Creamy chicken pasta with bacon is easy to make weeknight dinner! With only 30 MINUTES of total work, this juicy chicken pasta dinner recipe is simple, fast and delicious! Full of tender chicken, spinach, tomatoes, and bacon!
Creamy chicken pasta is one of my favorite things to eat during busy weeknights! It’s quick, easy and contains my favorite protein. Chicken! This simple recipe takes only about 30 minutes to make, yet is very rich and indulgent.
I love how easy it is to put this dish together and how flexible it is! For example, you can easily double the chicken pasta if you are feeding a crowd or want extra for later. Or, you can substitute ground chicken for chicken breasts and use turkey bacon instead of the regular bacon.
What’s in a creamy sauce?
DAIRY. I made this Creamy Chicken pasta sauce using butter, heavy cream, and parmesan cheese. You can substitute heavy cream with half and half, but not with milk, since we do need the fat content of cream.
SEASONINGS. While the bacon and chicken are great together, I simply like to add garlic, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning to make the sauce taste even better! You can also play with using dried oregano, thyme and/or rosemary instead.
Tips and FAQ
Parmesan Cheese. Note that it is best to use freshly grated parmesan cheese right off of the block so that your sauce isn’t grainy. I do not recommend using the “shaker” style container grated cheese for this recipe.
Cheese clumped up. To avoid cheese clumps, make sure to reduce heat before adding heavy cream and Parmesan cheese. Once you add the cheese, stir on low simmer until smooth.
My sauce won’t thicken. The Parmesan will thicken this sauce up. If it isn’t quite thick enough, allow the sauce to stand for 2-3 minutes before serving.
Sauce is too watery. Depending on the chicken your supermarket carries, it may have added liquid. Unfortunately, this liquid will be released during cooking. This is the reason why the dish turns out too watery. I recommend always draining excess liquid after cooking chicken and as long as you discard it, the consistency will be perfect.
What kind of skillet to use
LARGE WIDE SKILLET. I like using a solid stainless steel pan, such as this 12 inch pan with a lid because it is easier to maneuver all the chicken past ingredient in the large skillet like that. Alternatively, you can also pan sear chicken in a large cast iron skillet, such as this 12 inch cast iron pan.
Both conduct heat very well and are easy to work with. I cooked most of the chicken pasta recipes on this site with one of these two skillets.
Substitutions
TOMATOES. If you don’t like messing around with fresh tomatoes, you can always replace them with a can of diced tomatoes, drained.
HERBS. Prefer fresh herbs? Use fresh herbs, such as basil and oregano instead of the dried herbs.
BACON. Not a big fan of a regular bacon? If so, you can always replace regular bacon with a turkey bacon.Turkey bacon will be fabulous in this dish!
CREAM. Would like to lighten up this recipe? No problem – simply use half and half instead of heavy cream.
SPINACH is one of the healthy elements of this tasty chicken pasta dish. Besides, it’s one of my favorite ways to eat it. With pasta in the creamy sauce. Even though I always use fresh spinach in my recipes, I also like the idea of frozen spinach. Because compact frozen spinach may be easier to handle than fresh spinach leaves that cook down significantly.
SPINACH NUTRITION. Overall, in terms of nutrition, frozen spinach compares very favorably with fresh spinach. And if you love spinach, by all means, use more than the recipe indicates. It will shrink when cooking anyways!
Creamy Chicken Pasta recipe in pictures
- First, you will cook bacon. until crispy. Then, you will remove bacon onto a separate plate and also drain the bacon fat from the skillet. I always wipe the skillet clean with a paper towel.
- Then you will cook the chicken breasts in the same pan. Once browned, you will remove chicken as well and slice it in thick strips. You can keep chicken on the same plate with bacon.
Next, it’s time to make the delicious creamy sauce. This is my favorite part!
How to make creamy sauce
- You will start by adding butter to the hot pan and cooking chopped garlic for 1-2 minutes. Next, the tomatoes and spinach go in and I cook them for about 3 minutes until spinach wilts on low heat.
- Seasonings. Next season with paprika, Italian seasoning, crushed red pepper flakes and salt.
- Cream. You will add heavy cream while still cooking on low heat. HEAVY CREAM, especially the one with all the additives (not the one that just has milk fat and milk – that one is fine), might curdle when cooked at boiling temperatures, therefore keeping the heat low should prevent this.
- Parmesan. Once heavy cream is slightly simmering, slowly add Parmesan cheese. Once you add the cheese, stir on low simmer until smooth
- Simmer. Once you add the cheese, stir on low-medium simmer until the cheese is incorporated. If the sauce is still runny to your liking, simply add more cheese to thicken up the sauce.
Creamy Chicken Pasta Assembly
- First, add pasta, chicken strips, and sliced bacon back to the skillet with sauce. You will want to reheat them in the sauce, and stir until you fully coat pasta with sauce. You don’t want any dry pasta. Next, taste and season with more salt if necessary. Maybe just a bit!
- Second, cover the pan with a lid. This will keep the pasta warm.
- Finally ,serve it with chopped parsley, additional shredded Parmesan and red pepper flakes!
