Syn Free Italian Chicken Bake – Serves 4

This is a lovely filling recipe and if you allocate the cheese on it as your Healthy Extra A then it is Syn Free.

Ingredients:

• 500g Chicken – Cut into bite size chunks
• 200g Dried Pasta – I used Radiatori but you can use whatever shape you have to hand
• 500g Passata
• 1 Large Onion, Chopped Finely (Speed Food)
• 200g Mushrooms, Sliced (Speed Food)
• 4/5 Handfuls Baby Spinach (Speed Food)
• 2 Garlic Cloves, Crushed (Speed Food)
• 160g Low Fat Cheese, Grated (Syn Free is used as Healthy Extra A)
• 1 tbsp Tomato Puree
• 2 tsp Dried Basil

Preparation:

• Cook your pasta in a large pan of salted water and drain when cooked through.
• Preheat your oven the Gas Mark 6 / 200 C / 400 F
• In a large pan over a medium high heat, cook the chicken, onion, garlic and mushrooms until the chicken is browned and the onions soft, approx 10 minutes.
• Now add the passata, tomato puree and basil and simmer for approx 5 minutes.
• In a large ovenproof dish place a layer of the baby spinach leaves.
• Add the pasta to the sauce and pour half the mixture into the ovenproof dish.
• Add the remainder of the baby spinach leaves and then pour the remainder of the pasta and sauce mix into to dish.
• Sprinkle the cheese over the top of the pasta mix.
• Put on the middle shelf of the oven and bake until the cheese is melted, for my oven this is approx 25 minutes but will vary depending on your oven.

This recipe serves 4 but if you are hungry then just syn the cheese on the extra portion.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I do