Baked pasta with broccoli and chicken: 53 g protein a serving

A baked chicken and broccoli pasta for four: exact quantities, a Greek yoghurt sauce instead of bechamel, and an estimated 53 g of protein per serving.

You have got chicken breast, a head of broccoli and half a bag of pasta, and no appetite for another plate of dry chicken and rice. This bake gives roughly 53 g of protein per serving and skips the butter-and-flour bechamel entirely — the sauce is built on Greek yoghurt instead. One dish, fifty minutes, four portions.

Prep time and servings

Prep: 15 minutes. Cooking and baking: 35 minutes. Total: 50 minutes. Servings: 4.

A serving is a quarter of a roughly 30×20 cm dish, which works out at about 380–400 g of finished food. Cooked and cooled, it keeps three days in the fridge and reheats in a pan with a spoonful of water. It is one of the more reliable dishes for a five-day meal prep, because yoghurt-based sauces hold up on reheating better than most cheese bakes.

Ingredients

300 g dried pasta (penne or fusilli)
500 g skinless chicken breast
400 g broccoli, cut into florets
250 g Greek yoghurt, around 2% fat
150 ml milk, 1.5% fat
80 g hard cheese (gouda, edam or similar), grated
10 ml olive oil (one tablespoon)
80 g red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves
10 g cornflour
salt, black pepper, sweet paprika, a pinch of nutmeg

Method

Heat the oven to 200 °C. Boil the pasta in salted water for two minutes less than the packet says — it finishes cooking in the oven. Save 150 ml of the cooking water before draining.
Drop the broccoli into the same water for the last three minutes, or steam it for four. It should stay firm and bright green; overcooked florets collapse into mush in the oven.
Cut the chicken into 2–3 cm cubes and season with salt, pepper and paprika. Heat the olive oil in a large pan and cook the meat over a high heat for 5–6 minutes, turning it, until coloured on all sides.
Turn the heat down, add the onion and garlic, and cook for another two minutes until softened.
In a bowl, whisk the yoghurt, milk, cornflour, nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Stir in two or three tablespoons of the hot pasta water so the yoghurt warms gradually — that is what stops it splitting.
Take the pan off the heat, then stir the sauce in. It must not boil. Add the drained pasta and broccoli and mix; loosen with more pasta water if it looks too thick.
Tip everything into the baking dish, level it off and scatter the grated cheese over the top.
Bake for 15–18 minutes at 200 °C until the top is browned. Let it sit for five minutes before cutting so the sauce sets.

Nutrition per serving

Estimate per serving, calculated from the quantities listed above. Real figures shift with the fat content of your cheese and yoghurt and the exact weight of the meat.

Calories: around 615 kcal
Protein: around 53 g
Carbohydrates: around 68 g
Fat: around 13 g

That mix sits well after training: plenty of carbohydrate, high protein, fairly low fat. If 615 kcal is too much for one meal, drop the pasta to 200 g and you land near 515 kcal with the protein almost untouched.

Swaps and variations

No chicken. Use 400 g smoked tofu or 350 g drained chickpeas. Protein falls to roughly 35–38 g a serving, so if the protein number is the point, pan-fried tofu with rice gives you a better ratio.

More vegetables, less pasta. Swap 100 g of pasta for 200 g of cauliflower or courgette. That takes about 90 kcal off each serving while the volume on the plate stays the same.

No broccoli. Spinach works well (200 g fresh, stirred in raw), as do halved Brussels sprouts. The sauce stays the same.

Creamier. Add 50 g of grated parmesan to the sauce rather than the topping — roughly 50 kcal and 4 g of protein more per serving.

Leaner sauce. Use 0% yoghurt and a reduced-fat cheese to cut about 60 kcal a serving. The sauce comes out thinner, so add another 5 g of cornflour.

When to see a doctor

If dairy regularly leaves you bloated, cramping or running to the loo, do not work it out by trial and error — talk to your GP. The same goes for persistent symptoms after meals containing gluten. For milder lactose trouble, lactose-free yoghurt and well-aged hard cheeses, which contain very little lactose, usually solve it.

In short

Four servings, roughly 615 kcal and 53 g of protein each, fifty minutes of work. Three things matter: undercook the pasta, keep the broccoli firm, and add the yoghurt only once the pan is off the heat. On lighter days a bowl of chicken and vegetable soup pairs well with a smaller portion of this.