Meet the chicken pasta recipe of your dreams! Creamy Chicken Alfredo with sun dried tomato, spinach and bacon, you’ll love how the seasoned shredded chicken acts like a mop for the alfredo sauce. A quick 20 minute dinner!
Chicken Pasta recipe – loaded!
This is the pasta you make when you’ve had a bad day and you need a pick me up.
This is the pasta you make when you’ve had a great day, and want to finish on a high note.
This is the pasta you make when you need a quick dinner that everyone will devour.
And this is the pasta that you make just because there are few things in this world that can rival the feeling of complete and utter satisfaction as you slurp down a big bowl of creamy chicken pasta!
What you need
Here’s what you need. Just a quick note on a few of the items:
Wine – the secret ingredient! Wine gives the sauce that extra little something-something that gives the creamy Alfredo Sauce a restauaranty edge. If we’re going to make a luxe creamy pasta, let’s do it right! Non alcoholic sub – more chicken broth.
Parmesan – make sure it’s either freshly grated OR use the store bought finely shredded parmesan that looks like small thin batons. Do not use the store bought sand-like parmesan, it doesn’t melt properly in the sauce.
Sun Dried Tomato – you can skip this if you want, but it does give this pasta recipe an extra little za-za-zoom! I use the healthy no-oil strips, but you can absolutely use the type sold in jars in oil.
You’ll love how the seasoned shredded chicken acts like a mop for the creamy alfredo sauce!
Shredding the chicken is not something I’ve done for pastas I’ve previously shared. It works really well for this chicken pasta because the creamy sauce kind of clings to the chicken, making the overall eating experience even juicier and more slurp-worthy (if that were possible! 😂).
Quick 20 minute chicken dinner
This is terrifically quick and easy to make with a nice flow to it. Cook the chicken while the pasta cooking water comes to the boil. Then make the sauce while the pasta is cooking.
You’ll have dinner on the table in 20 minutes, and plates mopped clean minutes thereafter. How good is that??! ~ Nagi x
PS If you’re worried that this is a bit more indulgent that your usual midweek pasta, don’t let that stop you. It’s totally worth it – and you can eat air for dinner tomorrow 😉
More creamy pasta recipes
Fettuccine Alfredo – classic fettuccine with Alfredo sauce
Watch how to make it
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Chicken Pasta recipe of your dreams!
Ingredients
- 300g / 10 oz fettuccine (Note 1)
- 30g / 2 tbsp butter , separated
- 2 chicken breasts , cut in half horizontally
- 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1/2 cup (125ml) dry white wine (sub more chicken broth)
- 1/2 cup (125ml) chicken stock / broth , low sodium
- 1 1/4 cups (315ml) cream , thickened / heavy (Note 2)
- 3/4 cup (75g) parmesan , finely shredded (Note 3)
- 70g / 2.5oz baby spinach
- 100 g / 3oz sun dried tomato strips (Note 4)
Serving:
- 120g / 4oz bacon , cooked and crumbled
- More parmesan
- Parsley , for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Cook pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water for time per packet minus 1 1/2 minutes.
- Just before draining, scoop out a mugful of pasta cooking water. Then drain pasta.
Chicken:
- Sprinkle both sides of chicken with salt and pepper.
- Melt half the butter in a large skillet over hig heat.
- Add chicken and cook for 2 minutes on each side until deep golden.
- Remove chicken onto plate, rest for a few minutes then shred with 2 forks.
Alfredo Sauce:
- Turn down heat to medium high. In the same skillet, add remaining butter and garlic.
- Cook garlic for 30 seconds until golden, then add wine.
- Simmer rapidly, stirring to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Once mostly evaporated, add chicken broth, cream, parmesan and sun dried tomato.
- Simmer on medium for 3 – 5 minutes, stirring leisurely, until it reduces and thickens.
Essential Tossing:
- Add spinach, chicken and cooked pasta.
- Toss for 1 1/2 – 2 minutes on the stove, until sauce thickens and coats the pasta strands (see VIDEO). Use pasta cooking water if needed if it gets too thick.
- Serve immediately with parmesan, crumbled bacon and parsley (if desired).
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Another weekend of fun at Rick Stein’s Bannisters in Port Stephens! The RecipeTin Family took our mother up for a belated Mother’s Day weekend away. This photo was taken from outside her room – top floor, stunning views, huge sunny terrace and an extra large room.
In fact, everyone stayed up in the “good” rooms while I was relegated to the a ground floor room for easy pooping access to the lawn for Dozer. 😩
Absolutely delicious recipe! I imagine it would be every bit as good with shrimp.
Definitely Kathy!
Cooked this dish twice now, and it’s the most delicious pasta I’ve ever had!!
Awesome Brooke, I’m so happy you love it – N x
Can you substitute Parmesan with Mozzarella as im going to try this tonight and have no Parmesan Thanks
Hi Eddie, It won’t quite work as well unfortunately as mozzarella is very stringy and isn’t as flavourful as parmesan. Do you have any Tasty/Cheddar cheese available?
