Chicken Penne Rustica
My favorite takeout meal is from a well known Italian restaurant that serves an amazing penne rustica. What I don’t enjoy is spending close to $20 per person on pasta when I can cook the same meal at home for less than $2 per serving. So, I set off to try my hand at this baked pasta dish. Turns out, it’s quicker than ordering takeout and getting out to go pick it up. Best of all, it’s perfect to make two batches at a time and throw one in the freezer for later.
Recipe Title
Author/Source:
Katie @ Onceamonthmom.com
Ingredients:
- 3 Tablespoon butter
- 2 teaspoon minced garlic
- 3 Tablespoon white wine
- 2 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese #1
- 0.5 cup milk
- 0.5 cup chicken broth
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 teaspoon rosemary
- 0.5 teaspoon salt
- 0.5 teaspoon dried thyme
- 0.25 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 cup penne pasta, uncooked
- 1.5 cups shredded chicken
- 3 Tablespoon parmesan cheese #2
Directions:
Preheat oven to 450. Melt butter over medium heat in a saucepan. Add garlic and cook for 5 minutes, then add the wine and cook for another 5 minutes. Add cream, Parmesan cheese #1, milk, chicken broth, cornstarch, rosemary, salt, thyme, and cayenne pepper. Stir well to combine. Simmer for 10 minutes or until the sauce thickens. While the sauce is cooking, cook the pasta al dente. Once sauce has thickened, remove from heat and cover. Drain pasta, then combine with sauce and cooked chicken. Pour into a 8×8 foil baking dish and top with parmesan cheese #2. Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes until the top begins to brown.
Freezing Directions:
Follow assembly directions above but do not bake. Cover tightly with foil, label, and freeze. To serve: thaw in fridge. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, then increase to 450 and bake for another 10-12 minutes until the top begins to brown.
Servings: 4
**conversion chart image provided by Erik Spiekermann
Do you have suggestions for substituting white wine? I have toddlers and would like to skip alcohol in food. Thanks!
Chicken broth will work just fine, I do that as a substitute all the time (or apple juice).
What size baking pans do you use for this recipe?
8X8 baking pans
Is this a recipe that is easily doubled, tripled etc?
Also, thinking about making it in smaller “one serving” sized portions as it might be a good option to heat up in the AM, then take to work instead of the fancy store bought meals from the freezer section of the market. Thoughts on that?
Hi Thursa, it is very easy to double, etc as long as you have enough pans. I would cook as a full serving and then split up into individual sized tupperware to take to work. I do that frequently with my freezer meals so I won’t go grab fast food.
I made this last night for dinner. FABULOUS!!! The flavors are divine. Can’t wait for the leftovers! :-)
I had more sauce than the picture shows…it eventually soaked up, but we ate it in bowls for dinner and sopped up the “juice” with bread. Winner! :-)
My son really doesn’t like rosemary can I substitute that or leave it out?
Hi Lucy, you could definitely leave it out. I would replace it with basil or oregano just to give it some extra flavor.
Made this tonight for dinner and it was delicious! I didn’t change a thing about the recipe (unusual for me) and my husband said it was the best dinner ever!
I’m a little confused – we’re due in 4 days so I’m looking for freezer meals. In order to freeze this meal do I cook the sauce and the pasta and THEN freeze, or just assemble and then bake when ready?
Cook sauce and pasta, assemble into the baking pan but do not bake. Then when ready to cook, pull out of the freezer to bake. And congrats!
I made this for dinner tonight. I dropped the rosemary but I used my husband’s amazing smoked chicken which added tons of flavor. It was a HUGE hit with everyone!!!
[...] simple dish to prepare. It was ready in under 30 minutes! You can view the original recipe here at Once a Month Mom. I love getting new recipes from OAMM emailed to my inbox everyday! They [...]
I just made this – or a least a thrown together version. I had jarred alfredo sauce, so I added the rosemary, thyme and pepper and used half a rotisserie chicken. It is AMAZING good. Definitely a do-over. Glad I found your site. {also just took the omelet egg muffins out of the oven}
[...] Chicken Penne Rustica (which I split into two freezer meals and used chicken broth rather than white wine) w/ garlic [...]
I doubled this and made two two. One for dinner tonight and one to freeze. I also chopped up 4 peppers of varying colors, carrots, broccoli and onion and added it to the pasta. We are big healthy eaters and like our veggies! I add veggies to pretty much everything.
Just a note for those worried about the white wine: alcohol cooks away, just leaving a slight flavor enhancer. So don’t worry about using it when cooking when you have kids. I didn’t have any wine, though, so I also just omitted it. No biggie!
Thanks for all your wonderful recipes!
made this tonight, and its great… i tripled it, and got 3 meals for the freezer, and 2 lunch portions, with a little left over for taste testing. it passed the test, my 5yo loved it. i added some frozen broccoli to the mix as well.
How do most people go about the shredded chicken? Bake chicken breast and shred? Use left overs? Just curious how people are putting this together in 30 minutes and what everyone finds easiest and yummiest.
April, I find it easiest to make a bunch of chicken in the crockpot all at once and then shred by hand or with my Kitchen Aid mixer. Then I can either keep it in the fridge for a few days or make several meals and freeze them. If you don’t want to do a bunch, it would work great with leftovers.
Great idea to make a bunch in the crock pot. I baked a couple pieces that night to make the recipe and my family devoured it! I was hoping to strech it for 2 nights but there was barely enough for my little one for lunch the next day. It is rare for me to find a meal that all 6 of us really enjoy. Thank you!
I was wondering if there is an easy way to get nutritional info on this? As a diabetic I’m trying to watch my carb intake. As a human, I’d like something that actually tastes good. This recipe looks like it could fit both criteria.
If there’s a website that would do the calculating, please let me know and I’ll work from there.
Hi Leslie, we don’t do nutritional info on any of the recipes except the diet ones. However, you could go here and plug it in- http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp. Good luck!
Most AMAZING meal ever! Great flavour! Only thing I would change is cooking my pasta less. By the time it was thawed and cooked again, pasta was a little on the mushy side. I will definitely make this again. Thanks!!
Glad to hear you enjoyed it!