Chicken pasta bake

This chicken pasta bake is a comforting family dish, perfectly calibrated for training: 39 g of protein, 68 g of carbs and 12 g of fat for 514 kcal per serving. For four, it is made in one dish, shared and reheated: ideal to cook once and eat for several days.

A bake can quickly become a calorie bomb (cream, lots of cheese). Here, the tomato sauce and chicken breast dominate, with just enough mozzarella for the golden top: only 12 g of fat. To lighten it further, reduce the mozzarella; for bulking, add cheese or serve bigger portions.

Cook the pasta al dente (it finishes cooking in the oven), make a well-seasoned chicken tomato sauce (onion, garlic, oregano), mix, top with mozzarella and bake until the top is golden. It is a forgiving dish: ideal for batch cooking, it freezes in portions and reheats in the oven or microwave.

The bake is an excellent vehicle for eating vegetables effortlessly. Add zucchini, peppers, mushrooms, spinach or broccoli to the tomato sauce: they melt into the cooking, grow the plate's volume and bring fibre and micronutrients for very few calories. Perfect for filling you up more without weighing the dish down.

These vegetables also improve the nutritional balance of a pasta-and-cheese dish, adding fibre that smooths blood sugar and prolongs satiety. They are especially useful for getting children or reluctant eaters to enjoy vegetables: buried in the sauce and baked, they go down easily. The same bake becomes more complete without changing the recipe.

The choice of pasta changes the result a lot. The whole-wheat pasta used here brings more fibre and a pleasant bite, but regular pasta will give a softer bake if you prefer. Lentil or chickpea pasta pushes the protein up without changing the principle of the dish. Favour hollow shapes such as penne, rigatoni or macaroni: their ridges hold the sauce and brown nicely in the oven.

As for cheese, grated mozzarella melts well and stays reasonable in fat. A little grated Emmental gives more flavour but makes the dish heavier; a light dusting of Parmesan on top creates a crisp crust with very little quantity. To gain protein, you can also stir two or three spoonfuls of ricotta or fromage blanc into the sauce off the heat, which makes it creamier.

The sauce is easy to customise: a spoonful of tomato paste for depth, basil, smoked paprika or a pinch of chili to liven it up. If you do not like chicken, diced turkey, lean ground beef or drained tuna also work. Cut the chicken into pieces of about two centimetres: they cook quickly in the pan and finish tenderising in the sauce and then in the oven.

The number one mistake is overcooking the pasta: since it spends another fifteen minutes in the oven, it should leave the water clearly firm, a few minutes before the time on the packet. The second is a sauce that is too thick: pasta absorbs liquid while baking, so the sauce should look slightly too generous when you assemble the dish. Finally, do not overcook the chicken in the pan, since it keeps cooking afterwards, and do not forget to salt the pasta water.

This dish adapts easily to your goal. When bulking, raise the raw pasta to 100 g per person, add more mozzarella or an extra spoonful of olive oil and serve a generous portion. When cutting, reduce the pasta to about 60 g per person, fill the dish with vegetables and keep the amount of chicken: you keep the protein intake for fewer calories. The values shown match the recipe as written; weigh your additions to stay accurate.

For storage, let the bake cool a little, then divide it into airtight containers within an hour or two of cooking. It keeps three days in the fridge. To reheat, put it in a 180 °C oven under aluminium foil for 15 to 20 minutes, or in the microwave with a spoonful of water so it does not dry out. Once thawed, do not refreeze it.