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Spaghetti chicken bolognese
I usually make bolognese with beef and it’s delicious. Beef pairs really well with spaghetti and it makes a great meal anytime.
I wanted to make bolognese and was out of beef. I had some ground chicken breast, but I wasn’t particularly excited about the prospect of making bolognese with it.
But, it’s what I had on hand, so I decided to make it anyway and to make sure that it would come out just as tasty as the beef version.
I tweaked the recipe and it came out amazing!
Makes 3 servings
Ingredients:
300 grams ground chicken breast
1 medium onion
3 cloves of garlic
2 carrots
1 Tbsp ketchup
3/4 cup water
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp sweet Moroccan paprika
1/3 tsp rotisserie chicken spice
1 Tbsp chicken bouillon
Ground black pepper
Salt (if needed, to taste)
Preparation:
1. Finely dice the carrot. Heat 3 Tbsp of oil in a pan and sauté the carrot on high heat for around two minutes, stirring occasionally. Finely dice the onion and add to the carrot and sauté until it starts to get golden. Chop the garlic and add to the onion to sauté briefly.
2. In a separate pan, place 2-3 Tbsp of oil and add the ground chicken and sauté while stirring, until the meat turns opaque white, breaking up the meat as much as possible. My hack: Take a large cutting board and pour the meat out onto the board, then take a large knife and chop the meat as fine as possible so you get small pieces of meat and not large chunks.
3. Add the meat to the vegetables and mix for around a minute. Add the water, honey, ketchup and spices, cook for around 10 minutes on low-medium heat, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust seasoning.
4. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package. Add to the meat and mix for around one minute in the pan, then remove from the heat. I recommend setting the pan aside for a few minutes and mix occasionally so the pasta can really soak up the sauce better.
Good to know…
I want to explain step 2. It’s really hard to reach a fine ground when you’re cooking chicken breast (look at the first photo), as opposed to ground beef, for example.
I’m a real stickler on this matter, which is why I sauté the chicken separately, then give it a fine chop and only then add it to the vegetables. This makes the sauce tastier and easier to eat.
You can skip this step if you wish and just sauté everything together.
I’ve given you my tip but obviously do what works best for you.
You can use 500 grams of ground chicken breast, add more water and taste to adjust seasoning.
You can freeze up to the meat preparation stage. Not a big fan of carrots? You can use red pepper instead or just leave it out altogether. It’s tasty even without the pasta.
