Baked Feta Pasta with Lemon Pepper Chicken
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This Baked Feta Pasta is my spin on TikTok’s famous baked feta pasta recipe! To keep this low-carb and healthy, we substituted regular pasta for zucchini noodles and added lemon pepper chicken for protein. This recipe with feta cheese is super easy to make and very delicious.
What we love about this recipe is the simplicity and the flavor. Bake everything (minus the chicken, basil, and noodles) in the oven, then toss them together to make an irresistible, cheesy, garlicky tomato sauce. Y’all are going to love this spin-off recipe.
After trying out the original TikTok recipe, we made some small tweaks to make this low-carb, balanced, and saucy. We added more tomatoes, lemon juice, garlic, shallot, broccolini, and spices to the dish and then finished it with zucchini noodles and shredded lemon pepper chicken.
🥦 Ingredients
- Feta Cheese – We went with Mt Vikos Feta Cheese as it’s our favorite feta cheese. It’s fresh and has great flavor.
- Cherry or Grape Tomatoes – We tried both types of tomatoes, and both work out perfectly. Cherry tomatoes will make the sauce sweeter, which we prefer, but both tomatoes work well here.
- Olive Oil
- Seasoning: Salt, black pepper, dried basil, dried oregano, and red chili flakes
- Broccolini (or you can substitute spinach)
- Small Shallot (about 1 tsp minced) – this adds quite a bit of flavor, so if you only have a large shallot, use only a small piece and save the rest in the fridge.
- Garlic cloves – this is what makes the sauce yummy and garlicky
- Fresh Lemon Juice
- Yellow Squash and Zucchini – to make low-carb noodles
- Fresh basil leaves
- Parmesan cheese to serve
Lemon Pepper Chicken Marinade
- Chicken breasts
- Lemon juice and zest
- Olive oil
- Black pepper and salt
Instructions
Step 1: Make the yummy sauce: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Add tomatoes, broccolini, garlic, and shallot to a 9 x 13-inch baking pan and toss with the seasoning and olive oil. Place the block of feta cheese in the center and then bake for about 30-35 minutes until the tomatoes have burst and are nice and juicy.
Step 2: Make the pasta: Spiralize the zucchini and yellow squash into spaghetti noodles and cook them in salted boiling water to make the noodles tender. This process takes about 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water and set aside.
Step 3: Make the Lemon Pepper Chicken: Marinate 2 chicken breasts in 2 tbsp of olive oil, 2 tbsp of lemon juice, 1 tsp of lemon zest, 2 tsp of black pepper, and 1 tsp of salt for about 25 minutes. Transfer marinated chicken to a pan over medium heat, cook on 1 side for about 7 minutes and flip to continue cooking until doneness (about 5-7 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken breast). Remove from the pan, shred with two forks, and then transfer back to the pan to soak up any remaining juice.
Step 4: Putting it all together: Mix everything together once the tomatoes have burst and become juicy to make the yummy sauce. Add the shredded lemon pepper chicken and the zucchini noodles and toss to combine.
Step 5: Time to Serve: Add fresh basil and parmesan cheese on top before serving!
FAQs
How to reheat leftovers?
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Best the next day because the flavor tends to develop more overnight. Reheat in the oven, microwave, or stovetop, whichever way is easiest for you.
We recommend pairing this pasta with a Chardonnay. The spicy tomato sauce flavors pair nicely with a buttery glass of Chardonnay.
This Baked Feta Pasta with Lemon Pepper Chicken recipe only requires a few minutes of hands-on prep time, and then your oven and stovetop will do the rest of the work for you. Therefore, this is a simple recipe to make for busy nights! It’s super flavorful, low-carb friendly, balanced, and delicious! We hope you all love our spin-off recipe from the TikTok Original! Enjoy! ♡
Baked Feta Pasta with Lemon Pepper Chicken
- 7 oz block of feta cheese
- 1, ½ lb cherry or grape tomatoes
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp dried basil
- ½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ tsp salt and black pepper
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 small shallot about 1 tsp minced
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup broccolini sliced
- 3-4 zucchini and yellow squash made into spiralized noodles
- ½ cup fresh basil
- Parmesan cheese to serve
- 14 oz chicken breast
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp salt
- Make the yummy sauce: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Add tomatoes, broccolini, garlic, shallot to a 9 x 13-inch baking pan and toss together with the seasoning and olive oil. Place the block of feta cheese in the center and then bake for about 30-35 minutes until the tomatoes have burst and are nice and juicy.
- Make the pasta:Spiralize the zucchini and yellow squash into spaghetti noodles and cook them in salted boiling water to make the noodles tender. This process takes about 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water and set aside.
- Make the Lemon Pepper Chicken:Marinate 2 chicken breasts in 2 tbsp of olive oil, 2 tbsp of lemon juice, 1 tsp of lemon zest, 2 tsp of black pepper, and 1 tsp of salt for about 25 minutes.Transfer marinated chicken to a pan over medium heat and cook on 1 side for about 7 minutes and flip to continue cooking until doneness (about 5-7 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken breast). Remove from the pan and shred with two forks and then transfer back to the pan to soak up any remaining juice.
- Putting it all together:Once the tomatoes have burst and become juicy, mix everything together to make the yummy sauce. Add in the shredded lemon pepper chicken and the cooked zucchini noodles and toss to combine.
- Time to Serve: Add fresh basil and parmesan cheese on top before serving!
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