Slow Cooker Chicken Meatball Pasta Bake - a delicious recipe for easy tender chicken meatballs, combined with penne pasta and topped with ricotta and parmesan cheese.
There are not many that don't enjoy a good ole pasta bake. Generally, family friendly, meaning that it is a dish you can make that you know the whole family will approve of.
With some extra lean chicken mince (ground chicken) that needed to be used up and knowing that I had lots of things to get on with around the house, I figured a meatballs pasta dish I could throw in the slow cooker would be a perfect meal for dinner time.
Normally when making a pasta bake, I stick to cheddar and mozzarella for the cheesy topping, but spotting a tub of ricotta in my fridge and know how much we all love my Stuffed Ricotta and Spinach Pasta Shells. I figured the ricotta spooned on top for a Slow Cooker Chicken Meatball Pasta Bake would be amazing!!
Don't worry if you can't get extra lean ground chicken, turkey mince or even extra lean ground beef will work perfectly too in this recipe. I will definitely be making this again with homemade beef meatballs, but sometimes you just have to go with what you have.
I add breadcrumbs to my meatballs. You may be tempted to try and skip those but trust me, they really help to keep the meatballs nice and tender. Extra Lean mince can be a little dry on its own otherwise.
The sauce for this Slow Cooker Chicken Meatball Pasta Bakes, comes with lots of hidden veg too. I add some finely grated carrot and zucchini into the sauce, the kids don't even notice it is in there and combine with the tomatoes, it makes for a delicious sauce.
I prefer to cook the pasta out of the slow cooker before adding to this, I am not keen on the texture of how the pasta goes when in the slow cooker.
Not got a slow cooker and wonder which ones are best? There are many great slow cookers out there. But I recommend choosing ones like this Andrew James Slow Cooker that has a delayed start time and an inner pot that can be removed and placed on the hob or in the oven, that way if you need to do any browning you don't need to use a separate pan.
Hey if you want a slow cooker that has all the bells n whistles. Go for an Instant Pot, which is not actually a slow cooker, it's a multi-function pressure cooker, but with a slow cooker option on it too, it can do pretty much everything.
Want some other delicious Slow Cooker recipes? Check out these:
- PAPRIKA BEEF
- BALSAMIC BRAISED BEEF
- HEALTHIER SLOW COOKER CRACK CHICKEN
- BRAISED BEEF
- TERIYAKI PORK TENDERLOIN
- PINEAPPLE PORK
- SLOW COOKER GUINNESS BEEF BRISKET
- SLOPPY JOES
- BEEF AND VEGETABLE CASSEROLE
or head on over to my FULL RECIPE INDEX with over 850+ delicious Slimming Eats Recipes all fully searchable by meal type, ingredients etc
How can I add a ⅓ veg foods to this Slow Cooker Chicken Meatball Pasta Bake?
Just a simple mixed salad pairs perfectly with these meatballs. I like to use a combination of baby greens, cucumber, tomatoes and beetroot.
What Kitchen Items do I need to make this Slow Cooker Chicken Meatball Pasta Bake?
- Slow Cooker
- Kitchen Scales
- Measuring Cups
- Measuring Spoons
- Wooden Spoon
- Santoku Knife (perfect knife for chopping veg)
- Chopping Board
- Mixing Bowl
- Grater
- Saucepan
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Recipe Card
Slow Cooker Chicken Meatballs Pasta Bake
Slow Cooker Chicken Meatball Pasta Bake - a delicious recipe for easy tender chicken meatballs, combined with penne pasta and topped with ricotta and parmesan cheese.
Ingredients
For the meatballs
- 455g (1lb) of extra lean chicken mince (can also use turkey or beef)
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- a handful of fresh parsley, chopped
- ½ teaspoon of fine sea salt
- ¼ cup (30g) of Italian dried breadcrumbs (5.5 syns)
- 1 egg, beaten
For the sauce
- 1.5 cups (320ml) of crushed tomatoes (or passata)
- 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
- ½ cup (120ml) of chicken stock
- 1 small zucchini (courgette), grated
- 1 small carrot, grated
- 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon of mixed herbs (dried)
Pasta Bake
- 270g (9.5oz) of ricotta cheese
- 30g (1oz) of parmesan, grated
- 1 egg
- fresh chopped parsley
- salt and black pepper
- 200g (7oz) of uncooked penne pasta
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients for the sauce to the slow cooker and stir to combine.
