🫒🧀🍗 Mediterranean Chicken Feta Pasta Bake provides depth of flavor galore, thanks to the juicy baked chicken with crispy skin and tender pasta! The sauce is a mixture of melted feta cheese and crushed tomatoes, red peppers, kalamata olives, white wine, garlic, and more! You’ll be sure to IMPRESS everyone with this next-level tasting recipe that’s EASY to make!
This Mediterranean-inspired baked chicken recipe features layers and layers of briny, savory goodness. Despite a semi-long list of ingredients and directions, I promise this is a very doable and approachable weeknight recipe that you can have ready in 45 minutes.
Or if you want to serve this at your next get-together with your friends or another couple, I promise everyone will be very impressed! It serves 4 perfectly, although you can double the recipe if you’re cooking for a bigger group.
Recipe Tip
Make sure to plan ahead and mix up the spice rub and let that sit on your chicken for at least 2 hours for the most optimal tasting results.
Recipe Ingredients
For this Mediterranean-inspired recipe with crispy chicken skin, pasta sauce, and bowtie pasta, you’ll need the following easy-to-find and common fridge and pantry ingredients:
- Skin-on bone-in chicken thighs – The best option for crispy skin and tender meat is bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. Boneless thighs with skin also work well. Boneless skinless chicken breasts (with or without bone/skin) are fine but lean, so bake for less time to avoid drying out. If using skinless chicken, sear for 2–3 minutes to help seal in moisture, even though there’s no skin to crisp
- Olive oil – Avocado oil will also work
- Veggies – White or yellow onion, red pepper, serrano chile pepper, garlic, whole cherry tomatoes. If you have Roma tomatoes on hand, they will be fine. I would use two tomatoes, cubed into large bite-sized chunks
- Lemon zest and lemon juice – Always zest your lemon before you juice it. And make sure to only take off and use the outermost lemon peel. Do not use the white pith because it’s bitter
- Reduced sodium chicken broth – I always use reduced sodium broth rather than regular because I can always add more salt at the end if I feel like it needs it. As the chicken bakes, and the broth evaporates and concentrates, it will taste saltier, which is another reason I opt for lower-sodium chicken broth to begin with
- Dry white wine, optional but recommended – I recommend using a dry white wine such as chardonnay, pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc, or something similar. Do not use a sweet wine
- Feta cheese – Use full-fat feta cheese rather than reduced-fat or fat-free feta because full-fat melts much better. I use feta that I cube, but I suppose full fat feta crumbles will also work since you’re stirring this together in the end anyway
- Pitted kalamata olives – These add an essential briny, umami flavor that makes this dish truly Mediterranean, so don’t skip them! I use pitted black kalamata olives for ease. I haven’t tested green olives and can’t say how they work. If you’re not into olives, try one of my other pasta recipes below instead
- Bowtie pasta – You can use other small shape pasta such as ziti, rotini, penne, or fusilli. You can also use long pasta like spaghetti or fettuccine. I wouldn’t use anything too thin, like angel hair or capellini, as it won’t stand up very well to the sauce and will get mushy
- Reserved pasta water – Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water to use in case you need to thin out the mashed red pepper, olive, and feta sauce that you make. Based on how it looks and your preferences, you may or may not need the reserved pasta water
- Fresh parsley, optional for garnishing
Note: All ingredients amounts are listed in the recipe card section when you keep scrolling down.
How to Make Chicken Feta Pasta Bake
Recipe Tip
Making these saucy pasta and crispy skin juicy chicken isn’t difficult in the least!
However, make sure you read the recipe over at least once in its entirety before beginning so you have a mental map of where you’re going and what comes next.
Let’s make crispy chicken with a Mediterranean twist! Follow these straightforward steps.
Step 1: Mix together the salt, pepper, chili powder, and smoked paprika. Score the chicken skin, rub with the spice mix, cover, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (up to overnight). Let sit at room temp 20–30 minutes before cooking.
Step 2: Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven or braising pan. Sear chicken skin-side down until browned, then remove and set aside.
Step 3: Add more olive oil, then sauté onions, red pepper, and optional serrano for 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 more minute. Stir in lemon zest, lemon juice, cumin, thyme, broth, and wine.
Step 4: Return chicken to the pan, add feta, cherry tomatoes, and olives, and bake for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, boil pasta and reserve some pasta water.
Step 5: Remove chicken from the pan. Mash feta, tomatoes, and veggies into a sauce, thinning with pasta water if needed. Toss pasta in the sauce, top with chicken, bake 5 more minutes, then garnish with parsley and serve.
What to Serve with This Recipe
Storing Leftover Baked Feta and Chicken Pasta
This comfort food baked chicken recipe with pasta will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days or in your freezer for up to 4 months.
The pasta may continue to absorb some of the red pepper-based sauce, so it may appear you have less sauce when you open your container of leftovers! Pasta has a way of doing that. And if it happens, the pasta will be on the softer side, rather than al dente.
Mediterranean Chicken Feta Pasta FAQs
The 1/2 cup of white wine in the sauce adds such a great depth of flavor and richness to the overall dish. The alcohol content burns off in the cooking and baking process, and what you’re left with is an elegant and wonderful tasting sauce.
However, if you don’t want to use wine, you can omit it. And instead use an additional 1/2 cup reduced sodium chicken broth.
For us, this pasta bake recipe isn’t overtly spicy but there’s definitely lots of robust flavor going on! Between the feta, olives, chili powder, and smoked paprika, this is a big and bold dish in the flavor department.
