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Chicken Chickpea Pasta Bake is loaded with protein, nutrition, flavor and is lower in carbs than traditional pasta! Delicious tasting, easy to make for a quick weeknight dinner or meal prep. This meal is a carb lover’s dream!
Growing up, I ate so much pasta and always thought something was wrong with me for overeating it. It wasn’t until I lost 80 pounds sustainably and became more aware of the foods I was eating, that I realized I wasn’t eating enough protein and fiber and was over consuming calories in foods like pasta because I was not balancing my plate properly and getting the proper nutrients.
You can absolutely eat pasta and lose weight, but balancing the meal better is key! My philosophy is you should always eat the foods you enjoy otherwise weight loss results will never last.
If you love pasta, check out my Low Calorie Ziti and Low Calorie Chicken Alfredo too.
This is why I love adding a healthy protein like chicken to a higher protein pasta like chickpea pasta. That protein content is important for keeping you full!
This healthy chicken pasta bake not only tastes amazing, but is quick to make for a healthy weeknight dinner. It’s these type of easy meals that go on my weekly menu plans because they’re easy, balanced in nutrients and delicious. Not to mention they’ve helped me maintain my 80 pound weight loss!
I hope you enjoy this healthy pasta and chicken bake!
More Healthy Comfort Meals
Chicken Chickpea Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 8 oz chickpea pasta
- 1 lb ground chicken breast
- 1/2 cup white onion
- 2 zucchini, diced
- 25 ounces marinara sauce, no salt added
- 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 2 tablespoons garlic, minced
- 4 tablespoons low moisture mozzarella, shredded
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare an 8×8 square baking dish by lightly greasing with extra virgin olive oil.
- Boil the water and prepare the chickpea pasta according to the package instructions. Drain and rinse with cool water then set aside.
- Place the onion, garlic and zucchini in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté 3-4 minutes until onion is translucent.
- Add the ground chicken, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Break up the chicken while it cooks.
- Once the chicken is cooked, stir in the marinara sauce then add the pasta and turn off the heat.
- Transfer to the prepared baking dish and top with cheese. Place in the oven 5-8 minutes to melt the cheese then serve.
Notes
- Brown rice or whole grain pasta may be subbed, but it will change the nutritional data. Chickpea pasta is available at most grocery and health food stores.
- My Amazon shop has more products similar to those used for this recipe and that I recommend to my nutrition clients.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Add a lil spice to it and broccoli. It was so good!
I just made this for dinner and loved it! I had 10 ounces of it, but not sure with your nutrition facts how much 1 serving is?
So glad you enjoyed the recipe! The recipe makes 6 servings so one serving is 1/6th of the recipe. If you want the EXACT serving size, then you would weigh the entire dish baked on a food scale in grams then divide by the number of servings (6). The number of grams per serving is equal to what one serving is.
Made this today for my family and no one thought it was anything other than “normal” pasta ! Thank you for the yummy , make ahead meal idea
Fantastic to hear they loved it Michelle! That made my day. 🙂
Thanks Megan. I love easy to make quick weeknight dinners like this, so I’m pinning it! And chickpea pasta? I’m totally up for trying that. Normally I’m all about the wholemeal pasta, but even then, like you say it’s so easy to eat more than the allowed portion size of your hand! I hope you have a great weekend!
I go over this in my first class I teach at the community college, we have a lab about portion sizes and the students realize they are most likely to overeat carbs and maybe protein. So we talk about how to balance your plate with more veggies and high fiber foods. That chickpea pasta is GREAT because it helps you balance out your plate without having to change too much!