If you have ever made any of my recipes, you know I always take the easy way out. I like simple recipes that don’t require any *actual* cooking skills. I like them even better if they are kid-friendly and make for good leftovers!
This 21 Day Fix No Boil Pasta Bake is all of these things and more. You guys. You don’t even need to boil the pasta before you bake it. You just toss everything into a dish and pop it in the oven.
Don’t worry! I know it sounds scary if you’ve never done it before. But it works, and it’s a really easy way to have a delicious, hearty dinner with very little work. It only takes about ten minutes to prep, and then it can be baking in the background while you go about your business!
Also – this is a fantastic way to use up leftover chicken. Rotisserie chicken also works perfectly for this!
21 Day Fix No Boil Pasta Bake
I know it seems weird to stick uncooked pasta in the oven. But I promise you’ll be fine so long as you follow the directions (be sure to read them all as I’ve got some notes included in them that might help).
This recipe is so versatile! Swap out cheeses, add spices, replace chicken with ground beef – get crazy with it.
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 45-55 minutes
Serves: 6
Easy, Cheesy No Boil Pasta Bake Ingredients:
- 8 oz whole wheat pasta (I used rotini)
- 1 cup ricotta
- 1 1/2 cups almond milk (could also use regular milk, just be sure to adjust your container counts)
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan
- 2 cups cubed or shredded chicken (leftover or rotisserie chicken are great for this)
- 28 oz. can diced tomatoes, no sugar added
- salt (to taste)
- pepper (to taste)
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 tsp fresh basil, chopped
- 1 tsp fresh chopped basil, for topping (optional)
Preheat oven to 400. Grease a 9×13 baking dish with olive oil.
In a large bowl, mix the ricotta, diced tomatoes, and almond milk. Add the salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley and basil and mix.
Pour your whole wheat pasta, uncooked, into your baking dish. Add the chicken. Pour the sauce over the noodles and chicken. You want to make sure all of the noodles are covered and wet. This is very important. If you need to add a little almond milk, do so now. Stir until all noodles have been coated.
Cover with foil and stick in the oven for 45-50 minutes. You want the noodles to cook until they’re soft, but not so long that they get soggy.
Remove the foil and sprinkle with the mozzarella, parmesan, and remaining basil and stick in the oven, uncovered, for about 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted and starting to get a little brown/golden.
Let sit for 15 minutes, then divide into six equal portions and enjoy!
This makes for some great leftovers. I’m super weird about leftover meat, but I will eat this without complaining. I like to freeze in individual size portions. You can bring it out to thaw the night before you want to eat it, or stick it in the microwave frozen for about three minutes.
Serve with a salad to get your greens in!
21 Day Fix No Boil Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 8 oz whole wheat pasta I used rotini
- 1 c ricotta
- 1 1/2 c almond milk could also use regular milk, just be sure to adjust your container counts
- 1 c shredded mozzarella
- 1/2 c shredded parmesan
- 2 c cubed or shredded chicken cooked
- 28 oz can diced tomatoes no sugar added
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp fresh parsley chopped
- 2 tsp fresh basil chopped
- 1 tsp fresh chopped basil for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400. Grease a 9x13 baking dish with olive oil.
- In a large bowl, mix the ricotta, diced tomatoes, and almond milk. Add the salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley and basil and mix.
- Pour your whole wheat pasta, uncooked, into your baking dish. Add the chicken. Pour the sauce over the noodles and chicken. You want to make sure all of the noodles are covered and wet. This is very important. If you need to add a little almond milk, do so now. Stir until all noodles have been coated.
- Cover with foil and stick in the oven for 45-50 minutes. You want the noodles to cook until they're soft, but not so long that they get soggy.
- Remove the foil and sprinkle with the mozzarella, parmesan, and remaining basil and stick in the oven, uncovered, for about 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted and starting to get a little brown/golden.
- Let sit for 15 minutes, then divide into six equal portions and enjoy!
- This makes for some great leftovers. I like to freeze in individual size portions. You can bring it out to thaw the night before you want to eat it, or stick it in the microwave for about three minutes.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
21 Day Fix Container counts, per serving (serving size = 1/6th of recipe – some of the container counts were in-between, so I rounded up or down to half counts):
- 1.5 yellow
- .5 green
- .5 red
- .25 tsp
- 1 blue
Here are some other 21 Day Fix pasta recipes I think you might like:
Hi! Since it is TOOOOOOOOO hot to use the oven, I made this in a frying pan on the stove-top. Worked great! Not as pretty, but I’m sure it tasted just as good!!! Thanks, Carrie! -db
You’re so smart! Love that idea!
This looks and sounds amazing! LOVE that you don’t have to boil the pasta. Makes it so easy!
This is just my kind of recipe. Tasty and easy.
Do you an instant pot version of this?
I haven’t done this in the Instant Pot, but you easily could! I would dump all the ingredients except the cheese in the pot and cook on manual for half as long as the pasta noodles would boil in water. Then I would stir in the cheese. 🙂 But I haven’t tried it yet so I can’t say for sure that would be perfect…but that’s what I’d try!
Made this dish tonight and we loved it.
Oh good, I love hearing that! <3
The diced tomato’s are undrained?
What size pan do you use?
I’m sure this is a silly question! When using the recipe measurements, are you using standard cup sizes, or the corresponding cup sizes for the 21 day fix? Thank you!
I’m so sorry, I am just seeing this! I use standard cup sizes. 🙂
Can you use raw chicken? Or it is best to have precooked chicken for this?
I have not made it with raw chicken so I’m not sure what that would do to the cooking times. I’m sorry! Pre-cooked is definitely eaiest.