This easy ground chicken pasta is bursting with fresh tomatoes, plenty of spices, and a little vermouth for a complexly flavored, easy dinner recipe. You’ll love this easy ground chicken recipe.
This easy ground chicken pasta is the perfect mid-week dinner recipe. It’s easy to make and is loaded with tons of flavor.
The secret weapon in this ground chicken pasta recipe is vermouth. It adds a wonderful complexity to the sauce. You can use dry vermouth, which will lend more of a dry white wine flavor to the sauce. Personally, I love sweet vermouth in tomato sauce. However, you may want to start with just a splash or two to start if you’ve never cooked with it before. It can definitely be on the sweeter side, but I find that it works perfectly well in tomato sauces or even in cream sauces.
How to make this easy ground pasta recipe:
This recipe is mostly a breeze, though there is a bit of prep work involved, especially if you want to use fresh tomatoes as I did. You can always sub in canned diced tomatoes instead!
First, prep all of the ingredients. Next, cook the chicken and remove it from the pan. From there, sauté your aromatics and add the tomatoes along with the vermouth. If your tomatoes are acidic, you can add a pinch of sugar as the sauce simmers. To finish the sauce, I add basil and baby beet greens. I love the earthy flavor the baby beet greens add, but you can replace it with your favorite green. Try it with baby spinach or arugula!
After that, simply toss with cooked pasta and a little pasta cooking water. A generous sprinkle of parmesan at the end is never a bad idea!
Looking for more chicken recipes? Check my archives!
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Easy Ground Chicken Pasta
Equipment
- Wide pot or skillet
- Large pot
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 yellow onion peeled and minced
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1 pound Roma tomatoes trimmed and diced
- ¼ cup vermouth
- ½ cup water or chicken stock
- Pinch of sugar, if needed
- 16 ounces pasta such as rigatoni, girelle, or penne
- 3 ounces baby beet greens or use baby spinach or arugula
- .5 ounces fresh basil thinly sliced, a few leaves reserved for garnish
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Freshly grated Parmesan for serving
Instructions
Cook the chicken:
- Heat the oil in a wide pot over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook for 15 minutes until cooked through. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Transfer to a bowl.
Cook the onion:
- Add the onion to the pot and cook for 5–6 minutes until softened. Melt the butter, add the crushed red pepper, and cook for 45 seconds until fragrant.
Simmer the sauce:
- Add the tomatoes to the onion and cook for 5 minutes. Pour in the vermouth and water or stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add the cooked chicken. Stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper and a pinch of sugar, if needed. Simmer for 25–30 minutes. Add more water, as needed, if the sauce reduces too quickly—taste and season once more to your preferences.
Cook the pasta:
- Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Reserve ⅓ cup of pasta cooking water before draining the pasta.
Finish the pasta:
- Add the basil and baby beet greens to the sauce and cook until wilted. Add the reserved pasta cooking water and bring to a boil. Add the pasta and toss to coat until the sauce sticks to the pasta—taste and season to your preferences. Turn off the heat.
To serve:
- Divide the pasta between shallow bowls. Garnish with basil leaves and freshly grated parmesan, if you like. Enjoy!
Made this tonight with ground turkey, arugula, sweet vermouth and fresh Roma tomatoes. Went heavy on all ingredients, simmered about an hour.
Absolutely delicious, loved all the different steps,. Browning the turkey, removing it from the Pan, cooking the tomatoes , vermouth and then adding the turkey back in. Then the abundant amount of basil & the greens at the end just gorgeous. Big winner dinner:)