Easy Baked Rotini with Chicken: A 50 Minute Recipe

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Baked rotini with chicken, marinara sauce, romano cheese, and mozzarella cheese. Comfort food for the entire family.

Welcome to the first recipe in our Chicken and Rotini series of recipes. In this version we are using boneless chicken strips, mozzarella cheese, and marinara sauce to create a wonderful and tasty chicken and rotini dish. This series of recipes will feature different chicken cooked with rotini pasta. What will change the most in these recipes are the cuts of chicken and the complimentary ingredients. For instance, in the second version of this recipe, the baked chicken breasts is left whole and served over a bed of rotini pasta.

The purpose of this blog is to demonstrate how a base recipe, in this case, chicken and rotini, can create a new recipe with a few ingredient changes. First, we create a recipe, then we taste the recipe, then we change up the ingredients to develop a new recipe from the original recipe. This is the innovative part of the process. That is why our approach to cooking is: create, taste, innovate.

Look for other recipe series on this blog as we continue to create and innovate new recipe ideas.

This baked rotini with chicken dish is a popular choice with the family. It is tasty, comforting, and super filling. The recipe below shows you how to start with fresh chicken breasts, and then bake them in the oven, before proceeding to combine all of the other ingredients to be finished in the oven. I did this so you would get a sense of how long the dish would take from fresh chicken breasts, to the final plating. However, this baked rotini with chicken recipe is a great candidate for time savings. Have leftover chicken breasts already prepared? Use them in this recipe to shave off that cooking time.

I make boneless chicken breasts every week. They are easy to prepare and are super versatile for quick meals and especially for my brown bag lunches. When the weather is nice, I grill the boneless chicken breasts, otherwise I will bake them in the oven with some of my staple seasonings (just some salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder). For me, this dish takes 20 fewer minutes to prepare because I am using the leftover chicken breasts I have already cooked.

If you like this baked rotini with chicken recipe and will be making it again in the future, consider using leftover boneless chicken breasts to save time.

Finally, this baked rotini with chicken dish is also great for leftovers. I will make a double batch of this recipe and then have it for lunch that week. The smell from heating up my lunch makes my coworkers really jealous.

How to Make Baked Rotini with Chicken

• Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees

Preparing the Chicken:

• Place the 4 chicken breasts into a bowl and add the following ingredients: ½ tsp. salt, ¼ tsp. black pepper, ½ tsp. garlic powder, ½ tsp. onion powder, and 2 tbsp. of extra virgin olive oil.
• Mix well ensuring the chicken is completely covered with the seasoning. Place the chicken onto a baking sheet and cook in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.
• Remove the chicken from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes. Next, slice the chicken into strips which will be added to the pasta.

Preparing the Pasta:

• While the chicken is baking, prepare the pasta according to the package instructions

Bringing the Baked Rotini with Chicken Together

• Add the baked chicken and marinara sauce to the pasta and mix well. In a large baking dish or aluminum tray pour in the pasta mixture.
• Sprinkle with the grated cheese and mozzarella cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, or until the cheese melts and begins to brown.

How to Serve Baked Rotini with Chicken

• Place the baked rotini with chicken in a large serving bowl and sprinkle more Romano cheese if desired.

Invent Your Recipe

This hearty baked rotini with chicken dish is great for food prep and for leftovers. I like rotini pasta in this dish for the texture, but you can really use any pasta you want. I have used penne, rigatoni, gemelli, and linguini before. Give one, or all of those pastas a try if you make this dish multiple times.

You can leave the chicken out for a vegetarian option, or use pork instead for a different flavor profile.

If you decide to use pork, I would recommend pan searing some boneless pork chops until they are golden brown on both sides, 4-5 minutes total, then slice them up and add it to the rotini for baking. If the pork is a little pink, don’t worry, finishing the dish in the oven will cook the pork through. If you pan sear the pork chops for too long, they will become dry when they are sliced up and baked.

For more chicken inspired dishes like this baked rotini with chicken, check out our chicken recipe page.

For even more ideas take a look at our Pinterest page…

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