A healthy twist on a family food favourite, this Easy Chicken Mince Bolognese is much lower in saturated fat and calories than a standard spaghetti bolognese, and packed full of goodness… but there’s no compromise on flavour – this chicken bolognese is just as delicious as a regular beef mince bolognese!
Can you make Bolognese with chicken mince?
Absolutely – and it’s delicious!
Making bolognese with chicken mince is a great ‘healthy swap’, since chicken mince is lower in saturated fat and calories than regular beef mince – this Chicken Mince Bolognese comes in at just 494 calories! (This chicken bolognese is also high in protein – there’s 39g protein in every serving!)
Better still, it’s ready in just 25 minutes, and it’s packed full of goodness from the chicken and vegetables.
And if you want to make this meal even healthier, you could use brown spaghetti instead of white!
How to make Chicken Mince Bolognese
This Chicken Mince Bolognese is so easy to make!
All you need to do is fry onions, carrots, celery, chicken mince and garlic in a little olive oil. Then add chopped tomatoes, chicken stock, tomato puree, oregano, soy sauce and black pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes, then serve with spaghetti, grated cheese and fresh basil. Easy peasy!
(Full recipe given in the recipe card below.)
What to serve with Chicken Mince Bolognese
This Chicken Mince Bolognese is delicious served on top of spaghetti – either the regular white kind, or wholemeal spaghetti.
You can also serve this easy chicken bolognese with any other type of pasta – I especially like it with fusilli or penne.
You could also add a simple salad and/or garlic bread if you want to add extra sides.
What to drink with Chicken Mince Bolognese
Chicken Bolognese goes equally well with red or white wine. I recommend a simple Chianti or Montepulciano d’Abruzzo if you prefer red. If you prefer white, Sauvignon Blanc works best.
Make it your own!
This Chicken Mince Bolognese is very easy to adapt. You could, for example…
- Use turkey or pork mince, instead of chicken mince
- Use Quorn mince, if you want this to be veggie
- Use leftover cooked chicken, instead of chicken mince (add the cooked chicken in at the same time as the chopped tomatoes)
- Use mushrooms and peppers, instead of the celery and carrot
- Add a tin of green or brown lentils to make the bolognese go further
- Use mixed Italian herbs, instead of the oregano/basil
- Use Worcestershire sauce, instead of the soy sauce
- Add a splash of red wine for extra flavour
- Use any shape of pasta you like!
- Use Cheddar, instead of Parmesan
What to do with leftover bolognese
Bolognese is one of those many, many recipes that actually tastes BETTER the next day, so a great make ahead option!
(I should add, I mean the bolognese sauce only, not the spaghetti! I would always recommend you cook the spaghetti right before you need it.)
Put any leftover (or ‘made ahead’) bolognese sauce in a lidded container and place in the fridge, where it will keep for up to 3 days.
To reheat, simply tip the sauce into a saucepan with a splash of water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes or until piping hot all the way through.
Alternatively reheat this bolognese sauce in the microwave until piping hot all the way through.
Can you freeze bolognese?
I don’t recommend you freeze the spaghetti – cook that fresh! But yes, the bolognese sauce freezes very well. In fact, I recommend you make double the quantity and freeze half for some time in the future when you are super short on time, but still want to eat well!
Simply put the cooked and cooled bolognese sauce into a lidded container and place it in the freezer, where it will keep for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight in the fridge and reheat as above.
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
Easy Chicken Mince Bolognese
Ingredients
- 300 g spaghetti white or brown (or any kind of pasta you like!)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion very finely diced (See Note 1)
- 1 small carrot very finely diced (See Note 1)
- 1 stick celery very finely diced (See Note 1)
- 500 g chicken mince
- 2 cloves garlic grated or crushed
- 400 g tin chopped tomatoes (Ideally one of the better quality brands, like Cirio or Napolina)
- 200 ml chicken stock (from a cube is fine – I use ½ a Kallo organic chicken stock cube, but ½ an Oxo Chicken stock cube also works well – See Note 2)
- 1 tablespoon tomato puree
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce (or Worcestershire sauce, if you prefer)
- Black pepper to taste (See Note 3)
- Grated parmesan or cheddar, to serve (optional)
- Fresh basil leaves as a garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Cook the spaghetti according to packet instructions / your own preferences. Drain when cooked.
- Meanwhile, place the olive oil, onions, carrots and celery in a large frying pan, with a lid on, over a low heat for 3 minutes, until softened but not brown. Stir occasionally.
- Turn the heat up and add the chicken mince, break up with a spatula and fry for 3 minutes, until lightly browned, stirring regularly.
- Turn the heat back down again and stir in the garlic. Fry for 1 minute, taking care not to burn the garlic.
- Add the chopped tomatoes, chicken stock, tomato puree, oregano, soy sauce and black pepper. (See Note 3.) Stir everything together and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down to medium and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Divide the spaghetti between 4 plates, top with the bolognese sauce and sprinkle over the grated cheese.
- Garnish with fresh basil leaves.
Notes
- Personally I prefer very finely diced onions, carrots and celery in this recipe (this is called a soffritto in Italian). But if you prefer you veggies chunkier, by all means cut them less finely. Alternatively, if you want to make life even easier for yourself, you can sometimes find ready chopped soffritto mix in the supermarket freezer section.
- I realise a recipe which uses half a stock cube is annoying! I would never normally do that, but I feel using a whole stock cube is too overpowering in this recipe. An easy fix for this problem is to make a double quantity of the sauce and freeze half!
- I only add black pepper, not salt, to this recipe as I feel the stock cube plus the soy sauce makes this salty enough, but feel free to add salt at this point too, if you wish.
- Suitable for freezing. (Bolognese sauce only.)
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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