Made this tonight and it was a hit with the family! Definitely making this again and again. Your recipes are awesome!!
Thanks so much Jay Jay!!
Just made this!! It was awesome! I used part half n half part whole milk instead of cream. All cream may be a little unecessarily heavy.
I find it makes it super luscious, but you could definitely sub!
Made this last night and it was absolutely delicious. I used penne pasta, added some sliced baby Bella mushrooms and used Asiago, Parmesan and Mozzarella cheese. This will definitely be added to the rotation for pasta dishes. Thank you!
Can I use white cooking wine?
Sure could Megan, I hope you love it!
I made it tonight and added bacon bits instead of bacon it self it wasn’t bad it could’ve been better with real bacon.
You can’t go past real bacon!
This is just the best pasta dish I have ever eaten, my husband said it was restaurant quality and will definitely be making again and again
Thanks so much Sue, I’m so glad it was a hit!
Absolutely loved this dish and its one of those dishes you cant eat enough of ❤
I’m so glad I found your facebook page loving all your receipes thank you so much dinner is so easy now
I’m so glad you found me Debbie, I truly love hearing what people think of my recipes ❤️
Hi from Texas. Just wondering if you do any food that is low in fat? I need to lose some weight and all of your food looks so good, but I know the calories add up. Thanks, Laura
Yes! Here’s my low cal recipe collection 🙂 https://salesdock.info/category/dietary/low-calorie-recipes/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Hello! Will this work with chicken thigh fillets instead of breast?
Hi Ash, sure could – just adjust the cook time accordingly as they may need a little longer is kept whole ❤️
This was outstanding! Everyone in my family loved it…even my son that doesn’t eat Alfredo. I used farfalle since that is what I had on hand and it worked well.
That’s so great to hear BWJ! You’ve converted him!
Your notes say to use dried pasta rather than fresh. I typically make fresh pasta and am wondering why it doesn’t work well with this dish? Is it simply the time factor?
Hi Christiane! It’s because this pasta needs to be tossed well in the creamy sauce to make it stick to the pasta rather than sitting in a watery pool in the pan. I find that fresh pasta doesn’t hold up as well to the tossing required for creamy sauces like this. 🙂 Any non creamy recipe on my site is terrific with fresh pasta! PS I’m jealous, I wish I could say I make my own pasta all the time 🙂 N xx
Everyone raved about this last night. Definitely a keeper and will be on high rotation in our household.
That’s great to hear Mary!
Hi! I know, I know, I’m a total weirdo. But I don’t like bacon. Would this dish be compromised too much if I left it off? Thanks!
I don’t know how I feel about that Cheryl 😂 but you could definitely leave it out it you prefer ❤️
Hi Nagi, This recipe was delicious. We so enjoyed. But, sadly my daughter couldn’t even eat it. She suffers from Migraines & Parmesan Cheese is a definite no no for triggering Migraines. Could you possibly suggest another type of Cheese? I know there’s no substitute for Parmesan but I thought maybe Bocconcini or Mozzarella would make it even creamier?
Hi Carole, oh no that’s such a shame! I’d recommend any strong flavoured cheese that she can tolerate, even cheddar/tasty cheese would be a great sub ❤️
Hi Nagi,
Is that 887cal per serve or kilojoules? I’m hoping kilojoules lol.
Ps. Making this tonight.
Thank you for your amazing recipes, I’m am hooked!!!
Regards, Lisa
Hi Nagi. Another fabulous dish. Thank you. Made pretty much as is however used gluten free pasta and made the meat/veggies ahead of time. Flavours were wonderful.
Oh no! I ruined it!! I didn’t read about cooking the white wine down and I added mushrooms (didn’t account for that water) so it ended up watery!! Amazing flavor, but watery. I’m never attempting to adjust any of your recipes ever again! Please forgive me!!! 😭
Hey Nagi! This looks like another gorgeous recipe. A friend recently introduced me to low carb (& keto) thinking. To my understanding basically we have it all wrong for weightloss and we need to be eating MORE fats (healthy ones e.g. cream, avocado, fat on meats) to feel full and less carbs, NOT counting calories and eating low-fat!
A lot of your recipes tick the low carb box fabulously e.g. parmesan crusted cauli etc, but I am wondering if you can possibly look into doing more high fat low carb recipes?
I have found dietdoctor.com very helpful if u want a better understanding than I can give!
I hope I haven’t opened a can of worms, I am just genuinely seeking more great Nagi recipes that I can enjoy!
Thank you once again for all the time and effort you put into each and evey recipe Nagi. I would truly be lost without you!
Yes she’s going to start catering personally to your diet.
lol
I’ve decided against keto actually. Can’t face missing out on all of Nagi’s recipes for the rest of my life!
Ps I hadn’t read any other comments before I posted mine, just in case anyone thinks i was taking a potshot 😉