Chicken, Spinach and Bacon Alfredo Pasta

Chicken Spinach and Bacon Alfredo Pasta is a quick, creamy Parmesan sauce recipe with crispy chicken and bacon, perfect for an easy, flavorful family dinner.

Chicken Spinach and Bacon Alfredo Pasta is a 30-minute recipe with easy and DELICIOUS Creamy Parmesan sauce and crispy golden chicken. Perfect and easy dinner your whole family will enjoy! Best creamy pasta dish for your next comfort food craving!

Why you'll love this recipe

Alfredo sauce is typically loaded with butter, heavy cream and more butter. But not this recipe. I found that using the entire stick of butter in one recipe is not always the best way to make it taste good.

Alfredo can be successfully made using only fraction of butter and we don't have to go overboard on Parmesan either! Basically, moderation is the key. But you know what? You can have something as indulgent as Alfredo sauce without all the extra calories and fat! I will show you how to do it.

Main ingredients

• Chicken: Go for boneless and skinless chicken breasts.
• I like to use thick chicken breasts in my Alfredo pasta. When cooked they retain moisture so much better than thinner ones.
• Penne pasta
• Butter
• Parmesan

How to make Chicken Spinach and Bacon Alfredo Pasta

Cook bacon

• First preheat oven to 400 F.
• Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
• Now arrange bacon strips and bake for 15 minutes.
• Next transfer cooked bacon to a paper towel-lined platter that will absorb extra grease.
• Crumble the bacon once it's cool enough.
• I prefer the oven method of cooking bacon to the stove top method because it always comes out perfectly crispy.

Cook chicken

• First things first, paper towel dry the chicken.
• Next heat olive oil in a large deep skillet. Add chicken breasts and cook on each side on medium high heat for a total of 3-4 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 skillet to cut it up in strips.

Cook spinach and garlic

Once your garlic is fragrant, simply add spinach and cook until wilted. About 2 minutes tops.

Make creamy sauce

Add heavy cream and bring the mixture to a boil. Add paprika, reduce to simmer, and slowly add Parmesan cheese. Stir until the cheese melts and makes the sauce creamy. Then remove from heat. How simple is that?

Cook pasta

The formula for perfectly cooked pasta is not as obvious as it seems. Is it really just pasta and water? Well, it turns out that you need plenty of water for pasta perfection. Also salt it good for pasta! Don't just sprinkle a bit, add quite a bit! Like a couple of tablespoons.

And how about pasta that is not stuck together, and is neither mushy nor hard in the center? It's all about stirring! Stir and stir, and stir once again! At at least two or three times during cooking. Please don't let those strands clump.

Taste your pasta a couple of minutes before it's done. How does it feel on your teeth? Does it have a springy bounce to it? That's what you want.

Finally, you will need to drain it. Place a colander in the kitchen sink and drain your pasta. That's it!

Combine everything

Add chicken strips and crumbled bacon into your Alfredo sauce first. Then you will add cooked pasta into and mix well. We want to make sure that pasta is coated in sauce. And just like that One Pot Chicken Spinach and Bacon Alfredo Pasta is ready! Delicious! And easy.

How to lighten up this recipe

This is already a lighter version of a typically butter and cream heavy traditional Alfredo recipe. But if you want to go even lighter than this, I have a couple of great suggestions. There you go!

• Use Half and half instead of heavy cream. If you can't find half and half or they don't sell it where you live, simply mix half whole milk and half heavy cream or double cream. 
• Use less cheese. Reduce the amount of cheese from ½ cup to ¼ cup by adding 1 tablespoon of flour to thicken the sauce.
• Use less bacon or replace it with ... fried shallots Yes, I found that if you add enough shallots and give them a good browning - they will impart so much flavor to the chicken Alfredo dish that you won't even miss the bacon.

Can I make it gluten free

You can use red lentil penne or brown rice penne instead.

If you love creamy chicken and pasta dishes as much as we do, you will definitely enjoy these recipes:

• Creamy Cajun Chicken and Sausage Pasta
• Pasta with Meatballs
• Creamy Garlic Italian Pasta in White Wine Parmesan Sauce