Chicken Parmesan Baked Ziti Recipe

This chicken Parmesan baked ziti recipe combines comfort with flavor, for a meal that is a weeknight wonder that will satisfy adults and kids alike. Pasta, fresh cheese, tomato sauce, and bites of garlic butter chicken combine to create a soft, creamy, and deeply layered taste with every bite.

Your weeknight pasta routine might look like simply combining plain pasta with jarred tomato sauce, but even if it's a good one, this meal can get a bit tired after a while. Ksenia Prints of At the Immigrant's Table suggests waking things up by making a big batch of baked ziti pasta with high-quality fresh cheese and little garlicky bites of chicken, for an easy balanced meal that tastes surprising and familiar at the same time.

This recipe takes the best elements of chicken Parmesan and baked ziti to create a one-dish meal that requires minimal prep work. You can assemble everything in advance and bake it when ready, making it perfect for busy schedules, or you can bake it and freeze it for easy reheating later. This is likely the easiest restaurant-quality dinner you could make in under an hour, and we love it for that.

To make this baked pasta recipe, you'll need dried ziti pasta, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, boneless chicken thighs, and salt and black pepper. For the sauce itself, you'll need a can of San Marzano tomatoes and fresh basil. Finally, we like topping the pasta with mini bocconcini, panko breadcrumbs — regular breadcrumbs would also work — and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. For an optional fresh addition, when the pasta comes out of the oven, you can top it with more fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil, for garnish.

Preheat the oven to 425 F.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the ziti and cook it to al dente minus 1 minute.

Drain, and reserve 1 cup of pasta water.

Heat the olive oil in a large oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat.

Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant.

Add the diced chicken thighs and season with salt and pepper.

Cook for 6-8 minutes until just cooked through, stirring occasionally.

Add the tomatoes, basil, and pasta water, and simmer for 5 minutes.

Combine the pasta with the chicken mixture in the skillet.

Top with the bocconcini, panko, and Parmesan.

Bake for 25 minutes until the cheese is golden and bubbling.

Rest for 5 minutes.

Garnish with basil and a drizzle of olive oil and serve.

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Bocconcini are small balls of fresh mozzarella cheese, each one about the size of a single cherry tomato. Bocconcini means small bites or snacks in Italian, and these little morsels, which are made from cow's milk, have a mild, milky flavor with a soft, springy texture.

The big benefit of bocconcini is that it maintains its shape when used in salad, but melts beautifully when baked. These cheese balls are perfect for baked pasta dishes because they create pockets of melted cheese throughout the dish, rather than baking into a big, melted puddle.

If you can't find bocconcini at your grocery store, there are plenty of other types of Italian cheese you can use in its place. Shredded mozzarella is the easiest substitute, but it won't give you the same dramatic cheese pulls. Fresh mozzarella sliced into rounds or cut into cubes works almost as well as bocconcini and maintains that fresh mozzarella flavor and texture. Regular mozzarella pearls, which are slightly smaller than bocconcini, also work perfectly.

If you're someone who likes to tinker with your recipes, then this baked ziti pasta provides a great blank canvas for adaptations. The trifecta of chicken, pasta, and cheese is its own holy trinity, but there are plenty of ways to take it up a notch, too.

To up the veggie ante in the dish, try adding fresh spinach, zucchini, bell peppers, mushrooms, or even eggplant. You can just saute them with the garlic before adding the chicken.

For the pasta, penne, rigatoni, mostaccioli, or any tube-shaped pasta will work just as well as ziti. If you don't have fresh basil, two teaspoons of dried basil or Italian seasoning are good for adding more flavor. You can also add red pepper flakes for heat, or stir in oregano and thyme before baking. For a richer dish, stir in ricotta cheese right before baking, or add torn pieces of burrata on top during the last few minutes of baking.

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