I do call for a serrano chili pepper that’s deseeded. Serranos are spicier than jalapenos. However, you’re flavoring a hefty quantity of chicken, pasta, and sauce so the flavor is diluted and dispersed. However, if you’re concerned about the dish reading spicy, use half of a serrano chile, or simply omit it.
The chicken bakes together in your skillet with cubed feta, cherry tomatoes, whole kalamata olives, red peppers, onions, serrano chiles, and garlic. After baking for 20 minutes the feta melts and the vegetables will be soft and you can mash them together easily to create this easy sauce-in-a-pan. This sauce then serves to coat the pasta.
However, I suppose if you don’t want to mash them and want to keep them as soft-but-intact, that’s fine too. Although note that the pasta won’t have much sauce to be coated with and you may want to drizzle additional olive oil over the finished dish.
Mediterranean Chicken Feta Pasta Bake
Equipment
- 1 Small Bowl
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, regular paprika may be substituted
- 4 skin-on bone-in chicken thighs*
- 4 to 6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- ½ cup white or yellow onion, finely diced
- ½ of a medium red pepper, seeded and diced small
- 1 serrano chile pepper, seeded and finely minced; optional**
- 3 to 5 cloves garlic, finely minced
- Zest from 1 lemon
- Lemon juice from 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ cup reduced sodium chicken broth
- ½ cup dry white wine, optional but recommended***
- 8 ounces full fat feta cheese, cubed (do not use low fat or fat free feta because it doesn’t melt well)
- ¾ cup whole cherry or grape tomatoes, 2 Roma tomatoes, diced in large bite-sized pieces may be substituted
- ½ cup pitted kalamata olives, no substitutions
- 8 ounces bowtie pasta****
- ½ cup reserved pasta water, for possible use
- Fresh parsley or basil, finely minced; optional for garnishing
Instructions
Dry Rub
- To a small bowl, add the salt, pepper, chili powder, smoked paprika, and stir to combine.
- Score the skin side tops of the chicken thighs, making about 6 slits on each piece.
- Evenly distribute the spice rub onto each of the 4 pieces of chicken, and rub it in.
- Place chicken in an airtight container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight if desired.
- About 20 to 30 minutes before you plan to begin cooking the chicken, remove it from the fridge and allow it to sit on the counter to warm up a bit.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
Searing Chicken
- To a large, oven-safe, high-sided skillet, Dutch oven, or similar braising pot, add 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil, add the chicken skin-side down, and sear over medium-high heat for about 3 minutes. Tip – While the chicken is searing, don't move it, disturb it, or check on it. Just let it be. Remove it from the skillet and set aside.
Sauteing Vegetables
- Add 1 to 2 tablespoons additional olive oil, and add the onions, red peppers, optional serranos, and saute over medium-high heat for about 3 minutes; stir frequently.
- Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute; stir continuously.
- Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, cumin, thyme, white wine, and stir to combine. Caution – The liquids will likely bubble up and steam quite vigorously right after you add them for a second or two. Just be careful so you're not caught off guard with a facefull of very hot steam.
Baking
- Add the chicken back into the skillet, and evenly sprinkle in the feta, cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, place the skillet in the oven, and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Tips – Start boiling your pasta (step 12) while chicken bakes! And I recommend checking the temperature with a digital thermometer. Chicken thighs are done with the meat (don't touch the bone) is at an internal temp of 175F. The temp will also continue to rise, off the heat, due to carryover cooking.
Boiling Pasta
- While the chicken is baking, cook your pasta according to package directions, minus 2 minutes, because it will continue to cook more in the sauce and you don't want it to be overcooked. For example – If the directions say boil 11 minutes for al dente, you actually only need to boil it for 9 minutes.
- Drain pasta but reserve 1/2 to 3/4 cup pasta water for your sauce later on should you need the pasta water. Note – I don't rinse pasta, but you can if you think it helps prevent sticking. I personally add a tablespoon of olive oil to my boiling water for anti-sticking.
- After chicken has baked and is done, remove the skillet from the oven, and remove the chicken pieces and set them on a plate.
Mashing to Make the Sauce
- Mash and stir together the remaining ingredients in the skillet – the feta, tomatoes, red peppers, olives, etc. I use a fork but you can use a potato masher.
- Depending on how the sauce looks to you, add some pasta water. Tip – 1/2 cup should be plenty, but you can add a bit more if you think it needs it.
Assembly
- Add the cooked pasta and toss to combine.
- Add the chicken back in and return the skillet to the oven for 5 minutes, or until everything is nicely warmed through.
- Taste the dish and if you think it needs it, add more salt, pepper, a sprinkling of red chili flakes for heat, etc.
- Optionally (but recommended), garnish with fresh herbs and serve immediately. Leftovers will keep airtight for up to 5 days in the fridge or up to 4 months in the freezer. Tip – The pasta may continue to absorb some of the sauce so it may appear you have less sauce when you open your container of leftovers. Pasta has a way of doing this. And if it happens, the pasta will be on the softer side, rather than al dente.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Where does the Thyme and Cumin come into play? It’s listed as an ingredient but doesn’t appear to be in any of the steps. Thanks!
Sorry about that omission (I updated the recipe card) but they come into play with the veggies when you’re adding the lemon juice, in that section. Hope you enjoy the dish!
Cant find the pasta recipie using orecchiette chicken and bacon ,bacon
PLEASE SEND !!!
That doesn’t sound familiar from my site sorry. I think you may have me confused with another website.
If you click on the magnifying glass icon at the top of your screen and type in: chicken pasta
Tons of recipes come up and you can see what I have.