Remember Costco Chicken bakes? This chicken bacon pasta tastes like a classic chicken bake but like…way healthier!
This recipe starts with the usual suspects: chicken breast, bacon, and parmesan cheese. If you add a cream sauce and serve it in a parmesan crusted bread roll, you get a Costco chicken bake. But to achieve the chicken bake flavors without all the calories, I made some easy swaps.
Instead of making a creamy sauce, I used a chicken broth base that was thickened with a bit of flour. I cooked the chicken in the rendered bacon fat to infuse bacon flavor throughout the dish. I also added a generous cup of parmesan cheese for it’s big flavor and lower fat than some other cheeses. To avoid the weeknight headache of rolling out dough, I swapped the chicken bake bread for some wholesome brown rice pasta. You can make this dish with any pasta you have on hand, just cook according to package directions.
I hope you enjoy this fresh take on the Costco chicken bake and make my chicken bacon pasta for dinner tonight!
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chicken bacon pasta
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 6 strips bacon, cut into ½ inch pieces
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- Kosher salt
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into ½ inch pieces
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ cup white wine, such as Sauvignon blanc
- 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
- 2 cups Low sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup Parmesan
- 1 pound pasta of your choice (I use brown rice penne)
- Juice of 1 fresh lemon
- ½ cup fresh parsley, chopped
- Red chili flakes for serving
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a saucepan or shallow Dutch oven over medium heat for 2 minutes.
- Add the bacon and cook until the bacon is browned, 4-5 minutes.
- Transfer the bacon to a plate, leaving the bacon fat and olive oil in the pan.
- Heat the fat over medium heat and add the onion plus ½ teaspoon kosher salt.
- Cook until the onions are translucent and starting to brown, 3-4 minutes.
- Season the chicken with 2 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper.
- Add the chicken to the pan and increase the heat to medium high. Cook until the chicken is opaque and starting to take on some color, 6-8 minutes.
- If the chicken is releasing a lot of liquid, cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.
- Add the garlic and thyme to the chicken, cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Deglaze the pan with the wine, using a wooden spoon to scrape up the bits of food stuck to the bottom of the pan. Cook until the wine fully evaporates.
- Add the flour, toss to coat the chicken and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the chicken broth and water, using a wooden spoon to scrape up any pieces of chicken that are stuck to the bottom of the pot.
- Add the parmesan to the chicken and stir to combine.
- Bring the mixture to a simmer, reduce the heat to low and simmer until the chicken is fully cooked and the sauce is thickened.
- While the chicken simmers, cook the pasta.
- Bring a large pot of water plus 3 tablespoons salt to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook for 1 minute less than the shortest recommended time on the package.
- Test the noodles and cook until the pasta is al dente.
- Reserve 1 cup of pasta water, drain the rest of the water from the pasta.
- Add the hot, drained pasta directly to the chicken and toss to coat with the sauce.
- Add a little bit of pasta water at a time to loosen the sauce if necessary.
- Add the lemon juice and parsley to the pasta, toss to combine.
- Serve with extra parmesan cheese and red chili flakes.
