A healthy AND creamy pasta dish, our chicken sausage pasta is packed with flavor, spice and
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A Perfect One Pot Weeknight Meal
Our chicken sausage pasta dish is incredibly delicious...and it requires only ONE POT. And boy do we love one-pot recipes on busy nights! Not only do these recipes generally require less time; there is also much less clean-up. Yes, please!
What Makes our Chicken Sausage Pasta Healthy?
Who says a pasta dish can't be healthy AND delicious? Here's what makes our chicken sausage pasta a healthier choice for our family:
- Chicken sausage. Compared to traditional pork sausage, chicken sausage is lower in fat and sodium, making it a healthier choice for this dish.
- Whole grain pasta. We used whole grain rotini because of the dietary fiber and nutritional benefits it provides. In fact, our kids are so used to it they hardly notice when their pasta is brown instead of white.
- Low fat cream cheese. Low fat cream cheese has less fat than regular cream cheese, but still gives our dish the creamy flavor and consistency we like!
Why we like al Fresco Chicken Sausage
When it comes to sausage or processed meats, we are big on moderation. As much as we love the savory taste of grilled pork or beef sausage, we know it's not the best thing for us!
We feel pretty great about having Al Fresco Chicken Sausage because these sausages contains no artificial ingredients and are minimally processed. They are also significantly lower in fat and carbs than most other brands of sausage and are gluten-free! For all these reasons, we feel pretty good about giving this sausage to our family.
How to make our Healthy Chicken Sausage Pasta
Ingredients
Notes on Ingredients
- Pasta - We choose whole grain rotini for this chicken sausage pasta not only for its health benefits, but also because this pasta's twisted shape holds the dish's sauce so well. This means there's more flavor with each bite!
- Parmesan - This is totally optional but adds a nice flavor.
Instructions
Step 1: Cook chicken sausage
While this chicken sausage is fully cooked, we wanted to sear it for a few minutes with some garlic and onion to give it a nice flavor. So, we cooked it for a few minutes in our stock pot until lightly browned, and set it aside.
🥄Kid Step: Paint the stock pot with butter, using a basting brush. Slice the sausage using Curious Chef Children's Knives
Step 2: Make sauce and cook pasta
Using the same stock pot, we simply combined our sauce ingredients and spices and brought this mixture to a boil. We added the noodles and waited for them to cook.
🥄Kid Step: Measure seasonings using the Curious Chef teaspoon set (we love this brand!). And set the timer for pasta. This is a great chance for kids to learn about cooking times. Taste the pasta intermittently so they can see the difference over time.
Step 3: Stir in sausage and cheese
Once our noodles were cooked, we simply stirred in our sausage and cheese and let everything blend together over medium heat for a few minutes. And voila! A creamy, cheesy sausage pasta was ready to be devoured!
🥄Kid Step: Stir in cheese and watch it melt! Kids love this job!
FAQ
To thicken your sauce, add cornstarch mixed with water (start with 4T of water and 2T of cornstarch)and slowly pour it into sauce.
While we love whole wheat rotini, other short pastas like fusilli or rigatoni would be great as well.
I don't recommend freezing the pasta, but you can definitely freeze the sauce. In that case, we recommend making your pasta separately at the time you plan to serve your dish.
Chicken sausage is typically made from ground chicken meat and not pork. However, many chicken sausages are contained in a natural pork casing.
Packed with sausage, veggies and pasta, this meal stands on its own pretty well. Yet, if you want to serve a side with it, we recommend garlic bread (Pepperidge Farm is our fave) or a simple garden salad. For my kids, my go-to side is sliced veggies with salad dressing as a dip. We have an awesome trick for cutting cucumbers for kids that you may want to check out.
Tips for picky eaters
- ausage on the side. If kids don't like their protein and sauces to mix, consider setting some sausage aside before combining it with the pasta sauce.
- Kids pick the pasta. Many different kinds of pasta will work great in this dish. Let kids choose their favorite.
Other Pasta Dishes to try
Craft for this Recipe
❤ Heart Shaped Frames with Rotini ❤
These frames are a great way to say "I love you!". This easy, kids picture frame craft is the best gift! You can make it to display your kid's work of art or as a photo frame. It all works!
Healthy Chicken Sausage Pasta
Equipment
- Large stock pot
Ingredients
- 1-2 T butter
- 1/2 onion (chopped)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 11 oz Sweet Italian Style Chicken Sausage Links (sliced)
- 3 1/2 cups chicken broth or stock
- 15 oz can diced tomatoes
- 2 T tomato paste
- 1 t Italian seasoning
- 1 t dried oregano
- 1 t basil
- 1/2 t black pepper
- 1/2 t sea salt
- 2 cups rotini or penne pasta (uncooked)
- 1 1/2 - 2 oz low fat cream cheese
- 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 1/2 t red pepper flakes (optional)
Instructions
- Melt butter in large stock pot. Add chopped onion, garlic and sliced sausage. Cook, stirring frequently, for 1-2 mins. Remove pot contents and set aside.
- Add broth, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and seasonings to stock pot and stir together. Bring liquid to a boil, add pasta and cook according to pasta box instructions.
- When pasta is fully cooked, stir in cream cheese and sausage/onion/garlic. Cook another 1-2 mins until cheese is melted. Top with parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes (optional).
Notes
- To thicken your sauce, add cornstarch mixed with water and slowly pour it into sauce.
- While we love whole wheat rotini, other short pastas like fusilli or rigatoni would be great as well.
- To lighten the meal, limit cheese or use low-fat cream cheese.
Nutrition
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. While we are not certified nutritionists, we work with a WordPress-integrated nutrition API to calculate our recipes' ingredient values.
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