Creamy and delicious pasta but without the guilt. My Skinny Creamy Chicken Sausage Pasta is full of flavour and lower in calories than you would expect!
Pasta is a food many people love for its versatility and speed. It can be used to make so many tasty dishes. Some of the most delicious pasta dishes can be quite calorific which isn’t ideal if you are trying to eat more healthily.
Growing up I didn’t really enjoy eating pasta. A lot of the time my Mum made it for us as a quick meal when we were children. A lot of the time this was pasta with a tomato based sauce which wasn’t my idea of a tasty meal. Then when I went to uni, unlike most of the people I knew, I still didn’t eat much pasta at all.
Since then I have realised that there are so many really tasty dishes you make with pasta and these definitely don’t come out of a jar. I know jars of pasta sauce are really popular, but they tend to have quite a lot of sugar in them as well as not being the healthiest option.
My Skinny Creamy Chicken Sausage Pasta is a great way of getting your pasta fix and even enjoying a delicious and creamy sauce, but with fewer calories. Would you believe me if I told you this recipe comes in at less than 450 calories per portion? For a pasta dish with a creamy sauce and meat, I think that is pretty good! And the really good thing about it is that it doesn’t taste ‘healthy’. It tastes like it is an indulgent, rich and creamy pasta dish.
I have used HECK Chicken Italia Sausages for this recipe. I am a bit obsessed with HECK sausages and eat them frequently due to them being low in calories and great taste. This isn’t a HECK sponsored post, I just really like them. If you don’t want to use them, you can use another type of chicken sausage or leave them out completely.
I used frozen basil in this recipe because my and fresh basil don’t seem to be friends. I like it, but it goes limp on me and dies. Because of this I don’t tend to buy it fresh very often because it doesn’t always last as long as I want it to. This is why frozen basil is a great freezer staple for me. It doesn’t pack as much flavour as fresh basil, but I think it is great to have.
The secret of this being lower in calorie is really down to the sauce. You wouldn’t think cream a few tablespoons of cream cheese, some milk and flour could make a sauce this creamy, but they can! Parmesan is also a great calorie saver as it has far less calories than other cheeses such as cheddar. It also has a strong flavour so you need less to achieve a cheesy flavour.
You can use any shape of dried or fresh pasta for this recipe, it really is up to you. Personally I like to use a pasta shape that will help catch the tasty creamy sauce, like conchiglie. Plus they look pretty too!
For other healthy pasta dishes, check out my Ravoli Lasagne , Skinny Chicken Pasta Bake and Skinny Chicken Fajita Pasta.
Serves 4
300g pasta
350g HECK Chicken Italia sausages, de-skinned
½ tsp sunflower oil
3 tbsp low fat cream cheese
1 tbsp plain flour
80ml semi skimmed milk
250ml chicken stock
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp frozen or dried basil
pinch of black pepper
20g parmesan, grated
- Cook the pasta as per the packet’s instructions
- Remove the casing from the sausages and split each sausage into roughly four pieces. Roll each piece between your palms to make little balls
- Heat the oil in a frying pan on a medium high heat and add the sausage. Cook until crisp and brown on the outside and cooked through
- Remove the sausage from the pan and set aside
- Mix the cream cheese, milk and flour together in a mini food processor
- Turn the pan onto a low heat and add the cream cheese mix to the pan along with the stock and whisk to combine. It will look a little lumpy, but keep whisking and it will come together. Keep whisking until it thickens slightly
- Add the salt, pepper, garlic powder and basil and stir through
- Add the sausage back to the pan and add the drained pasta
- Stir through and allow everything to heat through for a couple of minutes
- Add the grated parmesan, stir through and serve
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This dish looks lovely, simple to make and delicious, and I really like the ‘healthy’ twist by using low fat ingredients. Thank you for bringing it to #CookBlogShare:)
Thank you 🙂
Hello Cat, what a great recipe to encourage more people to cook fresh food! We had a conversation about jars of sauce this week which included watching a very old advert with a catchy tune (I feel like…. )! Oh and I’m totally with you on the basil – even the plant on the allotment didn’t survive! Thanks so much for sharing and linking up with Fiesta Friday this week.
So many people used jarred sauces for pasta and things like chilli con carne. I’ve never really understood it as cooking from scratch is so easy and tastes so much better! Haha I’m glad I’m not the only one that basil plants die for!
this looks delicious Cat . I love how it is a skinny pasta dish and yet it looks like it should not be! x
Thanks, it doesn’t taste like it’s a skinny recipe either!x
OH, yes. The pasta I remember from childhood and the pasta I’ve enjoyed as an adult: two ENTIRELY different animals. (Long story short: I also was not a fan as a kid.) I have a favorite chicken sausage here in the states that I know would work well for this recipe. I’m stoked that it’s so low in calories! This is totally happening in my house—soon!!!
Haha I am glad I’m not the only one! Hope you enjoy it 🙂