Creamy Tuscan Chicken Pasta packed with spinach, sundried tomatoes, garlic, and lots of cheese. Make this restaurant quality dish in under 30 minutes with minimal prep and clean-up!
Need to make a quick yet delicious meal that your family can enjoy? Try this Tuscan Chicken Pasta recipe. It is an easy meal to make that will taste like you were slaving over the stove for hours.
The dish’s chicken is moist and full of flavor because of the added ingredients, including the sun-dried tomatoes, heavy cream, and parmesan cheese. It is the perfect pasta dish to make when you want something different from your usual spaghetti and meatballs or fettuccine alfredo.
What You’ll Need to Make the Tuscan Chicken Pasta
If you would like to make the Tuscan Chicken Pasta, you will need to have the following ingredients in your kitchen:
- Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast. It is always best to use chicken breast without the skin or bone when preparing this pasta dish.
- Penne Pasta. The penne pasta adds a great touch to the dish and holds onto the flavor of other ingredients quite well.
- Sun-Dried Tomatoes. Adding sun-dried tomatoes to the dish will add that slightly acidic punch that enhances the flavor.
- Red Chili Flakes. The chili flakes are a great way to kick it up a notch without making the dish too spicy.
- Italian Seasoning. When making the Tuscan Chicken Pasta, you need to use Italian Seasoning to add flavor to both the chicken and the pasta.
- Parmesan Cheese. Give the dish an added cheesy touch by sprinkling some parmesan cheese on top of it.
- Heavy Cream. The heavy cream brings all the ingredients together and provides the perfect base for the pasta.
Not only will you need these ingredients, but you will also need several others, including black pepper, olive oil, chopped onions, garlic cloves, butter, baby spinach, fresh basil, and salt.
How to Make Tuscan Chicken Pasta
Making the Tuscan Chicken Pasta is not nearly as difficult as it might sound. You can start by boiling the penne pasta, draining it, and setting it off to the side while you work on preparing other components of the dish.
Coat your cubed pieces of chicken with salt and pepper and then add to a skillet with olive oil, cooking for up to seven minutes.
Remove the chicken from the skillet and set it off to the side with the pasta. Place butter in the skillet, wait until it melts, and then add your onion and garlic to it.
Wait two minutes, and then add the sun-dried tomatoes and add heavy cream to the skillet, followed by the parmesan cheese and baby spinach.
Let the mixture simmer for several minutes before adding your chili flakes, salt, pepper, and Italian seasonings.
Add both the chicken and pasta to the skillet with the sauce and mix it all. Pour it into a bowl and serve with added parmesan cheese on top!
How to Store the Tuscan Chicken Pasta
After you make the Tuscan Chicken Pasta, place it in a plastic or glass food container with a lid. You can put the pasta dish in the fridge and leave it there for up to three days before you need to reheat the meal and eat it. You can freeze the meal for up to three months if you need to save it for longer than three days.
Tuscan Chicken Pasta
Ingredients
For chicken
- 1 lb cubed chicken breast, skinless and boneless
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper
- 1 tbsp oil
For Tuscan pasta
- 8 oz dry penne pasta
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup yellow onion, chopped
- 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, without oil in a jar
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper
- 1/2 tsp red chili flakes
- 1/2 tsp Italian seasonings
- Salt to taste
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 3/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
- Fresh basil, to garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Cook the penne pasta according to the package instruction and keep it aside.
- In a bowl with chicken, cubes combine salt and pepper.
- Heat a wide pan with oil, add in the seasoned chicken and cook for 5-7 minutes
- Once done remove the chicken to a separate plate and keep it aside.
- To the same pan add the butter, once the butter has melted add the garlic and onion. Saute for 2 minutes.
- Add the sun-dried tomatoes followed by heavy cream. Simmer for 2 minutes and add the parmesan cheese. Allow the cheese to melt and add the baby spinach.
- Simmer the sauce for 3-5 minutes and add the seasonings, salt, pepper, red chili flakes, Italian seasonings.
- Combine the pasta and cooked chicken to the Tuscan sauce and allow to cook for 2 more minutes.
- Transfer the pasta to a serving bowl and garnish with fresh basil and parmesan cheese on top.
Equipment
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This was excellent! I almost left out the fresh basil, but I did throw it in at the very end, and it’s so worth the extra effort.
Yes totally worth it!! so glad you enjoyed the pasta 😀
When you say sun dried tomatoes “without oil in a jar,” do you mean from a jar, but not including the oil? I’m not finding any jarred sun dried tomatoes that aren’t packed in oil.
Yes they are from the jar but just remove them from the oil. Enjoy!