Turn leftover roast chicken into a chicken-and-bacon pasta bake

There are lots of things we can do with leftover chicken, such as the one I roasted yesterday, and I’m on a mission to share as many recipes with you for what to do with those leftovers as I can.

So much so, in fact, that my habit is to purposefully choose a larger chicken than I need, just so that I can have fun the next day coming up with another solution for all that leftover meat that I accidentally-on-purpose bought too much of.

At the very least, there’s your simple chicken mayonnaise to fill sandwiches with, or serving chicken mayo as part of a larger salad. It can become the base of this autumnal chicken salad, be given a new lease of life in coronation chicken or be turned into a pie filling, 

Cooked chicken that has been refrigerated safely (for a maximum of four days) can be reheated, as long as its internal temperature is not below 74°C once the new dish has been cooked.

The dish I came up with this week was something that looked much like macaroni cheese, but wasn’t. The only cheese involved was a generous sprinkling of grated Pecorino Romano on top before baking.

This is a chicken and bacon pasta bake. As well as about two cups’ worth of cooked chicken (when cut into small pieces), there was fried bacon, fried onion, a béchamel sauce made with a bay leaf and rosemary sprigs, and simple seasoning.

You could switch it up in a number of ways: add some crumbled blue cheese perhaps; throw in a little chilli in some form, add a cupful of fried courgette slices, or just use your imagination. But I liked the simplicity of it as described below.

The substance of the bake, other than the pasta and core ingredients, was an enhanced béchamel sauce (that is, with bay and rosemary added). 

The pasta I used was elbow macaroni, because the shape pleases me.

Tony’s leftover chicken and bacon pasta bake

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

2 cups (or more) of leftover chicken, cubed or shredded

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

200 g diced bacon

1 medium onion, sliced

2 cups cooked elbow macaroni

200 g mascarpone cheese

½ cup grated Pecorino Romano

Salt and black pepper to taste

Butter for greasing the baking dish

For the béchamel:

500 ml full-cream milk

1 bay leaf

3 rosemary sprigs

3 grindings of nutmeg

Salt and black pepper to taste

4 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp flour

Method

Presuming that the cooked chicken you have has been refrigerated safely, remove it from the fridge and keep it covered while you set about the following:

Note that you’re working with two pans/pots at the same time to start with. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan (I used the base of a Le Creuset buffet). Also pour the milk into a saucepan, add the bay leaf and rosemary sprigs, and put it on a medium heat for it to come almost to the boil while you cook the bacon and onions. Be very watchful of the milk, and turn it off just as it starts to bubble at the edges of the pot.

Meanwhile, add the bacon to the other pan. Fry it, tossing it around with a wooden spoon until it’s nice and crisp all over.

Add a little more olive oil and the sliced onion. Cook, stirring, until the onion has softened and taken on some colour here and there. Set aside.

Turn the oven on to 200°C.

Put a large pot of water on a high heat, bring it to a boil and add the elbow macaroni. Stir it immediately to prevent the pasta sticking together. (Always do this when cooking pasta – if your pasta always clumps together, that is why.) Keep an eye on the pot so that the pasta does not overcook.

To the béchamel, add a few grindings of nutmeg, and salt and black pepper. Don’t get carried away, it doesn’t need much seasoning. Remove the bay leaf and leave the béchamel to one side for the rosemary to infuse.

In a second saucepan (large enough to hold all the béchamel sauce) melt the butter, turn off the heat, add the flour and stir it briskly to form a roux.

After 10 minutes (for the rosemary to infuse) pour a little of the hot milk into the pan containing the roux at a time, stirring continuously while each addition of milk is incorporated. Continue until all the heated milk has been added and the béchamel has thickened. Stir in the mascarpone, heat through and turn off the heat again once the mascarpone has been incorporated.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain it through a colander and return it to the pasta pot (you’re going to mix the other ingredients into it shortly).

But first deal with the cooked chicken. Take all the flesh off the bones and discard all the bones, skin and sundry cartilage. Dice or shred the chicken meat and add it to the cooked macaroni in the pasta pot.

Add the onions and bacon, the béchamel, and fold to combine – you need a light hand so that the pasta does not break up.

Grease a 2-litre (or so) oven-proof baking dish with butter.

Spoon everything into it and spread it neatly to fill the dish.

Grate the Pecorino Romano over, evenly.

Bake in the preheated 200°C oven for about 45 minutes, or until the topping has turned golden in places.

If you like, serve it with a side salad, but I think it’s perfectly fine as a simple weeknight meal in its own right. And if there are only two of you, it can always become breakfast too. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023

Order Tony’s book, foodSTUFF, here.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed on a plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.