Who doesn’t love a one pot dinner? This recipe was born from the need for more quick, easy, and healthy dinner recipes. You should see more of these coming in the future because we are pretty busy over here. I won’t compromise our family dinners, those will always happen. But sometimes, it’s gotta be fast!
The last few weeks my CSA box has been a perfect representation of the changing of seasons. I open my box and see tomatoes and summer squash along side butternut squash. So this recipe uses summer squash, but if you prefer an autumn vegetable, go ahead and switch it out for whatever your favorite vegetable is that cooks somewhat quickly.
I’m pretty sure the one pot pasta dish was popularized by Martha herself. Who knew Mrs. Stewart could be so time-conscious? I thought everything she did was time-consuming. Ha!
Anyway, this pasta is the best. One pot. The pasta boils in chicken (or vegetable) stock, along with the veggies, and creates a lovely, flavorful dish. 
Once the pasta and vegetables are cooked, you stir in the cooked chicken, spinach, lemon, and parmesan and you are good to go. 
This is a great dish for leftover cooked chicken. It’s also great for those of you who are good meal-preppers and do things like cook chicken ahead of time. You rock. Sometimes I am good at preparing things ahead of time, but often I am not. I simply started poaching my chicken breasts at the beginning of the process and they were ready in plenty of time.
Even if you aren’t starting with cooked chicken this is a super fast dinner, but with cooked chicken, we’re talking less than 20 minutes to get this dinner on the table! It’s healthy, easy, and tastes unbelievably good. I hope you love it as much as I do!
This is really simple to make vegetarian, as well. All you need to do is leave out the chicken, use vegetable stock, and add a little more of the vegetables. Easy!
One Pot Lemon Parmesan Pasta
One Pot Lemon Parmesan Pasta is a quick, easy and tasty weeknight meal
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 - 8 servings 1x
- Category: main meal
- Cuisine: Italian / American
Ingredients
- 12 ounces small shell pasta, preferably whole grain
- 1 1/2 pounds summer squash, sliced and then cut in half or quarters, depending on the size of your squash
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 heaping tablespoon fresh thyme
- 1–2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 4 1/2 cups chicken stock (if you are buying your chicken stock in a 4 cup size, just add 1/2 cup of water)
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
- juice and zest from 1 large lemon
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
Instructions
- In a large stock pot, add the pasta, summer squash, garlic, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper, and chicken stock and stir well.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, and boil until the pasta and squash are cooked, about 8-9 minutes, stirring often during the cooking time. All of the liquid will not be evaporated, which is good and what you want.
- Next, stir in the spinach, chicken, lemon juice and zest, and parmesan cheese.
- Taste and add more salt if necessary. Enjoy!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 of 8 servings
- Calories: 338
- Sugar: 5.4g
- Sodium: 522mg
- Fat: 6.6g
- Carbohydrates: 42.5g
- Protein: 34.3g
Keywords: lemon chicken pasta
HippyMom Elizabeth says
September 30, 2014 at 8:37 amI made a similar dish last week for the family…yum
Maryea says
September 30, 2014 at 1:40 pmGood stuff! 🙂
Jess Benoit says
May 12, 2016 at 11:17 pmThis looks ah-freakin’-mazing!! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe with us!
Maryea says
May 13, 2016 at 6:30 amYou’re welcome!
Courtney says
May 30, 2016 at 6:59 pmTo save time, is it possible to put the chicken in raw like in your one-pot spinach artichoke pasta chicken recipe?
Maryea says
May 31, 2016 at 7:35 amYes! I have done that with this recipe, so I should probably update it. Thanks for the reminder. 🙂
Courtney says
June 4, 2016 at 7:25 pmThanks so much for your reply! I did make it putting the chicken in uncooked, tuned out perfectly! I had tons of basil on hand so I substituted that for the thyme, went so nicely with the lemon. Will definitely make it again, thank you!
Maryea says
June 4, 2016 at 7:53 pmOooh basil sounds perfect! I had basil with pasta tonight–one of my faves!
Melissa Aubin says
September 25, 2016 at 11:31 amMaking meals from garden fresh veggies for my freezer. My 3 yr old smelled it and wanted some so I gave her some for lunch. She loved it. A little less in the freezer but a very healthy lunch. Can’t complain. Yummy
Maryea says
September 26, 2016 at 6:13 amYay! Glad to hear this, Melissa. 🙂