Tuscan Chicken Pasta (ONE PAN!)

This is our favorite Tuscan Chicken Pasta — loads of flavor and made all in ONE pan. That’s right — toss together uncooked chicken, uncooked pasta, and uncooked veggies and bake to creamy and cheesy perfection!

Prefer to make dinner on the stovetop? Try this Chicken Orzo or Chicken Pasta instead!

A Simple Tuscan Chicken Pasta Recipe

The combo of pasta, sun-dried tomatoes, chicken, and spinach is one I’ll never be sick of! But throwing all those ingredients into one pan and letting the oven do all the work? Game changer!

We throw uncooked pasta, uncooked chicken, and uncooked spinach in one casserole dish and totally forget about it. And while it’s baking, you’re left with plenty of time to whip up an Italian Salad or this favorite Beet Goat Cheese Walnut Salad. Or…watch the latest episode of your favorite TV show. I’ll be honest, I usually do the latter. 🙂 

How To Make Tuscan Chicken Pasta

• Generously grease a 9×13-inch pan. We recommend ceramic or glass, but we have tested this recipe in a metal pan, and works as well, but sometimes can lend a metallic flavor to the tomatoes.
• Dump mostly everything in. Right into the dish, we add uncooked pasta, flour (to thicken), seasonings, butter, chicken stock/broth, and milk.
• Cover and bake!
• Add in the cheese. Remove the foil and give everything a good stir. Add in the cheese and gently mix through (it will melt in the oven).
• Bake again! Bake everything once more and then mix through the tomatoes, spinach, and Parmesan cheese. As you combine these ingredients it will wilt the spinach, melt the cheese, and fully cook through the pasta– all while the sauce finishes thickening up.

Tuscan Chicken Pasta Tips

• Seasonings go a long way! If you don’t feel this recipe has enough flavor, you may just be missing salt and/or pepper; don’t forget to add more as needed! Keep in mind that the pasta hasn’t been cooked in salted water, so it does need a good amount of seasoning.
• This recipe doesn’t cook up the same in smaller pans; you’ll want a 9×13-inch pan or a dish that can comfortably fit 14-16 cups.
• If you’d like to make this Tuscan Chicken Pasta Healthier, use reduced-fat milk — it won’t be as creamy, but still tasty! As written, this recipe is a lot more nutritious than other recipes — a lot of the liquid is chicken broth/stock, minimal butter included, and there is no heavy cream! (Or here is a Healthy Pasta Bake made with plant-based milk.)

What Is Tuscan Chicken Made Of?

• This creamy Tuscan Chicken Pasta with sun-dried tomatoes uses our favorite sun-dried julienne-cut tomatoes with herbs. The herbs in the tomatoes add lots of extra flavor with no additional work or loads of extra seasonings.
• Pick up a bag of pre-washed baby spinach. This is a huge time saver as opposed to washing, drying, removing stems, and cutting down a bundle of regular spinach. Just give the baby spinach a quick coarse chop to allow the spinach to wilt down quickly and integrate nicely.
• To ensure everything is cooked through evenly and within the time suggested in the instructions, we recommend rotini pasta. This is a great pasta to soak up all the surrounding flavors and hold the sauce in nicely. With other pasta shapes, the flour has the tendency of getting stuck inside, forming clumps rather than helping to thicken the sauce.

What’s In the Tuscan Sauce?

The sauce base is made up of flour, butter, chicken stock/broth, whole milk, and mozzarella cheese. Below are a few ingredient notes:

• The better the stock, the more flavor this dish will have. We love and use Swanson® Chicken Stock (not sponsored). If using chicken broth instead of stock, you may need a bit more seasoning for a more robust flavor.
• We use and recommend whole milk. This is intended to be a creamy recipe, and the lower-fat milk choices won’t achieve the right texture. That said, you can use 1% or 2% ( which yields a less creamy dish). Unfortunately, skim milk or a dairy milk alternative doesn’t work the same.
• Add freshly grated cheese. To avoid clumping, I like to freshly grate the cheese (packaged grated cheese has a cellulose coating that keeps it from melting as smoothly). Speed up the grating by using a food processor with a grating attachment. 

Optional Toppings/Additions

This Tuscan Chicken Pasta recipe is great right out of the oven, but if you’re looking to jazz it up a bit, below are some topping suggestions we’ve loved:

• Fresh basil pesto: A scoop of pesto is divine — it complements the other flavors beautifully. I recommend getting a refrigerated, freshly-made basil pesto, which you can find near refrigerated fresh pasta and gourmet cheeses. Rana’s® Basil Pesto is my personal favorite store-bought pesto sauce (not sponsored).
• Additional Parmesan cheese: Another sprinkling of finely grated Parmesan is the perfect finishing touch — it adds a nice final seasoning (Parmesan is salty!) and melts nicely into the pasta. For the perfect super-fine texture, we like to use a microplane and grate it right over the serving plates.
• Fresh herbs: This pasta is rich and indulgent-tasting, so it benefits from fresh herbs to cut through the richness. We love flat-leaf Italian parsley and/or fresh thyme best.
• Fresh lemon juice: A squeeze of fresh lemon adds a nice acidity and freshness.
• Dijon: if you love tang, stir through a teaspoon (up to 1 tablespoon) of good Dijon mustard.

