Baked Chicken Alfredo with Whole Grain Penne

This is a wonderful dinner to have when you are planning a quiet romantic evening in, when you are having a few people over, or to make for the hungry family after the kids have been playing outside in the nice weather. This recipe has six servings and fed us six adults just fine! The whole grain pasta really fills you up and the creamy home aid Alfredo sauce is just to die for!! Altogether this dinner was delish! 

All ready for the oven!

Utensils Needed:

Pan

Colander

Measuring Spoons

Measuring Cups

Pot

Large Spoon

Baking Dish

Ingredients Needed:

16 Ounces of whole grain penne pasta

4 Quarts of water

2 1/3 Cups cooked chicken, bite sized pieces

2 Tablespoons olive oil

8 cloves minced garlic (Did I mention I <3 Garlic?!)

6 Tablespoons whole wheat flour

2 Cups low sodium chicken broth

2 Cups skim milk

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Lots of fresh cut parsley

1 1/2 grated/shaved parmesan cheese

1 Cup grated mozzarella

This is a super easy recipe that even people who claim to "not be able to cook" can surely cook! The only thing needed is the ability to multitask. 

Baked Chicken Alfredo with Whole Grain Penne Pasta Recipe:

2 1/3 cups of cooked chicken

16 ounces of Penne Pasta

First of all, preheat the oven to 420 degrees. Then set 4 quarts of water over high heat. Wait until it begins to boil. While you are waiting, cut the chicken up into bite sized pieces and begin to cook it. This will take anywhere from 5 to 8 minutes, depending on the size of the chunks of chicken. The amount of time it took me to cook the chicken was about the amount of time it took the water to boil. Once the water is boiling, turn heat to medium, add the noodles, and set the timer for about 9 minutes or until pasta is al dente! 

2 Tablespoons Olive oil

8 Cloves minced garlic

Then begins the real fun part! I would recommend having all of your ingredients already pre measured and ready to just put in the pan to cook. However, I like to live on the wild side, so I didn't! No big deal, just would have been easier. First add 2 Tablespoons olive oil to the pan, I used the same pan I cooked the chicken in (mostly because I don't like doing dishes, partly because my dad always told me it added flavor). While that oil is heating up, I measured out all the garlic I needed. Now some may be thrown off by all this garlic, but I would check this out before saying no to the delicious garlic and the healthy benefits it may have. Now once the oil is hot, turn the heat down, the garlic will cook in no time at all, so making sure to keep an eye on the garlic is essential here. If you cook the garlic too long it will become bitter and ruin your sauce! And no one wants this!! Once the garlic BEGINS to brown and you can smell the yummy fragrance in the air, it is almost done. Now the sauce will begin to take form quickly. And you want it done at about the same time as the noodle timer goes off. 

The garlic smells so good!

Mix to one consistency

Next step is to add the 6 Tablespoons of whole wheat flour. Stir this around until the garlic and oil are covered with flour. This will take under a minute, but once you add the liquids it will go faster. Slowly pour in 2 cups of low sodium chicken broth. Mix this all together until it is one consistency. The kitchen is filled with the fragrant smell of garlic! YUMMY!!

Moving foreword from here add 2 cups of skim milk. Turn the heat back up to a medium high level.

Sauce will get thin now, don't worry it will thicken up

The mixture will begin to look really watery. If it is not to you liking

For a little kick

you can add another Tablespoon of flour, I would be careful with how much you add for two reasons, 1 being the sauce can thicken really fast and 2 if you use too much flour the sauce will hold that flavor. I did in fact add another Tablespoon, but once I turned up the heat, it really began to thicken nicely. Now you will add a 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper, for a wee bit of flavor. At this point you will want to have a continuous stirring motion until the noodles are cooked. 

The sauce will now become thick

Even though the sauce seems pretty thin, adding the parmesan

YUMMY SAUCE!

cheese will solve this problem. Evenly add the cheese to the sauce and continue to stir. Continue stirring until completely melted. Once the sauce is almost complete, add a small handful of fresh chopped parsley. This adds a unique taste to the dish. 

Looks so good, almost can't wait until it is done

Sauce & Noodles

Adding of the chicken

By now the noodles should be just about done. I turned the heat up to high on the sauce, while I drained the noodles. Once all the water has been drained, return them to the pan. Give the sauce one final mix and pour it into the pot with the noodles. Then stir that all together until noodles are covered in sauce. Then add the chicken to the mix. Stir this all together until it is one mixture of gooey goodness.

1 cup freshly grated mozz. cheese

Bottom layer, just mixture

The final steps before the oven, grate up the mozzarella cheese, or

Then add mozz and park cheese

grab the bag out of the fridge is that is the route you chose to take. The recipe begins by saying to grease the pan, but I skipped that step since I already added some into the cooking process. This did not hurt my recipe in any way and it did not stick to the side/bottom of the baking dish. Then begin to layer the dish, much like you do lasagna. Put a layer of the chicken, sauce, and noodle mixture down first until bottom of the dish is covered. Then you add about a third of the mozz. cheese and a small handful of parm. shavings. Then add more of the mixture, more cheese, then the rest of the mixture, and the rest of the cheese until you have no more left of either item.

Keep layering until you get this!

Place into the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden! This dish is so good, and could easily be improved by adding a few vegetables into the mix.

If you have any ideas on how to make this dish better, please feel free to leave them in the comment box below. Have a wonderful night and enjoy this fantastic baked Penne Alfredo.