One-Pot Leftover Roast Chicken Pasta, a quick and easy chicken dinner recipe for the whole family. Transform your leftovers into a spectacular dish that will have everybody asking for seconds. It’s cheesy, it’s delicious, a great midweek dinner no matter the season.
Roast Chicken always makes its way on our table whenever there is a big celebration. And on most days when we fancy a little feast without breaking the bank. It’s quicker to cook than any other meat, it’s easy, and kids rarely say no to it. Plus, it’s proper delicious.
But, as it happens, a whole chicken rarely gets to be eaten up, and leftovers are inevitable. No need to waste all that excellent roast, especially when the good old pasta can come to the rescue.
Pasta is another dish that disappears quickly with us. It’s the ultimate comfort food no matter how you cook it. And you only need a few simple ingredients to make it into a fabulous quick dinner.
My leftover chicken pasta is made in one pot, which means less mess, less stress. And it’s ready in well under 30 minutes. It can’t get any better than that!
How to make healthy chicken pasta with leftover chicken
Since the chicken is already cooked, all we have to worry about is making the tomato sauce. Nothing fancy, super simple, this tomato sauce is the easiest to make, and also super delicious.
You add a jar of ready-made sauce if you wish, but making your own sauce is well worth it, plus you know for sure it’s sugar free, and a lot better.
- sautee the onion and garlic, add the chopped tomatoes, and leave to cook for 3-4 minutes until some of the liquid is reduced
- add Italian herbs, or any dried herbs you like with a sauce, and that’s your sauce done
Now, all that’s left is adding the leftover chicken, which I just shredded roughly, but you can also chop it if you like.
- In goes the pasta too, with either water or chicken broth.
- Cover the pan with a lid and leave to cook until the liquid is absorbed, and the pasta is cooked through.
If you like your pasta cooked really well, add some more liquid if that’s already been absorbed.
- Add the parmesan, season to taste, and add plenty of fresh parsley, or basil. And that’s our fabulous chicken pasta done!
What can I add instead of leftover chicken?
Well, this question has a very easy answer: any leftover meat you have really. Sunday roast, Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, or any other celebration usually equal plenty of leftovers.
This easy one-pot pasta can be made with any of these: leftover ham, leftover lamb, leftover beef, leftover turkey, leftover pork, or any other leftover roast you have. Or even a combination of the above.
By all means, you can cook the meat if you don’t happen to have leftovers, just cook it separately, before adding it to the pan, and follow the exactly same steps afterwards.
It’s an easy dish that kids love, my little girls really liked it, and were super happy to have a large portion. And trust me, I know what fussy kids are like!
If you’ve liked my ONE-POT LEFTOVER ROAST CHICKEN PASTA or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, and PINTEREST to see more delicious food and what I’m getting up to.
One-Pot Leftover Roast Chicken Pasta, a quick and easy chicken dinner recipe for the whole family. Transform your leftovers into a spectacular dish that will have everybody asking for seconds. It's cheesy, it's delicious, a great midweek dinner no matter the season.
- 1 onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes
- 2 cups leftover roast chicken (shredded)
- 3 1/2 cups water or chicken broth
- 2 cups fusilli pasta
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan
- 1 tsp Italian herbs
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
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Heat up the oil in a large pan.
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Add the chopped onion and garlic, and sautee for 2-3 minutes or until the onion is transluscent.
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Add the chopped tomatoes, herbs and seasoning, and leave to simmer for 3-4 minutes until the sauce is slightly reduced.
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Add the cooked chicken, water or chicken broth, and pasta.
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Leave to cook with the lid on until the liquid is absorbed and the pasta is cooked.
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Mix in the parmesan, then garnish with parsley.
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Remove from the heat and serve hot with more parmesan if you like.
Recipe Video
How many ounces in the chopped tomato tin
It’s 13.
My husband, who is a novice cook, said this was very easy to put together. The only problem we ran into was that we had penne rather than fusilli pasta. For those that don’t know the difference, in addition to being a corkscrew shape, fusilli is a bigger pasta. We added about 1/4 cup extra penne, but should have added 1/2 cup extra (21/2 cups total dry). Also, we added 1/2 cup white wine and used 3 cups chicken stock. To add a little extra pop, we added crushed red pepper and fresh basil. Yummy and would make it again!
That sounds delicious!
Very good, very easy. I added a bay leaf and a thinly sliced bell pepper. Fantastic dinner.
I am glad you liked it!
Thank you. This was flavorful so it hid the Mexican flavor of the chicken. I had made fajitas the night before so I needed something that would mask the Mexican flavor of the chicken. I used a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes (didn’t have a smaller can) and used penne pasta.
This is a great recipe and easily adaptable to ingredients on hand. I added Pepperocini from Italy, fresh basil and rosemary from my garden. I would have also topped it with fresh mozzarella if I had some. Thank you for sharing it.
Glad you liked it!