Chicken Pasta (Chicken Spaghetti)

This Chicken Pasta is an easy dinner solution for your hunger pangs. You crave for something homemade, light and quick after your day’s work or school, this chicken pasta is the easiest meal you can make under 30 mins. Serve it with some veggie salad or grilled veggies on the side.

If you are lucky enough & have enough time for an elaborate meal, serve chicken spaghetti with Cheese toast., Corn soup, this quick French toast.

This simple recipe uses ingredients that are easy to source, such as boneless chopped chicken breast/thighs, spaghetti, fresh tomatoes, onion, spices such as chili flakes, garlic, and dried or fresh herbs.

With some chopping and a couple of cooking steps, you can have a filling, nutritious dinner that will keep both your belly and your wallet full. Leftovers will taste even better the next day too!

To make sure you make the best chicken pasta possible, it’s important to know how to cook one of the most fundamental ingredients: the pasta.

Pro Tips for Boiling Pasta

One of the easiest ways to level up your cooking game is knowing how to properly cook pasta. Whether it’s long, thin spaghetti or short, curly cavatappi, most pastas need to be boiled properly to get their trademark bite and flavor.

Here are a few tips for perfectly boiled pasta.

1. Salt the water. If you hear someone tell you your pasta water needs to be “salty like the sea,” follow their advice! Salty water helps season the pasta and make it taste good.
2. Don’t add oil. Some folks say that adding oil to pasta water keeps the pasta from sticking. This is just not true, and the oil prevents the sauce from sticking to the pasta. Just give the pasta a little stir or two, especially at the beginning of cooking, to prevent it from sticking.
3. Reserve some pasta water. Pasta water helps loosen and emulsify pasta sauces, giving them better overall texture and consistency. Don’t be afraid to keep some behind to perfect your pasta!
4. Toss pasta in sauce immediately after draining. To keep your pasta’s texture and warmth, make sure whatever sauce you want to use is ready to go as soon as you start to drain the noodles.

Variations on Chicken Pasta

This chicken pasta is easily adaptable to suit your needs.

You can use shredded cooked chicken, grilled chicken, or brined chicken instead of raw chicken breast to speed up the cooking.

For additional richness, try topping the pasta with Italian or melting cheeses like parmesan, ricotta, mozzarella, Fontina, or cheddar.

If you don’t have any fresh tomatoes on hand, just use canned! For more texture, use diced or whole canned tomatoes. For a smoother sauce, canned tomato sauce or passata will also work.

Tomato enthusiasts are encouraged to try finding canned San Marzano tomatoes, especially ones with a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO or sometimes DOP in Italian) label for authenticity.

Fresh herb lovers can go wild. Basil, parsley, oregano, marjoram, and rosemary all complement this recipe handsomely.

Consider adding soft herbs towards the end of cooking to preserve their freshness and harder, woodier herbs earlier to soften them and draw out their flavors.

More pasta recipes
White sauce pasta
Red sauce pasta
Masala pasta
Spaghetti aglio olio
Mushroom spaghetti
Pasta soup

How to Make Chicken Pasta (Stepwise Photos)

Cook Spaghetti

1. Bring 10 cups of water to a boil in a large pot. Add salt and spaghetti and cook as per the instructions on the pack. I used organic durum wheat spaghetti.

2. They must be cooked al dente. Drain them in a colander and rinse them well.

Make the Sauce

3. Heat oil in a pan and saute garlic until it smells good.

4. Add chicken shredded or cubed and then sprinkle salt. I had brined the chicken in vinegar for about 2 hours. If you have brined yours in salted solution, then skip adding salt to the pan here.

5. Saute on a medium heat until completely cooked. Add the spices. Saute on high heat just for a min or 2.

6. Set the chicken aside. Add little more oil to the pan. Saute garlic until aromatic. Then add onions.

7. Saute until the onions turn golden.

8. Add the pureed tomatoes.

9. Cook until the sauce thickens. It does take some time to thicken. Time to add the chicken and herbs. You may taste test and add more spices or herbs here.

Make Chicken Spaghetti

10. Add 3 to 4 tbsps pasta cooked stock. And cook till it reaches a saucy consistency as shown in the picture.

11. Add cooked pasta.

12. Saute for 2 to 3 mins. Off the heat. At this stage if your chicken pasta looks dry, add little more stock.

Serve chicken spaghetti hot or warm with a bowl of soup.

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