Creamy and delicious, this slow cooker hunters chicken pasta bake is a weeknight dinner favourite. Loaded with pasta, chicken, bacon, barbecue sauce, cheese, passata and tinned tomatoes.
We will even show you that you can cook dried pasta in the slow cooker at the same time as the other ingredients making this the perfect dump and start chicken pasta bake slow cooker recipe.
Table of Contents
Hunters Chicken Pasta Bake
We love hunters chicken. We love it so much that we have already made an air fryer hunters chicken, and our hunters chicken will play a key role in the chicken chapter of our 2nd air fryer cookbook Air Fryer Easy Everyday.
But what about taking the famous ingredients for hunters chicken and transforming them into a hunters chicken pasta bake.
Essentially, creating a BBQ chicken pasta bake.
But what we hate about many pasta chicken bake recipes, is that they involve adding cooked pasta to the recipe, and not cooking the pasta at the same time as the bacon and chicken and other ingredients.
In this hunters chicken pasta, we will be sharing with you how to make chicken pasta without cooking the pasta first, how to dump all ingredients into the slow cooker together, the ultimate slow cooker pasta to liquid ratio, and how little the cooking time is to avoid mushy overcooked pasta.
If you love easy slow cooker recipes do check out: slow cooker roast beef, slow cooker pork stew, slow cooker sausage and bean casserole, slow cooker gammon in coke and my personal favourite slow cooker sausages in onion gravy.
Are You New To The Slow Cooker?
This is perfect for you if you want to get more recipes for your slow cooker. Loaded with a lot of British classics and something for everyone.
Click here or on the banner above and you will have access to it in an instant.
Can You Put Raw Pasta In A Slow Cooker?
Yes, you can put raw pasta in a slow cooker. This is exactly what we are doing today in this chicken pasta bake recipe. We are adding everything at the start including the raw pasta.
Cooking raw pasta in the slow cooker is all about a great ratio of liquid to pasta and making sure that all pasta is covered in liquid otherwise you end up with dry pasta you don’t want to eat.
Raw pasta also doesn’t take long to cook in the slow cooker, so you need to plan this into our pasta recipes. For example, for this chicken and pasta bake we have focused on chunks of chicken rather than whole chicken breasts to get the ratio just right!
How Much Water Do You Put In A Slow Cooker For Pasta?
The ratio of the liquid to pasta for a slow cooker pasta bake is 500g (1 bag) of pasta to
1.2 litres of liquid.
But when we are making a pasta bake because we are making a creamy barbecue chicken pasta bake so the ratio changes a bit.
Instead, we are adding 3 cans of tomatoes, 1 carton of passata, 1 bottle of barbecue sauce. Then whilst this seems like a lot of liquid, it remains thick and creamy due to the cream cheese add in.
Giving you the perfect recipe for chicken pasta bake!
Is Pasta Bake Healthy?
No, a pasta bake is not up there among healthy meals. But hey, we all want that comfort food in our lives, and we all need a pasta bake every now and again.
Its not healthy because of the barbecue sauce, lots of cheese and the dried pasta.
Would you like easy & amazing slow cooker recipes from slow cooker experts? Click here and join the Recipe This Newsletter. We will then send you the BEST slow cooker beginner recipes direct to your email inbox along with other useful kitchen gadget resources.
Ingredients For Hunters Chicken Pasta Bake
Pasta – Any medium sized pasta shape. Avoid pastas like spaghetti and stick with ones traditional in a pasta bake such as fusilli which we are using.
Meat – We used 2 chicken breasts which we cubed first and then 4 bacon rashers that we also sliced up into small pieces.
Liquid – Then for the liquids for your hunters chicken pasta we used tinned tomatoes, passata and barbecue sauce. If you prefer you can use just passata for a smoother pasta bake or stick with our suggestions.
