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:
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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.
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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.
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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
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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. 😩
This meal well and truly surpassed my expectations! Hands down, I would be exceptionally happy if I had paid for this in an Italian restaurant. The only slight difference I made was to use my leftover poached chicken. Yum! 🤤
Made this last night for dinner and it was incredible! Accidentally forgot to add the bacon in but added the bacon when we reheated the leftovers for lunch today and it was even better
First time I made it my 25 yr old said “This is a contender for my Birthday dinner!” So it’s a winner in my house!
Even though it so hot here tonight, I happily sweated my way though a big bowl of this pasta. Totally cured my pregnancy craving. Thank you, Nagi
60+ year old male, not an experienced cook – will be coming back for more of this beauty!
Absolutely delicious!!
Wow. Wow. As many before have said, you never fail to impress! Thank you so much for the recipes, you’re such a life saver. I cook from scratch a lot more and have a greater repertoire mostly because of RecipeTin. Seriously! Book is also brilliant!
I made this last night, it was delicious
Loved how easy this recipe was to make, and yet still full of flavour 😋
Eaten by all, including 2 fussy young daughters! So that’s a win in my books 🙂
A great balance of savoury, tangy and creamy – delicious! I didn’t have chicken so used 220g of streaky bacon (cut into batons), 250g of pasta, and roast capsicum strips instead of sun dried tomatoes. Left out the butter since I’m intolerant (bacon cooked in own fat which I drained most off before adding wine). Used all other ingredients based on 4 serves, which resulted in 2 serves (since no chicken). Had to reduce sauce for 10 mins since there was less to coat. Amazing and easy, thanks Nagi!
Another winner of a recipe! I cooked the bacon first and used some of the rendered fat to cook the chicken in. Also added a bit of pesto and chopped basil to really amp up the flavour. So good!
Made this for a group of friends for dinner. I cooked a whole chicken in the morning and had the shredded chicken and everything ready for when my guests arrived. It was so easy and all ready in 10mins and the mix of brown and white chicken made it even tastier! 😋
Absolutely love this pasta!
One of my favourite recipes, I cook this whenever I’m trying to impress. My whole family loves this one.
Another awesome meal!! Worked perfectly. Added snow peas and a some broccoli to up the veg quota. Cooked the chicken in the bacon fat and added some of the oil off the sun dried tomatoes as you have suggested in another recipe. Thank you Nagi 🙂 you have been our go to meal planner for years
Absolutely delicious !!! And so easy peasy !!! I added some mushrooms ,avocado and the cooked bacon to the sauce. You could add any veg and it would be awesome too. Thanks so much for sharing.
Oh my goodness, the sauce is amazing. Subbed the toms for mushrooms as it’s what I had, and added some peas to feel a little better about having such a large bowl of pasta. Incredible!
Very yummy and not too heavy as I thought it would be. I cooked the bacon in the butter first for a minute, then added the garlic and continued on as per the recipe. Shredded chicken in the freezer made this even quicker. Thanks Nagi for a delicious recipe!
Delicious. Blanched spinach separately (not everyone in our household likes spinach) and a added a little chili powder for some “zing”.
Regularly coming back on the menu every few weeks.
Definately the best!!
Delicious as always Nagi! Didn’t use any bacon but yum as is.