Chicken Pasta Bake

I tried a new recipe I found in the Co-operative's magazine today for a chicken pasta bake. It sells itself as an easy weeknight meal.

I made a few adjustments. As I'm only feeding me, I cut the recipe in half and substituted mushrooms for carrots (carrots with pasta? Just wrong.) or peppers (didn't have any) as suggested in the recipe. I also substituted onion powder for the onion to low-residue it and added more garlic (because, well, garlic).

To start, I put on a lot of water to boil pasta and pre-heated the oven to 220C/425F.

I cut up a chicken breast into chunks and fried it in olive oil. I also cut up two rashers of smoked bacon from my friendly butcher (removing excess fat and the rind) and put that in the frying pan. Then I added some cut up button mushrooms, two crushed cloves of garlic and half a tablespoon of onion powder. I let that cook for about 10 minutes until the chicken was cooked.

Meanwhile, I cooked some macaroni and drained it once cooked.

Then, I added a can of cream of tomato soup to the pan.

And then added the cooked macaroni.

Then I tipped the lot into a casserole dish.

I then sprinkled it with parsley and torn mozzarella cheese.

I then put it into the oven and let it cook for about 25 minutes until the cheese bubbled and went brown.

Voilà! Chicken pasta bake!

The verdict? It's okay. A bit salty between canned soup and the onion powder. The flavour isn't overly interesting and could have used some black pepper and something else to make it more interesting. It took about 45 minutes to make, so while I would agree that it is easy, I wouldn't say that it is quick for a midweek meal. But it did the job, and I would eat it again. Which is good, as despite cutting the recipe in half, it made loads!