The sauce in Cheesy Chicken and Pasta has Parmesan cheese and cream cheese in it to make it creamy and cheesy. This delicious meal comes together quickly for a fast weeknight meal.
Cheesy Chicken Pasta is so good my son asked me to make it again tomorrow night. Believe me it’s very unusual for him to ask for the same dinner two nights in a row. What makes this so good? The sauce has Parmesan cheese and cream cheese in it to make it creamy and cheesy. The addition of lemon juice gives the sauce a very bright flavour while the pasta and chicken make it a hearty dinner. I used spinach to round the dish up with, you could steam some broccoli and add it to the pan instead of Spinach if you liked.
Cheesy Chicken Pasta comes together quickly which makes it the perfect easy weeknight dinner for busy momma’s and grandma’s. I love making Cheesy Chicken Pasta during the summer months when I can go out into the garden and pick fresh spinach and grab a red pepper from the garden. It’s so satisfying to be able to make a delicious dinner from my own fresh produce.
Cheesy Chicken and Pasta Ingredients:
- 8 ounces Penna Pasta
- 2 Thin boneless skinless chicken breast (about 12 ounces)
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 8 ounces fresh baby spinach
- 1 Tablespoon minced jarred garlic
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
- 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
- 2 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup pasta cooking water
- salt and pepper to taste
We start the recipe by cooking 8 ounces of Penne Pasta according to the package directions. After the pasta has cooked, save 1/4 cup of the water you cooked the pasta in, we’re going to use it in the recipe. Salt and pepper both sides of the thin boneless chicken breasts and set them aside. If you have regular chicken breasts that aren’t thin you can always pound them down to thin yourself by using a kitchen mallet. If you don’t have a mallet, (mine somehow disappeared) use the back of a metal soup ladle, it works like a charm in a pinch.
Place one Tablespoon of olive oil into a large saute pan. Place the thin chicken breast in the pan under medium to high heat. Cook the chicken until they are just done, which means no longer pink in the middle. Cooking the chicken isn’t going to take long at all. The chicken breasts are thin, it doesn’t take long for them to cook all the way through. And that’s all the longer they need to cook, they don’t have to be browned, just cooked through until they aren’t pink in the middle, we want them to be tender. After the chicken breasts are cooked through cut them into thin strips.
Add one tablespoon of olive oil to the same pan you cooked the chicken breast strips in. Don’t you love it, besides cooking the pasta this is the only other pan you have to wash. Add the garlic, red bell pepper and baby spinach to the pan. Saute until the spinach is wilted. Add the cooked pasta along with the reserved pasta water, the lemon juice, cream cheese , Parmesan cheese and chicken strips to the pan. Toss the ingredients together to coat them and until the cheese has melted. Voila, dinner is ready! Fast, easy and delicious, you can’t beat that combination. Cheesy Chicken and Pasta, it’s what’s for dinner and it’s delicious, Enjoy!
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Cheesy Chicken and Pasta
Ingredients
- 8 ounces Penne Pasta half a 16 oz box
- 2 thin boneless skinless chicken breast about 12 ozs
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil divided
- 8 ounces fresh baby spinach
- 1 Tablespoon minced jarred garlic
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese grated
- 2 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1/4 cup pasta cooking water
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Cook the penne pasta according to package directions, reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta water, set aside.
- Sat and pepper both sides of the boneless skinless chicken breast, set aside
- Add 1 Tablespoon of olive oil to a large saute pan or cast iron skillet. Heat to medium high heat. Place the boneless skinless chicken breast in the saute pan and cook until just done, (no longer pink inside). Remove from pan and thinly slice chicken breasts into strips.
- Using the same pan on medium to high heat, add the remaining 1 Tablespoon of oil. Add the garlic, red bell pepper and baby spinach to the pan, saute until spinach is wilted. Add the cooked pasta, the reserved pasta water, lemon juice, cream cheese ,Parmesan cheese and chicken strips to the pan. Toss to coat,cook until cheeses have melted. Serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.
Looking for more chicken recipes, try these from other bloggers…Tomato Spinach Skillet Dinner…Easy Italian Skillet Chicken
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Thanks for the recipe. It was very tasty. I had to laugh because my husband asked if we could have it tomorrow night too. The only changes I made were to add a couple of heaping spoonfuls of sour cream as mine needed a little more sauce and I used leftover rotisserie chicken instead of having to cook chicken.
Marilyn