One Pan Buffalo Chicken Bake
Creamy, a little spicy, high protein, and it all happens in one skillet. Frozen broccoli, a bag of pre-chopped veggies and a rotisserie chicken if you want it. An easy weeknight dinner for working moms that does not ask you to chop a single thing.
This is the dinner for the night you walk in after daycare pickup and a long day of Teams calls and have zero capacity left for a real recipe. I did not chop anything for this one. The onion, carrots and peppers came pre-chopped from the store, the broccoli came straight out of a frozen bag, and if you do not want to cook chicken tonight a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store works perfectly.
Everything goes in one cast iron skillet on the stove, the pasta cooks right in the broth and milk, and it finishes in the oven for five minutes so the cheese gets melty on top. One pan to wash, and that is the whole point.
Nothing to chop, nothing to drain
The bagged onion, carrot and pepper mix from the produce section does the only part of this recipe that takes real time. It goes straight from the bag into the pan.
It goes in frozen with the pasta and cooks while the pasta does. No washing, no trimming, no bunch of broccolini going soft in the fridge.
No pot of water, no colander. The pasta simmers right in the bone broth and milk, and that starch is what makes the sauce creamy.
I used Brami high protein pasta. Lentil penne works too, or honestly whatever pasta you have in the pantry.
What goes in
- 4 oz8 oz12 ozhigh protein pasta (I used Brami, lentil penne works too)
- 12 to 16 oz1 1/2 to 2 lb2 1/4 to 3 lbchicken breast, diced, or about 2 1/2 cupsabout 5 cupsabout 7 1/2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
- about 2 cupsabout 4 cupsabout 6 cupspre-chopped onion, carrot and bell pepper (or dice your own onion, carrots and bell pepper)
- about 2 cupsabout 4 cupsabout 6 cupsfrozen broccoli florets, straight from the bag
- 2 cloves4 cloves6 clovesgarlic, minced, or 1 tsp2 tsp1 tbsp pre-minced
- 1 cup2 cups3 cupsbone broth
- 1 cup2 cups3 cupsmilk
- 1/4 cup1/2 cup3/4 cupbuffalo sauce, like Frank’s RedHot
- 1/2 cup1 cup1 1/2 cupsshredded Mexican blend or cheddar cheese, divided in half
- 1 tsp2 tsp1 tbspavocado or olive oil
Seasonings
- 1/2 tsp1 tsp1 1/2 tspgarlic powder
- 1/2 tsp1 tsp1 1/2 tsponion powder
- 1/2 tsp1 tsp1 1/2 tsppaprika
- to tastesalt and pepper
The base batch fits a 12 inch skillet. Doubling or tripling? Use a dutch oven, and the pasta may need a few extra minutes of simmering.
One skillet, stove to oven
Veggies in the skillet
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Heat the oil in a large oven-safe skillet, cast iron is perfect, and sauté the pre-chopped veggies and garlic for a few minutes until they soften.
Chicken and seasonings
Using raw chicken? Add the diced chicken with the garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt and pepper, and cook until the chicken is fully cooked through. Using rotisserie? Stir the seasonings into the veggies now and hold the chicken for the next step.
Pasta, broccoli, broth and milk
Add the uncooked pasta, the frozen broccoli, the bone broth and the milk, plus the rotisserie chicken if that is what you are using. Bring it to a boil over medium-high heat and let it bubble, stirring often, until the pasta is tender, about 8 to 10 minutes for red lentil penne. Go by your pasta box, since high protein pastas all cook a little differently.
Buffalo sauce and cheese
Turn off the heat. Stir in the buffalo sauce and half the cheese, then sprinkle the other half over the top.
Into the oven
Slide the whole skillet into the oven for about 5 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Careful, that handle is hot.
You do not need a new recipe every week. You need a short list of dinners your family already eats and a system that takes the deciding off your plate.
What makes this one repeatable
Skip step two entirely. Shred the chicken while the veggies cook and it goes in with the pasta, so there is no raw chicken and no extra cutting board.
Scoop their portion out of the skillet right before the buffalo sauce goes in, top it with a little cheese, and it is a creamy chicken and broccoli pasta.
Tap 6 to 8 or 9 to 12 servings on the recipe card and every amount updates. Go bigger on the pan and give the pasta a few extra minutes.
The pasta keeps soaking up the sauce overnight, so add a splash of broth or milk before you reheat it and it comes back creamy.
Before you make it
Can I use rotisserie chicken?
Yes. Add about 2 1/2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken for the base batch with the pasta, broth and milk instead of cooking raw chicken first.
Do I need to thaw the frozen broccoli?
No. It goes in straight from the bag and cooks in the simmering broth with the pasta.
What pasta works best?
I used Brami high protein pasta. Lentil or chickpea penne works, and regular pasta works too. Cook times vary by brand, so simmer until the pasta is tender.
Can I make it without an oven-safe skillet?
Yes. Pour everything into a baking dish after step four, top with the cheese and bake until melted.
The dinner system, not just the recipe
I’m Erin, a working mom of two with a full time 9-5, and Default Dinner Diaries is the series where I post the dinner that actually happened on a weeknight. If you liked this one, the burrata chicken orzo is the same idea, everything in one dish.
The recipes are the easy part. The hard part is deciding, so I built the Dinner OS that does the deciding for me, and the Default Dinner Diaries cookbook holds the dinners on repeat in our house. Follow along on Instagram at @kee_to_wellness for the rest of the series.