- In a bowl add the ground chicken, garlic, salt, parsley, egg and breadcrumbs, mix to combine and then form into meatballs (approx 16)
- Drop these into the sauce
- Set slow cooker to low for 6 hours
- When meatballs have almost finished cooking, add the pasta to a saucepan of salted boiling hot water and cook by package instructions. Drain
- Stir the pasta into the meatballs and sauce.
- Mix the ricotta with the egg and spoon this on to the top
- Sprinkle with the grated parmesan and season with salt and black pepper
- Set slow cooker to high and continue to cook for 20 mins until the cheese is melted. If you prefer the cheese more golden, you can skip this step and place it under the grill/broil until cheese is melted and golden on top.
- Serve topped with chopped fresh parsley.
Notes
Please see below for full nutritional info and additional details about recipe:
- Calories - scroll down to nutritional info box
- WW Points and other Slimming or Weight Loss programs - due to plans regularly changing and updating, we recommend calculating with the official tools you get as a member to those plans to ensure accuracy of values.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 4 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 569Total Fat 15.7gSaturated Fat 8.3gSodium 707mgCarbohydrates 58.4gFiber 3gSugar 6.8gProtein 48.5g
Emma Roberts says
Hi do i need the blend the carrot and courgette into the sauce?
Shevy (Slimming Eats) says
you can if you prefer, I just leave it finely grated.
Lauren says
Hi I was looking at this and thought it would be nice to try, but I can't eat ricotta cheese
If I swapped the ricotta and parmesan to cheddar and mozzarella how would the weight change?
Thank you!
Shevy (Slimming Eats) says
You would need to use the correct healthy extra measurements. Enjoy!
Sue Large says
Made this yesterday. I left out the breadcrumbs and used mild cheddar cheese at the end of the cook. It was absolutely delicious. The meatballs were tender and full of flavour from the sauce,
Rachel pilfold says
Hi would I have to cook the pasta before putting it in to the slow cooker
Shevy (Slimming Eats) says
yes the pasta is cooked first as per the recipe. I don't like how the texture of the pasta goes when left to cook in the slow cooker.
Louise says
hI I can’t find Italian breadcrumbs in my local supermarket, what would yo suggest thanks x
Shevy (Slimming Eats) says
regular breadcrumbs are fine to use. 🙂
Laura Davison says
Can you make this without the Italian breadcrumbs? I can’t seem to find any in my local shops. Many thanks!
Shevy (Slimming Eats) says
Hi Laura, the meatballs are best with the breadcrumbs (you can use any, doesn't need to be Italian), but you can omit too if you prefer, the meatballs just wont be as tender.
Marie says
Hi what could I use instead of ricotta cheese for the meatball pasta bake in the slow cooker
Thanks
Shevy (Slimming Eats) says
Swap for another cheese on top of you don’t want to use ricotta.
Jodie Greenway says
Can you use a different cheese to mix with the egg I.e just normal cheddar? Obviously the syns May differ but I can work that out. Also, I would use panco breadcrumbs?
Shevy (Slimming Eats) says
Yes any cheese will be fine if you want to swap out one. I recommend fine breadcrumbs but panko should be okay if that’s all you have.
Hannah says
Sadly this recipe was not a hit in our house. Both myself and my 6 year old daughter didn’t enjoy the ricotta cheese. I would love to do meatballs in the slow cooker again. Will just have to play around with the recipe.
Katie says
Can this be frozen please? Trying to make my sister a selection of frozen meals as she has had twins.
Shevy (Slimming Eats) says
yes it is fine to freeze. Enjoy!!
Lois says
I rarely remark on here...
But i have to this was scrummy...very full tummies.
Lovly...x
Yasmin Guest says
Tried this for the first time and won’t be the last. I used pork mince and panko breadcrumbs (as that’s all I had)
Another great recipe! Thank you
Helen says
In the comments above you state that the pasta needs to be cooked whereas in the ingredients it say 200g uncooked pasta - so what is it?
Siobhan (Slimming Eats) says
Both are correct 🙂 - in the comments my response is to the question about does the pasta need to be cooked when adding to the slow cooker and it does. The uncooked pasta in the recipe is correct, as you will see in step 5 it gives directions to cook the pasta. So you follow the recipe is it is written.