Chicken and broccoli have been in a loving relationship for years now. And one of my favorite pasta combinations is chicken, broccoli and pasta of any kind. With this dish it's go big or go home. It's a huge amount of food - enough for 8-10 people. If you want to be remembered for the best wicked cheesy chicken broccoli penne bake then you need to make this.
BEST pasta for chicken broccoli bake
I love using penne pasta for big pasta dishes like this one because it's easy to mix together, it's got ridges so the cheese sauce sticks to it a little better, and it's bite-sized. I love forking the perfect bite of a few pieces of penne, chunk of chicken and broccoli. So I do think a tube pasta is a great option for this one.
Let's talk about garlic
We need to talk about quantity for a moment. I feel that if you're working with a full pound of pasta you're going to need three tablespoons of finely chopped garlic. This translate to about 6-8 large cloves of garlic. Mine will be slightly heaping tablespoons and if I end up chopping slightly more than this - I'll likely throw it in the recipe. For chicken broccoli penne, I think the garlic and cheese are a central flavor of the dish. I use the same amount of garlic for my other chicken broccoli penne pasta with garlic white wine sauce. Two chicken brocccoli penne's with two completely different flavors. Both awesome for feeding a crowd 🙂
The creaminess factor and how to get it
In the realm of food, is there anything worse than expecting something creamy and delicious and having it be dry and bland? One issue with a chicken broccoli penne bake is the potential for it to get dried out. This is why it is critical we make a cheese sauce to coat the pasta. All we're doing is making a béchamel sauce which is flour, butter and whole milk. Then we add parmesan cheese to that and boom - cheese sauce.
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What is a Béchamel sauce?
From French cuisine, their are five mother sauces in the culinary world: tomato, espagnole, veloute, hollandaise and béchamel. The béchamel is a white sauce made from milk and thickened with what is called a roux (flour and butter). If you added a gruyere cheese to the béchamel it is called a mornay sauce. And technically, same goes for parmesan cheese as well which is what we are adding to the sauce for this recipe.
Chef's TIP: cook the chicken on high heat
Before I knew how to cook properly, I would often end up with a pan full of water when I was trying to sear chicken. The easiest way for this to happen is if we overcrowd the pan. This recipe calls for 2 ½ pounds of chicken and rather than dirty another pan, I used my biggest pan for this.
Still, the chicken was side by side as you can see in the video. The trick is that you need to cook it on high heat so the chicken doesn't end up steaming, creating water and boiling in liquid. High heat for a few minutes will get a good sear on the chicken and it won't be swimming in water in the end.
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Wicked Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Penne Bake
- Prep Time: 35 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minute
- Total Time: 55 minutes
Description
Feeding a crowd? Then you’re gonna need a go-big-or-go-home wicked cheesy chicken broccoli penne bake recipe.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped garlic (6-9 cloves depending on size)
- 1 cup finely diced onion (1 medium onion)
- 1 ½ pounds broccoli, cut into florets
- 2 ½ pounds chicken tenderloins, cut in small pieces
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt & pepper to season chicken
- 2 cups shredded Monterey jack cheese
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used “double cheddar”)
- Fresh chopped parsley, optional garnish
- Fresh basil, optional garnish
- Chopped lemon wedges, optional
For the béchamel sauce:
- 4 tablespoons salted butter
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups whole milk (warmed in microwave)
- 2 cups fresh grated or shredded parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
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Instructions
- Plan your time with boiling a large pot of water – it can take 20-30 minutes to bring to a boil so it’s ready to cook a pound of pasta. Add 3 teaspoons of salt to your pasta water within a few minutes before cooking.
- My step-by-step video shows all the steps if you need assistance. J
- Finely chop the garlic. My tablespoons tend to be slightly heaping and if there is a little extra garlic I usually just throw it in the recipe.
- Finely dice the onion. Set aside with garlic.
- Chop the broccoli into florets – I went with large bite-sized pieces. Use as much or as little of the stalks as you want. I know people have their preferences here. The recipe can hold 1 to 1 ½ pounds of broccoli. When I’ve made it with one pound it felt like it wasn’t quite enough.
- Cut and season the chicken tenderloins. I usually try to snip off the tendon (the white tube thing) before I cut the chicken. It doesn’t matter how you cut the chicken, just make sure the pieces are uniform in size so they cook evenly.
- Grate or shred the fresh parmesan cheese for the sauce. I couldn’t find my shredder so I used my microplane.
- For the béchamel sauce, I usually heat the milk in the microwave for a minute so it’s warm. Melt the butter in a pot then add flour and whisk. Heat should be on medium. Whisk and cook off the raw flour taste until the roux (this is a thickening agent) smells nutty. Maybe about 3-5 minutes. Add the warm milk and whisk to combine. Let the sauce get hot for a few minutes and then you will see it start to thicken. Once it’s thickened, add the parmesan cheese and turn the heat off. Give it a stir and just let it melt. Add onion powder and mix. Add ⅛ teaspoon of salt to start and mix. TASTE IT before adding more salt if you think it needs it. Set aside for now.
- Heat some olive oil in pan (maybe one tablespoon or so) then add chicken pieces. Spread evenly across pan and cook on high heat for 4 minutes without touching it. It should be turning white with a little brown sear around the edges. Turn the chicken and cook for two more minutes or so. Remove from pan and set aside– don’t clean pan.
- NOTE: Once you add chicken to the pan, your water should be boiling and add the whole box (1 pound) of penne pasta at that time. You should season the water with 3 teaspoons of salt before adding pasta.
- After you remove the chicken, add olive oil to same pan then cook onions until slightly soft (a few minutes), then add garlic, another glug of olive oil and cook and stir a few minutes.
- A few minutes before the pasta is finished, add the broccoli right into the pot of water with the pasta. Push down into water with spatula. Let it cook about 3 minutes like that. Then pour through a colander to strain the water.
- Get out your largest mixing bowl (a big one!) and transfer the pasta and broccoli there. Add the cooked chicken, garlic and onion mixture, and the cheesy béchamel sauce. I used my big wooden spoon to mix this – you may need more than one tool to mix thoroughly. You want to make sure the sauce is coating all the pasta.
- Spray a 9x13 baking dish with a little non-stick cooking spray. Add half the chicken broccoli penne mixture to the dish. Check for even distribution of the chicken and broccoli and even things out with a pair of kitchen tongs if you need to. Next, add 1 cup of the shredded cheddar and 1 cup of the shredded jack cheese to the top. Add the rest of the chicken broccoli penne (smooth out if a mound forms in the middle). Then add one cup of shredded cheddar and 1 cup shredded jack cheese on top of that – spread out evenly.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes until the cheese is melted on top and starting to brown a little.
- Optional garnishes include fresh chopped parsley or basil or both. Lemon wedges, red pepper flakes, extra fresh Parmesan on the side. Serve with your favorite salad or garlic bread if you like. Enjoy!
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