I had defrosted chicken in my fridge and mushrooms; it was time for my weekly shop, and I needed to add in a recipe that will use up my leftovers.
With a quick search on the internet, I came across Tesco’s cheesy chicken and mushroom pasta bake recipe – perfect.
All about efficiency, I thought I could try out the recipe and reveal to the Express readership whether it’s as easy and tasty meal as it promises to be.
The ingredients seemed simple enough – most of them I already had in my kitchen cupboards, such as penne, olive oil, garlic and Cheddar.
Better yet, it’s said to only take 10 minutes to prepare and is ready to eat after only 20 minutes in the oven. Always seemingly pressed for time, having a meal cooked in the oven is always a winner for me.
Cheesy chicken and mushroom pasta bake recipe
Ingredients:
300g penne
Two tbsp olive oil
250g button mushrooms, finely sliced
Two garlic cloves, crushed
300g chicken breast, cut into 1cm slices
200g 50 percent less fat soft cheese
15g fresh basil, leaves picked, half finely chopped
100g Cheddar, grated
(Broccoli, my own addition)
Method
Preheat the oven to gas six, 200°C, fan 180°C. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta for 10 to 12 mins until al dente. Prepare the mushrooms.
I transferred the cooked pasta using a slotted spoon to a large baking dish; this meant the reserved cooking water needed could be left in the pan.
As I chose to add broccoli to my pasta dish (which is a great addition), I proceeded to add the florets to the boiled water.
Meanwhile, I heated one tablespoon of oil in a large nonstick pan over a medium-high heat and added the chopped mushrooms to cook for five minutes. Then I added garlic, cooked for a couple more minutes, then transferred the lot to a bowl.
In the same nonstick pan, I heated another dollop of olive oil, then browned the chicken, before returning the mushroom, garlic and broccoli to the nonstick pan.
I stirred through the soft cheese, 200ml of reserved pasta water and chopped basil, then seasoned with pepper.
I then poured the mixture into the dish with the pasta and mixed it all together, scattered over Cheddar and put in the oven to bake for 20 minutes.
Once the pasta bake was cooked, I added more chopped basil and served alongside a green salad.
While I would definitely make this pasta dish again, next time I will add more vegetables, such as spinach and chopped tomatoes.
As for the broccoli and side salad, both of them will definitely remain the next time I make the dish.