How to Reheat Creamy Chicken Pasta
- Creamy pasta dishes will always suffer when reheated. What can we do? Add a little milk or cream to the ready mixed pasta and warm through slowly if reheating on the stovetop.
- If using a microwave add a little of the above liquid, then heat on a low wattage setting, stirring a couple of times in between.
- Preheat the oven! Set your oven to 350F (175C) and wait for it to preheat. This method is gentle on pasta and sauces, but may not be practical for a single serving. Add the pasta to a baking dish and spread it across, because a deep pile of pasta may heat unevenly. Add a splash of milk or extra sauce to keep it moist. The pasta is usually ready in 20 minutes, but check after 15 minutes just in case. The foil should help trap moisture, slowing the drying process.
Hungry for more creamy chicken pasta dishes?
Easy Chicken Pasta in Creamy White Wine Parmesan Sauce
Creamy Chicken Pasta with Bacon
Ingredients
Main Ingredients:
- 6 bacon strips
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound boneless and skinless chicken, (thick in size, such as chicken breasts)
- salt and pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 garlic cloves, (minced)
- 4 small tomatoes, (diced)
- 2 cups spinach
- 1 ½ teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, (more, if desired)
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1.5 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded (more for garnish)
Pasta:
- 10 oz. penne pasta
- 2 tablespoons Parsley, (chopped)
Instructions
- BACON: Add bacon strips to the skillet and cook until crispy. Transfer cooked bacon to a paper towel-lined platter that will absorb extra grease. Chop into 1 inch pieces
- Drain the bacon fat from the skillet and wipe the skillet with a paper towel.
- CHICKEN: Paper towel dry the chicken and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Then set aside.Heat olive oil in the same skillet. Add chicken breasts and cook on each side on medium high heat for about 4 minutes per side (for a total of 8 minutes) until nicely browned. If chicken is still pink in the center, reduce heat to medium and cook covered for several minutes until no longer pink in the center. Remove chicken from pan and slice it.
- Add butter to the hot pan and once it melts, add chopped garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.
- Add tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes on medium high until tomatoes release their juices. Add fresh spinach and cook until it wilts.
- Reduce the heat and season with paprika, Italian seasoning, crushed red pepper flakes and salt. Mix.
- Next add heavy cream – you are still cooking on low heat. Once heavy cream is slightly simmering, slowly add Parmesan cheese. Once you add the cheese, stir on low simmer until smooth.
- PASTA: In the meantime bring a large pot of water to boil, add pasta and cook it according to instructions. Drain the pasta, but do not rinse.
- Add sliced chicken, bacon and pasta. Next add chopped parsley. Stir until fully coated in sauce. Season with more salt if necessary.
- TO SERVE: Serve with additional shredded Parmesan and red pepper flakes, if desired.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only. This information comes from online calculators. Although whatsinthepan.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
Video
Notes
Our new favorite chicken pasta recipes include Cajun Chicken and Sausage Penne Pasta dish.
We also love amazing Chicken Spinach and Bacon Alfredo Pasta. You can easily make both recipes for midweek dinners!
What would be a good substitute for the heavy cream… I need something with no dairy!?
I’ve heard that coconut cream is the perfect dairy substitute for heavy cream. I did not try it for this recipe.
May I use cooked and shredded, rotisserie chicken, instead of cooking raw chicken for the recipe? I could sprinkle the seasonings on the chicken, then mix it well to distribute the seasonings. Will this work?
Yes, it will work. Very good way to use up leftover chicken!
This is phenomenal. My husband gave it a 10+. I made it just as the recipe said except to cut the amount of spinach in half
Thank you! Very impressed with 10+
Would love to make this tonight! But I do not have half and half in hand… can I replace it with heavy whipping cream??
Yes! Either whipping cream or heavy cream will surely work.
I made this recipe for dinner today and it was so delicious! Thank you!
Thank you for your review!
Hello! I was so looking forward to making this! But… I messed something up and I’m not sure what. Help me! I used canned diced tomatoes for on thing (I definitely think that may have had something to with it)… Ok so I added the half and half and brought to a boil then added the cheese (freshly grated Parmesan cheese) and it was SUPER liquidy. And… It’s like all the cheese clumped up instead on melting proberly… Suggestions… Help…
Hi, to Mandy, did you drain or cook off all liquid from the chicken and the spinach? And did you drain the tomatoes?
Made this tonight for dinner…..fantastic. I’ll definitely make it again!!!!
I’m planning on making this tonight and I have a question regarding the garlic…the recipe “ingredient” list says minced garlic yet the “directions” say sliced…which is better?
I used sliced garlic here – I like to taste actual garlic in the food. It should say sliced in both places (I updated it now – thank you for letting me know).
What a lovely recipe. To make this for 8 would you just double everything?
I would double up on everything, except bacon – add a couple more strips of it only.
Just finished this delicious meal. My husband says it’s a keeper! Thank you so much and looking forward to trying more of your recipes. Your egg spinach muffins started a wonderful adventure.
Also…and me to the mailing list please!
Thank you so much – I’m very happy to hear that both of you liked it. And I added your email to the list.