Cheeseburger pasta doesn’t get enough love, in my opinion. It’s like a mash up of a cheeseburger with burger sauce and macaroni ‘n’ cheese. What’s not to love about that?
Even better, my version of cheeseburger pasta with ground chicken and protein pasta has 25 grams of protein and only 19 grams of carbs and 275 calories per serving. You can make it all in one pan in about 25 minutes, too. If you’re reluctant to hop on the cheeseburger pasta hype train after reading all that, I don’t know what to tell you!
You’ll find a printable recipe card at the bottom of the post. But first, I’ve included a quick visual recipe walkthrough with a few extra ingredient notes and cooking tips. If you have any questions I missed, drop a comment below the recipe card.
How to Make One-Pan Cheeseburger Pasta
Ground Chicken and Pasta
The recipe calls for ground chicken and Banza chickpea pasta shells. You’re welcome to use ground beef or turkey in place of ground chicken, just aim for a leaner cut.
For the pasta shells, other pasta options should work fine. Though you may need to adjust the amount of chicken broth or water used and extend the cook time for something like classic wheat pasta. You want the pasta nearly cooked or al dente before adding in the burger sauce and cheese.
Check out my creamy turkey and broccoli pasta and creamy chicken pasta soup recipes for examples of other one pot pastas.
Burger Sauce
The burger sauce is a rendition of the sauce I used for my low carb cheeseburger skillet. It’s a blend of light mayo, sugar free ketchup, mustard, and relish.
You can get creative here and mix things up. Don’t like relish? Leave it out or swap it for chopped pickles or peppers like in my healthy chicken burger bowls. Only have yellow mustard on hand and not stone ground? Just use yellow mustard. It’s all good!
Cheese
For the cheese, I typically aim for freshly grated cheese in pasta dishes, but I’ve found Tillamook shredded cheese melts really well. So if you’re looking for a quick route to cheeseburger pasta, that’s the move.
You do have the option in the recipe to either mix all the cheese straight in or to save some for broiling on top. I think the latter is the best way to make your cheeseburger pasta a little more aesthetic, and it adds some nice texture as well. You could add some chopped pickles or peppers to the top before broiling as well.
Serving Your Cheeseburger Pasta
For pasta main dishes like this, I always reference this guide on the best side dishes to serve with mac and cheese. Your best bet will be side salads and colorful veggie sides like green beans and broccoli. If you have an air fryer, you could prep some of my air fryer brussels sprouts or air fryer balsamic carrots while your pasta is under the broiler.
Be sure to let me know what you come up with for rounding out your meal. And if you love this ground chicken cheeseburger pasta, I’d greatly appreciate you leaving a recipe review!
Ground Chicken Cheeseburger Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp 16g Olive Oil
- 1 lb Ground Chicken, 97/3
- 8 oz Banza Pasta Shells
- 2 1/2 C Chicken Broth
- 2 Tbsp Pickle Juice
- 2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 tsp Onion Powder
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
For the Sauce & Cheese
- 1/4 C Sugar Free Ketchup
- 2 Tbsp Stone Ground Mustard
- 1 Tbsp Yellow Mustard
- 2 Tbsp Light Mayo
- 2 Tbsp Relish
- 6 oz Shredded Cheddar Fresh Parsley, for garnish
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat before browning both sides of the chicken and fully cooking.
- Add the onion powder and black pepper to the cooked ground chicken, followed by the pickle juice, Worcestershire, broth, and pasta. Stir to fully combine and submerge the pasta.
- Cover and cook for 6-8 minutes until the pasta is almost fully cooked before removing from the heat and uncovering.
- Mix all the sauce ingredients except the cheese together while the pasta cooks. Fold the sauce into the pasta before doing the same with the cheese. You can either add all 6 oz of cheese or fold in 4 and save 2 oz for adding on top and broiling for 5 minutes.
- Garnish with freshly chopped parsley and enjoy!
I must not be using chickpea pasta properly because I have never had a good experience. For this recipe, I subbed in a red lentil pasta I found at the local co-op which brought an amazing pasta texture and protein content to the dish! Overall, very yummy and a perfect lunch to take to work with me. This has become a staple in my weekly meal prep!
I was a bit skeptical of how the sauce works come together but dang, it really turned out great.
I made this with my roommate a while back and it was great. I never knew chickpea pasta was so good, and a great alternative! We used plenty of different cheeses to make it more like a casserole, and bacon bits on top was a great addition if you wanted a bacon-cheeseburger pasta.
I’m not a huge mayo fan, so I left that out – but it still turned out absolutely incredible. Portions were larger than I expected for a pasta dish and super filling!
I was unsure about chickpea pasta, but I’ve never had a bad experience with Mason’s recipes, so I went for it. This pasta dish has all the flavor and none of the guilt. Goes great with some pan roasted vegetables on the side.
Would you use dill relish or sweet? I’m assuming dill, but….
Thanks for always sharing such great recipes!
I used dill, but I reckon either would work here.
A monthly staple in our house holy YUMM! So easy and quick. Tonight I’ll try making my own ground chicken in the food processor to save some $$! 🙂
I made this for the first time tonight and I am obsessed!! I am someone who doesn’t find a whole lot of joy in cooking and tries to avoid complex, lengthy recipes, so this one really worked for me. Plus, it tastes DELICIOUS!! Thank you for this recipe!
Added a bit more pickle juice, and just cut up some homemade pickles instead of using relish (for the crunch)… it got 5 stars from my husband. He didn’t even realize he was eating chickpea noodles!
I think I used too much ground mustard. It was not good and I ended up throwing the whole pot away. Next time, if there is one, I will not use the stone ground mustard.
Good news is my nostrils opened right up.
@Shae, did you use dry ground mustard powder? This recipe calls for prepared stone ground mustard condiment (yes, it calls for two kinds of prepared mustard). If you used powder, wow I bet it did open up your sinuses! 🙂