Readers (that’s you!) really, really seem to love our Marry Me Chicken recipe (thank you for that, btw!) so we decided that clearly it was time to take that delicious recipe and jazz it up a little; meet our easy, creamy marry me chicken pasta recipe! Boneless skinless chicken breasts could never, ever be accused of being boring when they’ve had a little simmer in a garlicky, creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce and tossed with perfectly al dente pasta.
Marry Me Chicken Pasta Ingredients
Chicken breast: Boneless, skinless (but not boring!) cut into bite-size pieces. Tip: If the chicken is very cold (even slightly frozen) it’s easier to cut. For more chicken breast ideas, check out our 60 Best Chicken Breast Recipes.
Pasta: We love to use pasta like penne or rigatoni for marry me chicken pasta — think bite-size and tubular, ideally with ridges of some kind to hang on to the creamy sauce.
Cream: Heavy cream is really a must for this recipe — unfortunately, there really isn’t a good substitute for it in this case.
Seasonings: Fresh garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, fresh basil to finish, and red pepper flakes if you want a bit of heat (it’s also OK to leave these out).
Chicken, again! Both stock and bouillon, to really punch up the savory chicken flavor.
Parmesan: Freshly grated with a microplane grater, please!
Sun-dried tomatoes: Deeply sweet-savory, we adore this pet ingredient of the 1980s so much we’ve adopted it as our very own here in the 21st century.
How To Make Marry Me Chicken Pasta
Brown the chicken in a large skillet — one that’s big enough to hold all of the lovely, creamy sun-dried tomato sauce that puts the ‘marry me’ into marry me chicken. Set the chicken aside while you use that skillet to…
This is where we’d put a pot of generously salted water over high heat so that you can cook the penne while the sauce simmers.
Make the creamy sauce: start with fresh garlic. Stir in cream, stock, bouillon, parmesan cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and all the seasonings, plus the chicken. Gently simmer the sauce, but be careful to keep the heat low (cream does not like high heat).
Simmer the chicken in the sun dried tomato sauce until it is fully cooked.
Add the perfectly al dente pasta to the creamy sauce. Dinner is served!
What To Serve With Marry Me Pasta
Lots of good bread, to soak up and dredge through any creamy sauce that’s left clinging to the bowl.
A big green salad! You can’t go wrong with either our classic Caesar Salad (it’s a date night staple!) or our fresh, tender simple green salad.
Before a big meal like this creamy, hearty pasta, we like to keep appetizers simple — Marinated Olives & Cheese hit the spot, without killing your appetite.
Tips + How To Store Leftovers
Our best tip for making a perfect cream sauce here is about heat. Because the sauce has heavy cream, you need to watch that heat! You need to use enough heat to make the sauce cohere, and to be sure the chicken is cooked through (a meat thermometer helps with that, too). But not so much heat that the cream breaks. So just keep an eye on it, and when in doubt, turn the heat down a little.
To make the pasta perfectly al dente, start to check it for doneness a full two minutes before the suggested cooking time on the box.
Leftovers will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for 3-4 days. We don’t recommend freezing this one.
To reheat it, you can microwave it in a pinch but it’s best warmed slowly on the stove top — cream can be a little fiddly, and warming it slowly prevents separation.
More Easy, Creamy Pasta Recipes
Date Nights To Dinner Parties, We’ve Got You!
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