Recipe: Slow Cooked Baked Ziti

If you weren’t already aware, I love my slow cooker, and it has been a life saver for me. So I am going to share with you as many recipes as I can, all tried and tested by yours truly, to save you some time and effort when cooking. This time it’s Baked Ziti!

I actually first heard of Baked Ziti in a Brooklyn 99 episode (the famous mumps episode featuring Balthazar and Penelope) but had no idea what it was or what went into it. Especially as Santiago completely tanked the recipe!

It’s actually an Italian pasta dish, and I think traditionally it has no meat in it, but I added chicken to mine (although you don’t have to, it works just as well without!)

If you decide to leave out the chicken, you only need to cook it for a couple of hours, and you can put the pasta in from the start – basically just put all the ingredients in (minus chicken stock), cook for 2-3 hours and then take out and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes to crisp it up. But for the meat-included recipe, see below. 

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How to make slow cooked baked ziti

Ingredients:

Can of chopped tomatoes

Two cups of chicken stock

Onion (two small or one large) diced 

Two cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp basil

1 tsp mixed herbs

2 bay leaves

2 chicken breasts, diced

2 cups of pasta (I use macaroni as it’s quite compact) 

Grated cheddar cheese 

Method:

For this recipe, put the herbs and chicken in the slow cooker, with the onions, garlic, tomatoes and chicken stock. Cook on low for 6 hours.

 Fish out the bay leaves and add the pasta and some of the cheese. Stir well and try to cover all the pasta with the sauce. Cook for an additional 2 hours (or out on high and cook for half an hour). 

Then put the oven on 180, and top the mixture with cheese before making in the oven for 10 minutes (or until the cheese is bubbling). 

If it is easier, you can put the pasta in from the beginning, and then add the cheese and bake when you’re ready to serve. But be aware, the pasta gets very mushy this way, so it may not taste as good to you. Personally I love it, but my other half wasn’t as much of a fan. So do it to your preference.

And if you don’t yet own a slow cooker I can definitely recommend this one, it’s the one I use and it hasn’t let me down yet!

Enjoy!!

If you want more recipes like this one, make sure to check out my recipes page!