The Perfect Chicken!
Behind every great chicken pasta is perfectly seasoned, soft and juicy chicken. It’s one of the main ingredients here, so we need to get the most out of our chicken.
Seasoning
It’s important to season the chicken well to not only to let the chicken shine, but also inject flavour into the sauce itself. Here’s what you’ll need:
Smoked Paprika Garlic Powder Cayenne Pepper Salt & Black Pepper
Butterflying Chicken
Here you’ll want to butterfly the chicken breasts right through to make 4 even sized thinner breasts. This will help them cook quickly and more evenly. It will also increase the ratio of seasoning to chicken. Once you’ve sliced the chicken, coated it in seasoning and a drizzle of oil, you just need to fry over medium-high heat until it begins to char and is just about cooked through. From there, allow it to rest (important to retain juices) then slice into thin strips.
Making BBQ Chicken Pasta
Once you’ve got your chicken it’s a breeze from there. I recommend leaving the char/flavour from the chicken in the pan and starting from there.
Bacon
I highly recommend adding bacon to this pasta, not only for it’s crispy texture, but also to inject a gorgeous smoky flavour (which goes perfectly with BBQ sauce and chicken!)
BBQ Sauce
Surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly) the bulk of the sauce isn’t actually BBQ sauce. I use around 1/2cup, alongside chicken stock and chopped tomatoes. I find too much more overpowers the pasta and turns it too sweet/BBQ saucy. In all cases make sure you use a good quality BBQ sauce!
How to make BBQ Chicken Pasta (quick summary)
Can I use cooked/rotisserie chicken?
Sure! About 2 cups of diced/shredded chicken should suffice. I still recommend coating in the seasoning for extra flavour.
Can I reheat this pasta?
Yup! Tightly cover in the fridge then reheat on the stove, using leftover pasta water, chicken stock or just water to thin out as needed. Make sure chicken is piping hot.
What to serve with BBQ chicken pasta?
Honestly this is already quite a hearty dinner, so don’t feel like you have to serve with a side. But if I’m feeling extra hungry I usually go for Garlic Bread (or Cheesy Garlic Bread!)
If you like the sound of this pasta then definitely have a ganders at my similar recipes!
Recipes using BBQ Sauce
BBQ Chicken Wraps BBQ Chicken Nachos BBQ Meatballs Smoky BBQ Chicken Pizza
Chicken Pasta Recipes
Spicy Chicken Pasta Chicken and Mushroom Pasta Chicken and Chorizo Pasta Cajun Chicken Pasta Chicken Avocado Pasta
Alrighty, let’s tuck into the full BBQ chicken pasta recipe shall we?!
How to make BBQ Chicken Pasta (Full Recipe & Video)
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