With only 4 ingredients, this chicken parmesan pasta bake might be the easiest recipe on my blog. And that’s saying something because I made some seriously minimal recipes when I first started blogging about food!
I’ll walk you through the recipe below and cover ingredient substitutions as we go. There’s a printable recipe card at the bottom of the post as well. Let’s get it.
Step 1: Mix your choice of pasta and marinara together in a baking dish.
Make sure your baking dish is similar in size. More surface area will likely reduce the cook time and less surface area will increase the cook time. Don’t worry—you can always cover and bake a bit longer if your pasta is undercooked.
And feel free to use another pasta.
Side note: You can add a bit more protein with a blended cottage cheese and pasta sauce. See my high protein chicken lasagna for an example in action.
Step 2: Top with shredded cheese.
Okay, I know I always talk about how freshly shredded cheese is so much better than pre-shredded, and it is. I just wanted this pasta bake to be as simple as possible. I’d still recommend grating some fresh mozzarella and parmesan for best results.
And as far as cheese options go, the version in the finished recipe photos actually used Trader Joe’s quattro formaggio cheese blend (asiago, fontina, provolone, parmesan). It’s hard to go wrong here!
Note: You may want to toss the chicken in the sauce along with this pasta like in this mostaccioli pasta recipe.
Step 3: Add Perdue Farms Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks.
Since you can’t have chicken parmesan without the chicken, the recipe calls for Perdue Farms Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks. This is one of my favorite products from Perdue. The chicken gets crispy golden brown on the outside while staying juicy on the inside. And that’s straight from the freezer!
Where to buy: Target is my go-to for frozen Perdue chicken, but you can use the store locator on the product page.
I’ll add that I’m a Perdue Farms ambassador and you can use my affiliate link (perduefarms.com/mason) to get a free box of this diced chicken breast and 15% off your order. Then you can make other recipes like my honey sesame chicken, buttermilk pan fried chicken, or chili garlic chicken fried chicken cauliflower rice.
And lastly, Costco has a very similar product, which you can check out in my healthy sweet and sour chicken or Korean chicken tacos recipes.
Step 4: Top with more marinara and cheese, cover, and bake.
I added some crushed red pepper flakes and dried parsley, but that’s totally optional.
Step 5: Uncover and continue baking for a melty, crispy top.
Parmesan and hard cheeses will give you the extra crispy look in the photo above. While a softer cheese like mozzarella will be more melty and give you that cheese pull effect. There is no right or wrong here.
Final Recipe Notes
I guess it wouldn’t technically be chicken parm if you added a bunch of stuff. Still, I wanted to toss out the idea of adding some extras like mushrooms or cherry tomatoes like in my Italian Sausage and Veggie Pasta Bake. Or if you like extra spice, a little Italian Bomba Pepper Sauce like I used in my Sausage and Mushroom Cauliflower Gnocchi and Chicken Parmesan Sandwiches might tickle your fancy.
These suggestions are purely speculation, but I bet extra goodies would increase the amount of diggity exponentially.
That’s a wrap. If you have any questions about this recipe, drop a comment below or join my Facebook group. There are more than 12k awesome home cooks in the group to help you out!
Chicken Parmesan Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 8 oz Dry Pasta, I used Banza Cavatappi
- 24 oz jar Marinara
- 16 oz Perdue Simply Smart Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks
- 1 1/4 C 140g Shredded Italian Cheese Blend
- 1/2 tsp Crushed Red Pepper and Parsley Flakes, optional
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 450F.
- Mix 3/4 of the marinara with the dry pasta in a 13×8 baking dish.
- Add 3/4 C (84g) cheese on top of the pasta and marinara, followed by the chicken. Pour remaining marinara in the gaps and top with remaining cheese and the optional red pepper and parsley flakes.
- Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until the cheese on top is melted and the chicken is crispy golden brown.
This was so good and so simple! I added a little extra sauce because I like my noodles drowning, but I’d say it was helpful and the pasta soaked it right up, so you could probably add some sauce and a bit of water!!
I had no problems with this recipe following it the way Mason says to make it. I love how you don’t have to cook the pasta before hand, the less steps a recipe has, the better LOL I have already made this 3 times!
I had no problems with this recipe following it the way Mason says to make it. I love how you don’t have to cook the pasta before hand, the less steps a recipe has, the better LOL I have already made this 3 times and plan to make it many more!!
This is the easiest Chicken Parm recipe ever. You don’t even have to cook the noodles! You basically dump everything and bake.I had no issue with the noodles being under cooked. I would recommend splurging a little on the marinara and cheese to add flavor. This has been added to our meal rotation. Thanks for the great recipe Mason!
This was definitely a crowd pleaser – my kids asked for it to be added to the regular rotation. Next time I make it I will need to do something to add more volume to my portion…I’m a volume eater, lol.
Awesome, easy, delicious meal! Make sure you use the right size pan or the pasta won’t get fully covered and might be undercooked. I used a 8×11 baking dish and it was great!
Made this for my family the other night and it was amazing!! They didn’t even know it was some what healthy!!! Tricked them!!
I made a couple of substitutions in this – Barilla chickpea rotini instead of Banza, and the chicken that I put on type was cubed, pre-cooked, frozen Tyson chicken. I did assemble everything as directed in the recipe, and it all cooked very well. I mixed my portion with a bit of FF cottage cheese to increase protein a bit more, and to stretch my serving size a little. I covered the dish and refrigerated it, and continued to heat up leftovers in the microwave for about 4-5 days afterwards. Delicious every time!
Made this last night for dinner. Loved how quick and easy is was to make after work and my picky kids loved it!! Will definitely make again!
Such a quick and delicious recipe! I added extra sauce and used the Barilla protein pasta but it lasted the week!