Cheese – Then a recipe for a chicken pasta bake wouldn’t be the same without plenty of cheese! For the best chicken pasta bake sauce we are using a pack of Boursin cream cheese along with grated cheese on top of the pasta bake – because who doesn’t love melted cheese on top?
Seasonings – Then because you already have barbecue sauce and bacon, and you want to keep those flavours going. So, we are adding salt, pepper, and dried parsley, along with some garlic.
Can You Recommend A Slow Cooker?
I often get asked which slow cooker I recommend and which one I use. In 95% of our slow cooker recipes, we use the Ninja Foodi and its slow cooker setting. Because the Ninja Foodi is an all in one cooking pot we can sauté, air fry, slow cook, and even dehydrate and make yoghurt, all from the same cooking pot.
Plus, we recommend you head over to our slow cooker recipes category as we have more than 100 tried and tested slow cooker recipes and have been using slow cookers for 18 years. Or more specifically check out all our ninja foodi recipes.
How To Make Slow Cooker Hunters Chicken Pasta?
- Dump. Start by dumping the main ingredients into the slow cooker, stirring and then placing the Boursin in the centre, add the lid on the slow cooker. Cook for 2 hours on high, or 4 hours on low.
- Extras. Next give the chicken pasta bake slow cooker recipe a stir, it will be done now and you can eat as is, but we love to add some grated cheese on top and then slow cook for an extra 30 minutes to melt the cheese before serving.
And I am sure you can see now how simple and easy this chicken pasta bake in slow cooker is to prepare and cook.
Listen To Slow Cooker Hunters Chicken
Every week this year on the Magic With Gadgets Podcast we are creating a podcast each week to accompany the recipe. You can listen to this week’s below, and then follow along with me at home as you make it.
Want to learn more about our Podcast? Then click here and you can browse through past episodes and subscribe to the Magic With Gadgets Podcast.
What To Serve With Hunters Chicken?
- Air Fryer Pull Apart Bread Rolls
- Air Fryer Part Baked Bread Rolls
- Air Fryer Crack Garlic Bread
- Air Fryer Halloumi Salad
- Instant Pot Asparagus
- Instant Pot Corn On The Cob
- Microwave Frozen Corn On The Cob
- Microwave Steamed Spinach
More Delicious Pasta Recipes!
- Slow Cooker Mac & Cheese
- Slow Cooker Salmon Pasta
- Air Fryer Pasta Bake
- Air Fryer Macaroni Cheese
- Instant Pot Tiktok Pasta Bake
- Slow Cooker Macaroni Pudding
- Check out all our 100+ slow cooker beginner recipes!
Your hunters chicken bake recipe is below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.
Though before you do, don’t forget to subscribe, and grab your FREE VIP Pass to Recipe This. You will get access to our latest recipes first, you will be able to request recipes, you will have access to free mini courses, free ebooks and useful cook time charts and so much more.
Slow Cooker Hunters Chicken Pasta Bake
Ingredients
Dump & Start Pasta Bake Ingredients
- 500 g Fusilli Dried Pasta
- 3 400 g Cans Chopped Tomatoes
- 1 500 g Carton Passata
- 1 355 g Bottle Barbecue Sauce we used this one
- 2 Chicken Breasts cubed
- 4 Bacon Rashers cut into chunks
- 1 Tbsp Garlic Puree
- 1 Tbsp Tomato Puree/Paste
- 1 Tbsp Dried Parsley
- Salt & Pepper
Pasta Bake Cheese
- 250 g Boursin Cream Cheese
- 115 g Grated Cheddar Cheese
Kitchen Gadgets
Instructions
- Dump everything from the dump and start list into the slow cooker.
- Give the slow cooker a good stir so that the pasta will cook properly, then unwrap and position the cream cheese over the pasta.
- Slow cook your hunters chicken pasta bake for 2 hours on high or 4 hours on low. Then stir and add a layer of grated cheese.
- Slow cook for an extra 30 minutes on high or until the grated cheese has melted on top before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then save it for later!
