This chicken pasta bake is one of our most popular recipes, and for good reason. This tasty, yet incredibly easy, dish combines our love for Mexican-inspired food with a comforting pasta bake. A pack of fajita seasoning mix transforms a straight forward chicken dish. We've used supermarket salsa to speed things up also, so this midweek meal is ready in just 45 minutes.
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Yields:
4 serving(s)
Prep Time:
20 mins
Cook Time:
25 mins
Total Time:
45 mins
Cal/Serv:
671
Ingredients
275g
amori or penne pasta
1Tbsp.
olive oil
500g
chicken thigh fillets, skinless, cut into strips
1
onion, finely sliced
3
mixed peppers, deseeded and sliced
30g
pack fajita seasoning mix
1Tbsp.
tomato puree
2 x 200g tubs fresh tomato salsa
75g
mature Cheddar, grated
sour cream, optional, to serve
Directions
Step 1Bring a large pan of salted water to boil and cook pasta according to pack instructions until al dente. Drain.
Step 2Meanwhile, heat oil in large frying pan over medium-high heat. Fry chicken strips for 5min until golden and cooked through. Lift on to a plate with a slotted spoon.
Step 3To the empty pan, add onion and peppers and fry over medium heat until softened and beginning to caramelise, about 8min. Add fajita seasoning mix, fry for 1min, then return chicken to pan with tomato purée, salsa and 50ml water. Simmer for a couple of minutes, then add drained pasta and check seasoning.
Step 4Preheat grill to medium. Spoon pasta into a 2 litre ovenproof dish, sprinkle over cheese and grill until bubbling and golden. Serve with a dollop of sour cream, if you like.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
