Ground Chicken Spaghetti is ready in under 30 minutes and so delicious with hearty marinara loaded with seasoned ground chicken. This Ground Chicken and Pasta recipe will turn into one of your go to weeknight dinners. Plus, it's healthy and affordable to make for the family.
This Ground Chicken Pasta Sauce combines marinara and seasoned ground chicken for a hearty sauce to pour over spaghetti. It tastes like meatballs, but is way easier and less effort. My kids are obsessed with this recipe and always beg me to make it.
Ground chicken has a reputation for being dry, but not when it's mixed with sauce, like marinara or enchilada sauce. It's one of my favorite meats for tacos or pasta, because it's affordable, low in fat, and high in protein.
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Why You'll Love This Ground Chicken and Pasta Recipe:
- Cheap to Make. This recipe is super budget friendly and can feed the whole family for around $15-20.
- Healthy. This spaghetti is loaded with vitamins from the tomatoes in the marinara sauce. Plus, it's packed with protein from the ground chicken and parmesan cheese.
- Delicious. There's so much flavor in the sauce and who doesn't want pasta for dinner?
- Easy & Quick. The sauce cooks all in one dutch oven or skillet. Then, cook the pasta and you're done and ready to eat in under 30 minutes.
For more Ground Chicken recipes try this Ground Chicken Stir Fry, Chicken Teriyaki Pineapple Meatballs and Ground Chicken Meatball Soup.
Ingredients:
Ground Chicken: Cooks in minutes and is really budget friendly. You can even buy the organic version for inexpensive.
Marinara Sauce: Jarred marinara saves us a lot of time in this recipe. I used the Mezzetta brand, which was delish. If you're looking for a homemade sauce, try my San Marzano Marinara Sauce.
Spaghetti: I like using thin spaghetti for this recipe, but regular spaghetti pasta is great too.
Spices: A combination of dried parsley, basil, oregano, salt and crushed red pepper flakes are used to add Italian flavors and a touch of heat.
Onion and Garlic: Adds great flavor to the sauce. Chop it up small enough for your kids not to notice it.
See the recipe card below for the full list of ingredients and quantities.
Substitutions for this Recipe:
Ground Chicken can be substituted with Ground Turkey, Ground Beef, Ground Pork or Italian Sausage. However, if you use pork, beef or sausage, make sure to drain most of the fat from the pan before adding the marinara sauce.
Want to add more veggies? Chop up baby Bella mushrooms or green bell pepper and cook with the onions.
Any jarred marinara or homemade marinara sauce works great for this recipe. Make sure it is a 20-24 ounce jar of sauce.
If you're not big on spaghetti pasta, use linguine, fettuccine, or even different shapes like penne. I do recommend a larger pasta to hold the bulky sauce.
If you're big on easy pasta recipes, make sure to try this Pancetta Pea Pasta, Vegetarian Cheese Stuffed Shells and Mushroom Zucchini Pasta.
How to Make Ground Chicken Spaghetti (Step by Step Instructions):
Step 1: Bring a large pot of water to a boil on the stovetop for the pasta. Prepare a dutch oven or deep skillet on medium low heat over the stovetop. Pour in olive oil and allow to warm up for a minute. Toss in diced onion and a pinch of salt. Cook for a few minutes until softened.
Step 2: Add the ground chicken to the dutch oven and break up the meat with a meat masher or wooden spoon until no longer pink.
Step 3: Once the ground chicken is almost no longer pink (about 7-8 minutes into cooking), toss in the minced garlic, dried parsley, basil, oregano and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine. Reduce heat to low.
Step 4: Stir in the marinara sauce and bay leaf. Cover and simmer on low heat.
Step 5: Add the pasta to the boiling water with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt and cook according the package instructions. Once it's finished, strain the pasta. Note: My family likes it about 2 minutes past al dente.
