to about 2 minutes under packet instructions.

^{later on you'll remove and drain the pasta and it will look something like this}

• Melt the Oil in the wok
• Add the Chicken and cook until browned on all sides. Don't overcook, as it will get more time in the pan and in the oven to cook through.

^{Chicken cooking in Coconut oil.}

• Remove the Chicken to a bowl
• Add the Onions to the wok and stir fry quickly over high heat

^{They'll pick up some of the colour from the chicken oil, but don't want too much colour yet}

• Add the Bacon and continue stir fry until the bacon appears to be changing colour, and the Onion is browning.
• Add the Broccoli

^{A bit hard to see the changed colour of the bacon or onion under all that green}

• Cook for about 5 minutes to get some heat into the Broccoli
• Add Chicken, and any accumulated juices, back into the wok

^{Hopefully the green stems of the Broccoli have darkened as part of them starting to cook.}

• Stirfry for about 5 minutes to mix everything together and allow the juices to evaporate.
• Pour the contents of the wok into a large bowl with the Pasta
• Add the jar of Sauce to the bowl.
• Put about 1/4 cup water into the jar and reseal.
• Shake well to get all the sauce into the liquid and add to the bowl
• Mix the bowl contents well

^{A well mixed bowl of pasta, sauce, and other ingredients}

• Pour the mixed ingredients into a baking dish. Spray it first so it doesn't stick.
• Sprinkle the top with the Shredded Cheese and Parmesan

^{Ready to go into the oven}

• Let it bake for 20 minutes or until the cheese is golden.

^{My little portable oven doing what it's supposed to do}

• Let it cool for a little to allow for easier slicing, or just serve it up hot and it will collapse over the plate.

^{Yup, you don't get to see a single serving as my family ate it all}

Thoughts

• I should have used my smaller dish, as it turned out quite shallow in the lasagna dish I inherited
• Or more pasta. The balance between pasta and other ingredients was out. Another 100 grams of pasta could really help bulk it out too.
• As mentioned earlier, smaller broccoli pieces would have been really good too.

Last 10 Packet Meals

Marinades Part 3
Hearty Vegetable and Barley Soup
Marinades Part 2
Butter Chicken
Beef and Red Wine Casserole
Country Beef Casserole
Marinades Part 1
Creamy Herb and Garlic Potato Bake
Chicken Korma
Steak, Veggies and Diane Sauce

^{Upgoats made by the talented @ryivhnn}