Easy Chicken Mince Bolognese

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!

Course Main Course, Pasta

Cuisine British, Fusion, Italian

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 20

Total Time 25

Servings people

Calories 494kcal

Author Eb Gargano

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)

Metric - US Customary

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.

Nutrition