Step 6: To serve, add the pasta to a bowl and ladle over the ground chicken spaghetti sauce. Top with parmesan cheese, if desired. Serve and enjoy!
Expert Tips 👨🍳
- Don't overcook the ground chicken before adding the sauce. As soon as it's no longer pink, pour in the marinara and simmer in the sauce to keep it nice and juicy.
- If you have picky kids, chop those onions and garlic really fine to avoid them from whining "what's in this sauce?"
- I like to cook my spaghetti about 1-2 minutes past al dente, meaning firm when bitten into. It's not too firm for anyone in the family this way.
For more Spaghetti recipes, try this Spaghetti with Alfredo Sauce, Spicy Spaghetti Arrabiata, and Lemon Pasta with Spinach.
Recipe FAQs:
Most of the time, yes! Ground chicken is leaner than ground beef and can dry out faster, so it really depends on the recipe. If you're cooking tacos or pasta sauce, the substitution works well. Even in burgers, ground chicken is suitable, but you want to make sure you're adding egg to keep it juicy.
There are two answers to this question. First off, don't overcook it. Once it's no longer pink, it's fully cooked. Second, I like to use sauces when cooking ground chicken to keep it very juicy, whether that's marinara sauce like in this recipe or enchilada sauce for tacos.
Allow the sauce to cool completely and store separately from the leftover pasta in sealed containers in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Add the ground chicken marinara sauce back into a pot over medium low heat and warm up for a few minutes, stirring a few times. Add in the leftover spaghetti right to the sauce and cover and cook for another few minutes. It tastes even better if you make fresh spaghetti, but that's up to you.
More Chicken Dinner Recipes to Try:
If you tried this Ground Chicken Spaghetti Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes in the 📝 comments below. I love hearing from you!
PrintRecipe
Ground Chicken Spaghetti
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4-5 Servings 1x
Description
Ground Chicken Spaghetti is ready in under 30 minutes and so delicious with hearty marinara loaded with seasoned ground chicken. This Ground Chicken and Pasta recipe will turn into one of your go to weeknight dinners. Plus, it's healthy and affordable to make for the family.
Ingredients
- ½ of a 1 lb package of thin Spaghetti (8 ounces), if you have big eaters you may want to cook the whole pack (all 16 ounces)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion, diced fine
- 16 ounce package of ground chicken
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 20-24 ounce jar of store-bought marinara sauce
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 1 cup parmesan cheese, shredded fine
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil on the stovetop for the pasta. Prepare a dutch oven or deep skillet on medium low heat over the stovetop. Pour in olive oil and allow to warm up for a minute. Toss in diced onion and a pinch of salt. Cook for a few minutes until softened.
- Add the ground chicken to the dutch oven and break up the meat with a meat masher or wooden spoon until no longer pink.
- Once the ground chicken is almost no longer pink (about 7-8 minutes into cooking), toss in the minced garlic, dried parsley, basil, oregano and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine. Reduce heat to low.
- Stir in the marinara sauce and bay leaf. Cover and simmer on low heat.
- Add the pasta to the boiling water with a drizzle of olive oil and pinch of salt and cook according the package instructions. Once it's finished, strain the pasta. Note: My family likes it about 2 minutes past al dente.
- To serve, add the pasta to a bowl and ladle over the ground chicken spaghetti sauce. Top with parmesan cheese, if desired. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Don't overcook the ground chicken before adding the sauce. As soon as it's no longer pink, pour in the marinara and simmer in the sauce to keep it nice and juicy.
- If you have picky kids, chop those onions and garlic really fine to avoid them from whining "what's in this sauce?"
- I like to cook my spaghetti about 1-2 minutes past al dente, meaning firm when bitten into. It's not too firm for anyone in the family this way.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Pasta
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
Holly
This Ground chicken spaghetti was such a favorite with the kids and I loved it too. Thanks for the recipe.
Tara Smithson
Yay! So glad it was a hit. My youngest loves this recipe too.