Easy Creamy Chicken Ziti | Budget Meal
This budget friendly, easy creamy chicken ziti, will quickly become a family favorite. Full of flavor and ready in only 15 minutes, you can’t get anymore family friendly then that!
Looking for more delicious recipes using Ziti? Try this Creamy Shrimp Avocado Bacon Ziti, Southwestern Spicy Chicken Ziti or this Baked Ziti with Meatballs.
Real quick, a shout out to my friend Ellen from Family Around the Table for encouraging our amazing group of food bloggers to provide some easy, budget friendly meals.
Why make this recipe?
Other than the fact that it’s incredibly delicious, it’s a very budget friendly meal. It’s quick and easy for busy weeknights, but can be dressed up for a more elegant meal.
Honestly, it’s delicious as is, but also a great jumping off point for the adventurous. Add some veggies, or try a different protein or meat. There are so many different ways to serve this.
What do you need to make Easy Creamy Chicken Ziti?
You really only need 4 simple ingredients. Read on for more.
Shredded Chicken – You can purchase chicken breasts, cook them up and shred them yourself. We do this a lot with leftovers. But, another easy and very budget friendly solution is to purchased canned shredded chicken.
Ziti Pasta – You don’t absolutely have to use Ziti pasta, but we have found that the simple ziti noodle allows the creamy flavor to really shine.
Pasta Sauce– We typically use a jarred alfredo sauce, but truthfully you could make your own sauce. I have a delicious Homemade Alfredo Sauce that is perfect with this. But honestly, for quick and easy, stick to a jar.
Salsa – This can be mild, medium, hot, chunky or smooth. Any type, any brand, any flavors, you just need a jar of salsa.
That’s it!
What goes well with Creamy Chicken Ziti?
Well, obviously if you’re sticking to a budget friendly meal plan, we want to keep our sides to the same basic premise.
- Grilled Corn with Garlic Herb Butter
- Air Fryer Brussels Sprouts
- Easy Cheesy Creamed Spinach
- Grilled Asparagus
How do I keep leftovers?
Leftovers will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator but about 5 days.
To reheat in the microwave, add a few drops of water and heat for about 2 minutes. Stir and then add 30 seconds or so, if needed.
To reheat on the stovetop, pour the leftovers into a cookpot, add a little milk or water to the bottom, stir and heat until warm.
What makes this budget friendly?
Let’s face it, the word “budget” is subjective and is going to be different for everyone. So why is this budget friendly?
“>We all know food costs are going up everywhere on lots of different items. Depending on the food costs where you live, this entire Creamy Chicken Ziti meal will cost you roughly about $10 and serves 4-6. This comes out to be less than $2.50 a serving.
Can I make this up ahead? Can I double/triple/etc. the Recipe?
Yes, this can be made ahead and frozen. We do this and we store them in these cool reusable pans. We purchased the 4 pack but you can get a 2 pack to try them out. We did that and wound up purchasing the 4 pack the next month so we have 6 now and we use them every single week.
But you can also use these disposable pans that are perfect for a larger batch!
These are the ones we use when we are doing big batch cooking for the month. They are the most cost effective on amazon. They stack easily and can easily be lifted out of a deep freeze if you use one.
Yes, this recipe can be doubled or tripled to do a whole lot of freezer cooking at a time.
Follow the recipe and instead of serving, simply pour the pasta into the baking dish, allow to cool completely, cover with a lid and just pop in the freezer.
How do I reheat a frozen casserole?
If you remember, thaw the casserole ahead of time. We take ours out of the freezer the night before and thaw on the counter, covered overnight.
Put in the refrigerator first thing in the morning.
When you’re ready to bake a thawed casserole, remove the lid and cover the casserole loosely with a piece of tin foil.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20-30 minutes or until an instant read thermometer inserted into the center reads 160 degrees F.
If you forgot to thaw, it’s okay… it will just take a little longer. Remove from freezer, remove lid and cover loosely with tin foil. Bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 45-60 minutes.
A good rule of thumb is to remove the casserole at the 45 minute mark and stir. When the center of the casserole reads 160 degrees F on an instant read thermometer it is ready.
Return to oven and continue cooking if not completely thawed yet.
Are you ready to make this delicious Easy Creamy Chicken Ziti?
If you want to learn how to make this easy dish, simply print out the recipe below.
Please be sure to leave a comment or rate the recipe to let others know what you think! It helps us out, but it also helps our readers know what the favorites are!
Printable Recipe
Easy Creamy Chicken Ziti
Ingredients
- 1 16 oz box of Ziti pasta
- 1 15 oz jar alfredo sauce
- ½ cup salsa plus more for topping
- [1 12.5oz can of canned chicken, drained]
- Parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Boil your pasta according to package directions.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, heat the shredded Chicken and salsa together.
- If you wish to add garlic or herbs, go ahead and toss them in at this time. Heat for about 5 minutes.
- Add your jar of sauce and continue heating for another 5 minutes or until it’s all hot.
- Once your pasta is cooked, drain and return to pot.
- Add the sauce.
- Toss and Serve.
- Add a small scoop of salsa to the top of the pasta to be mixed in, if desired.
Oh, my guys are going to love this one and I always have a jar of Alfredo in the pantry!
I wouldn’t have thought to use canned chicken but that’s a great money saver!
This sounds amazing and delicious! Alfredo sauce is always loved here and this is a great recipe!
I never think to keep canned chicken in the house. Tuna, yes. But I definitely need to get some for quick weeknight meal ideas! Will definitely give this recipe a try as it sounds delicious!
This is a recipe that has become a staple on my menu. It’s not only delicious but easy on the pocketbook.
My family loves pasta dinners so much! This one looks perfect for the whole family and for making an inexpensive meal.
This was so easy and good