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Slow Cooker Chicken Meatball Pasta Bake

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Slow Cooker Chicken Meatball Pasta Bake – a delicious recipe for easy tender chicken meatballs, combined with penne pasta and topped with ricotta and parmesan cheese. 

slow cooker chicken meatball pasta bake in slow cooker with spoon

There are not many that don’t enjoy a good ole pasta bake. Generally, family friendly, meaning that it is a dish you can make that you know the whole family will approve of. 

With some extra lean chicken mince (ground chicken) that needed to be used up and knowing that I had lots of things to get on with around the house, I figured a meatballs pasta dish I could throw in the slow cooker would be a perfect meal for dinner time. 

Normally when making a pasta bake, I stick to cheddar and mozzarella for the cheesy topping, but spotting a tub of ricotta in my fridge and know how much we all love my Stuffed Ricotta and Spinach Pasta Shells. I figured the ricotta spooned on top for a Slow Cooker Chicken Meatball Pasta Bake would be amazing!!

spooning meatballs out of slow cooker chicken meatball pasta bake

Don’t worry if you can’t get extra lean ground chicken, turkey mince or even extra lean ground beef will work perfectly too in this recipe. I will definitely be making this again with homemade beef meatballs, but sometimes you just have to go with what you have.

I add breadcrumbs to my meatballs. You may be tempted to try and skip those to save the syns, but trust me, they really help to keep the meatballs nice and tender. Extra Lean mince can be a little dry on its own otherwise. 

The sauce for this Slow Cooker Chicken Meatball Pasta Bakes, comes with lots of hidden veg too. I add some finely grated carrot and zucchini into the sauce, the kids don’t even notice it is in there and combine with the tomatoes, it makes for a delicious sauce. 

slow cooker chicken meatball pasta bake in slow cooker

I prefer to cook the pasta out of the slow cooker before adding to this, I am not keen on the texture of how the pasta goes when in the slow cooker. 

Not got a slow cooker and wonder which ones are best? There are many great slow cookers out there. But I recommend choosing ones like this Andrew James Slow Cooker that has a delayed start time and an inner pot that can be removed and placed on the hob or in the oven, that way if you need to do any browning you don’t need to use a separate pan.

Hey if you want a slow cooker that has all the bells n whistles. Go for an Instant Pot, which is not actually a slow cooker, it’s a multi-function pressure cooker, but with a slow cooker option on it too, it can do pretty much everything.

close up of slow cooker chicken meatballs pasta bake

Want some other delicious Slow Cooker recipes? Check out these:

or head on over to my FULL RECIPE INDEX with over 850+ delicious Slimming World Recipes all fully searchable by meal type, ingredients, syn value etc

serving of slow cooker chicken meatballs pasta bake in white bowl with fork

How can I add a 1/3 speed foods to this Slow Cooker Chicken Meatball Pasta Bake?

Just a simple mixed salad pairs perfectly with these meatballs. I like to use a combination of baby greens, cucumber, tomatoes and beetroot. 

What Kitchen Items do I need to make this Slow Cooker Chicken Meatball Pasta Bake?

close up of slow cooker chicken meatballs pasta bake in white bowl with fork.

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Slow Cooker Chicken Meatballs Pasta Bake

Slow Cooker Chicken Meatballs Pasta Bake

Yield: 4
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 6 hours 20 minutes
Total Time: 6 hours 35 minutes

Slow Cooker Chicken Meatball Pasta Bake - a delicious recipe for easy tender chicken meatballs, combined with penne pasta and topped with ricotta and parmesan cheese. 

Ingredients

For the meatballs

  • 455g (1lb) of extra lean chicken mince (can also use turkey or beef)
  • 2 cloves of garlic crushed
  • a handful of fresh parsley, chopped
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/4 cup (30g) of Italian dried breadcrumbs (5.5 syns)
  • 1 egg

For the sauce

  • 1.5 cups (320ml) of crushed tomatoes (or passata)
  • 2 tbs of tomato paste
  • 1/2 cup (120ml) of chicken stock
  • 1 small zucchini (courgette), grated
  • 1 small carrot, grated
  • 1 tbs of balsamic vinegar​
  • 1 tbs of mixed herbs

Pasta Bake

  • 270g (9.5oz) of ricotta cheese
  • 30g (1oz) of parmesan
  • 1 egg
  • fresh chopped parsley
  • salt and black pepper
  • 200g (7oz) of uncooked penne pasta

Instructions

  1. Add all the ingredients for the sauce to the slow cooker and stir to combine.
  2. In a bowl add the ground chicken, garlic, salt, parsley, egg and breadcrumbs, mix to combine and then form into meatballs (approx 16)
  3. Drop these into the sauce
  4. Set slow cooker to low for 6 hours
  5. When meatballs have almost finished cooked, add the pasta to a saucepan of boiling hot water and cook by package instructions. Drain
  6. Stir the pasta into the meatballs and sauce.
  7. Mix the ricotta with the egg and spoon this on to the top
  8. Sprinkle with the grated parmesan and season with salt and black pepper
  9. Set slow cooker to high and continue to cook for 20 mins until the cheese is melted. If you prefer the cheese more golden, you can skip this step and place it under the grill/broil until cheese is melted and golden on top.
  10. Serve topped with chopped fresh parsley.

Notes

This recipe is Slimming World and Weight Watchers friendly

  • Extra Easy - 1.5 Syns and 1 HEa per serving
  • WW Smart Points - 12 per serving

*suitable for freezing

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Nutritional information is an estimate and is to be used for informational purposes only. Ingredients can vary greatly from brand to brand and therefore it would be impossible to give accurate information.

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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 569Total Fat: 15.7gSaturated Fat: 8.3gSodium: 707mgCarbohydrates: 58.4gFiber: 3gSugar: 6.8gProtein: 48.5g
© Siobhan (Slimming Eats)
Cuisine: Italian / Category: Main
Slow cooker chicken meatball pasta bake pin

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Nutritional information is an estimate and is to be used for informational purposes only

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. Lauren

    Hi I was looking at this and thought it would be nice to try, but I can’t eat ricotta cheese
    If I swapped the ricotta and parmesan to cheddar and mozzarella how would the weight change?
    Thank you!

  5. Sue Large

    Made this yesterday. I left out the breadcrumbs and used mild cheddar cheese at the end of the cook. It was absolutely delicious. The meatballs were tender and full of flavour from the sauce,

  8. Laura Davison

    Can you make this without the Italian breadcrumbs? I can’t seem to find any in my local shops. Many thanks!

  9. Shevy (Slimming Eats)

    Hi Laura, the meatballs are best with the breadcrumbs (you can use any, doesn’t need to be Italian), but you can omit too if you prefer, the meatballs just wont be as tender.

  10. Shevy (Slimming Eats)

    yes the pasta is cooked first as per the recipe. I don’t like how the texture of the pasta goes when left to cook in the slow cooker.

  13. Jodie Greenway

    Can you use a different cheese to mix with the egg I.e just normal cheddar? Obviously the syns May differ but I can work that out. Also, I would use panco breadcrumbs?

  14. Shevy (Slimming Eats)

    Yes any cheese will be fine if you want to swap out one. I recommend fine breadcrumbs but panko should be okay if that’s all you have.

  16. Hannah

    Sadly this recipe was not a hit in our house. Both myself and my 6 year old daughter didn’t enjoy the ricotta cheese. I would love to do meatballs in the slow cooker again. Will just have to play around with the recipe.

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