More One Pot/Pan Recipes

• Cheesy Sausage Pasta with broccoli
• One-Pot Spaghetti with ground turkey
• Herb Rice with dried herbs
• Sausage and Chickpeas with roasted sweet potatoes
• BBQ Pork Mac & Cheese with beef brisket or BBQ pork

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5 from 8 votes

Tuscan Chicken Pasta

By Chelsea Lords

This Tuscan Chicken Pasta is a one-pan wonder! Just toss uncooked chicken, pasta, and veggies together, then bake until creamy, cheesy perfection. So easy and full of flavor!

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes minutes

Servings: 4 servings

Equipment

• Baking pan 9 x 13-inch
• Aluminum foil

Ingredients 

USMetric

 

1x2x3x

• ▢ Cooking spray

Chicken

• ▢ 2 cups chicken tenders or chicken breasts, see note 1
• ▢ 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning divided
• ▢ Salt and pepper

Pasta Bake

• ▢ 2-1/2 cups uncooked rotini pasta 8 ounces, see note 2
• ▢ 1/4 cup flour
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• ▢ 1-1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• ▢ 1-1/2 cups chicken stock or broth
• ▢ 2 cups warm milk see note 3
• ▢ 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ▢ 1 cup mozzarella cheese
• ▢ 1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes see note 4
• ▢ 2 cups chopped baby spinach
• ▢ 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese Parmesan from the can won’t melt into the sauce nicely
• ▢ Serving suggestions see note 5

Instructions 

• Preheat oven to 400°F. Generously grease a 9x13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Microwave milk for 45 seconds, then microwave chicken stock for 30 seconds. Grate mozzarella cheese and set aside to get to room temperature.
• Pat chicken tenders dry with paper towel, then dice into 1/2-inch pieces. Toss with 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning and salt and pepper to taste (I add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper).
• Add the following ingredients in this order to the greased pan: uncooked pasta, flour (sprinkle evenly on top), remaining 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, salt/pepper to taste (I add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper), minced garlic, chicken stock, milk, and butter (cut into 2 pieces). Stir well. Add the seasoned chicken in an even layer on top. Cover pan with foil and bake 20 minutes.
• Remove foil and stir ingredients together well. Add mozzarella cheese and stir through again. Press pasta and chicken below the sauce. Return the pan to the oven, uncovered, and bake another 15 minutes or until pasta is tender (don’t over-bake or sauce will bake out; it should be pretty saucy at this point). Remove from oven and gently stir. Add in coarsely chopped sun-dried tomatoes, coarsely chopped spinach, and a handful (not all) of the Parmesan cheese. Gently stir to combine and wilt the spinach. Continue to mix, gradually adding in the rest of the Parmesan cheese while stirring. As you mix, the sauce will continue to thicken to a creamy consistency! Enjoy immediately garnished with fresh parsley if desired.

Recipe Notes

Note 1: This is about 3/4 pound (13 oz.) of chicken tenders. Chicken breasts can also be used. Trim and discard fat and tendons. Be sure to chop the chicken into 1/2-inch pieces (measure after cutting to get 2 cups) so the chicken will cook through in the right amount of time.

Note 2: This recipe works best with rotini pasta—it’s the best at soaking everything up and bakes through perfectly in the time. Other pasta shapes may hide the flour so the dish won’t properly thicken. Check the package label for other pasta to be sure it has a similar boil time to rotini (9–11 minutes).

Note 3: Warm milk will heat quicker and ensure the sauce won’t split—this happens when dairy is heated too rapidly. This is a creamy recipe, and I recommend whole milk, but you can use 1% or 2% (less creamy dish). Unfortunately, skim milk or a dairy milk alternative don’t work the same in this recipe.

Note 4: Use sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil and give them a quick coarse chop. Opt for tomatoes that are packed in oil with herbs for more flavor and no extra work on your end!

Note 5: Try some of these optional toppings! Fresh parsley, squeeze of lemon juice, and/or scoop of basil-pesto. Or check out the paragraph titled “Optional Toppings/Additions” in the blog post for ideas for jazzing or changing up this dish!

Storage: Leftovers store well in the fridge in an airtight container for 3–4 days. It does thicken and become less creamy as it sits. (The pasta continues to absorb the surrounding liquid.) Here is a great resource for how to reheat the casserole in the oven or microwave without drying it out. Because of the dairy in this dish, it isn’t a great candidate for freezing and thawing. The milk solids will separate as it thaws, resulting in a grainy texture with some separation. Additionally, the pasta bloats and becomes mushy.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 386kcal | Carbohydrates: 41.6g | Protein: 34g | Fat: 8.8g | Cholesterol: 70.7mg | Sodium: 390.7mg | Fiber: 2.5g | Sugar: 7.9g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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