This Creamy Lemon Garlic Chicken pasta or Italian Pasta al Limone is full stop, wipe up the drool, delicious looking! You will love the hint of the sauciness seen around the noodles. It tastes as good as it looks, and it does meet "real Italian" standards. Molto bene!
Creamy Lemon Garlic Chicken Pasta (aka Pasta al Limone) is easy to make comfort food, that will help you to make it through Mondays. It combines the freshness of lemon with tasty umami from Parmigiano Reggiano. White wine and heavy cream turns this lemon pasta into a creamy sensation.
Parmesan crusted chicken on top of amazing lemon garlic pasta is moist on the inside and crispy on the outside, easy and delicious. And the entire dish comes together in only 30 minutes! My favorite part about this chicken pasta recipe is that it's super easy to make.
Key Ingredients for Lemon Garlic Chicken Pasta
Chicken: Thin chicken breasts, perfect for high heat, short cook time.
Pasta: Fettuccine with rich creamy sauce - so yum - you will love the surface area of this pasta shape!
Bread crumbs: While I prefer the texture of panko on chicken fried in oil. The panko seems sort of sharp which is what this recipe calls for and the regular crumbs seem more fine grained and polite.
Bread the chicken
I use a mixture of panko, parmesan, and spices:
First things first, prepare the Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs and egg for your chicken in 3 separate bowls to make the coating process smooth. Once the bowls are ready to go, coat the chicken cutlets in cheese, egg and then Panko bread crumbs.
Fry the chicken
Add oil to the hot pan. Once the oil is hot, add the chicken breast and begin to fry until golden in color.
Make Creamy Lemon Garlic Chicken Pasta
- To make pasta, boil it according to package instructions, drain, and set aside. I like to cook my pasta in salty water in order to give it better flavor.
- Next, make your sauce, adding heavy cream and wine to the same pan where you seared your chicken.
- Lastly, all you have to do now is to add pasta to the sauce, and then serve the chicken over your cooked pasta.
Should I slice my chicken?
I prefer to cut my chicken into bite-sized pieces before serving. Basically, I cook the chicken breasts whole, keep them removed from the pan after cooking, slice them up, and then mix all of the chicken together with pasta sauce.
How to serve Lemon Garlic Chicken Pasta
Plate by placing pasta, sauce and then sliced chicken. Garnish with fresh lemon juice, Parmesan, and fresh cracked pepper.
Can I make lemon garlic chicken pasta in advance?
If you don't have time to make this dish fresh, you can make it in advance to serve later. I recommend that you prepare everything ahead, but keep in mind that the pasta will absorb a lot of the sauce, so your dish will be less creamy. In that case, add extra chicken broth when reheating the pasta.
You can also prepare everything except for the pasta, and then to cook the pasta fresh when you are ready to serve and add it to your other ingredients after reheating them.
Tips on making Lemon Garlic Chicken Pasta
My biggest recommendation is going to be not pre-cooking and rinsing/chilling the pasta. I would cook it at the same time as the sauce, under cooking the pasta slightly, then draining the pasta without rinsing and adding it immediately to the sauce and let it finish cooking in the sauce.
Anyways bring pot of water to a boil, generously salt the water, boil the fettuccine to Al dente, drain and add to sauce.
You do not need to add oil to pasta water while it is cooking. You can prevent sticking by making sure the pot is large enough and making sure your water to pasta ratio is correct. Stirring a few times during cooking phase is usually enough to prevent any stickiness.
My next recommendation would be to not pre chop the chicken, but brown the breast whole in the pan first, remove them and set aside to let rest while you cook the rest of the dish, then chop the cooked chicken and add it back in.
Variations and substitutions
Pasta: I prefer fresh fettuccine or linguine. But just used dry spaghetti for this as it was all I had.
Add veggies: I like to add frozen broccoli and peas. Asparagus sounds like a really good idea as well.
Delicious chicken pasta recipes
Chicken Pasta in Creamy Parmesan White Wine Sauce
Creamy Chicken Pasta with Bacon
More chicken dishes to try!
Chicken in Spinach and Paprika Sauce
Creamy Lemon Garlic Chicken Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breasts (4 or 5 thin chicken cutlets)
- salt and pepper (to taste)
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese (more for serving)
- 1 egg
- ½ cup panko bread crumbs homemade or store-bought
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 10 oz. fettuccine
- 2 tablespoon butter
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- juice from 1 lemon (or less to taste)
- ½ cup white wine
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoon Italian seasoning (or more)
- fresh Parsley (chopped, for garnish)
Instructions
Bread chicken breasts
- Prepare 3 bowls for each of the following: Parmesan cheese, egg and bread crumbs.
- Dip each chicken breast in the Parmesan, then in the egg, and then coat in the bread crumb mixture.
Cook chicken
- Preheat large skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil. Once oil is bubbling, place coated chickens onto the skillet.
- Cook (fry) for about 3-4 minutes on each side until the outside is crispy and the chicken is cooked through. Remove onto a plate.
- Slice them into bite size pieces or keep them whole.
Make pasta
- Meanwhile cook the pasta according to package directions and drain. Do not rinse.
- This should be done in parallel with cooking chicken.
Make sauce
- Add butter to the skillet. Once it melts, add garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Now add lemon, wine and heavy cream and swirl everything in.
- Let the sauce simmer for 5-7 minutes on low heat.
Assembly
- Add cooked pasta into the sauce. Season generously with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning, to your liking.
- Stir well into the sauce and reheat. Add sliced chicken breasts into the pan to reheat.
- Serve hot, with chopped parsley and additional Parmesan.
- Garnish with chopped fresh parsley.
Amanda says
Made this tonight and it was delicious! The recipe was simple enough that my 14 year was able to help! It is definitely going on our rotation. The only substitution made was using chicken broth instead of white wine.
Olya says
That's so wonderful that you both enjoyed it and had your child cook it as well! I love teamwork:).
Natalie says
Made the dish according to the recipe and it was a huge hit with my family! They said they preferred the sauce over Alfredo. Thanks for sharing!
Olya says
So glad you enjoyed it!
Will Cresenzo says
lOVE this recipe and made this for years.
Malerie says
I have made this several times and it is delicious!
Erika says
I'm curious if you will post this (?) I thought it was a pretty good recipe. I enjoyed the crispiness of the Panko, but found the chkicken itself a little bland. If i made it again I'd spice it up prior to breading. A good, basic recipe.
Olya says
Can't go wrong with extra spicing!
Allan says
A I am going to try this recipe it sounds great
Tiana says
Could I use half and half instead of heavy cream?
Olga says
Absolutely!
Kathy says
This is amazing! I used chicken tenders. Is their something else I could use instead of the white wine? I would like to make it for my son’s family and they are expecting and I don’t think I should use the wine. Maybe more lemon juice? My husband and I really enjoyed this!
Olga says
I'm so glad you liked it Kathy! You can definitely substitute wine by combining 1 tablespoon of lemon juice with 1/2 cup of chicken broth
Linda says
This chicken lemon pasta looks amazing
Gary says
Delicious! Made it several times already for a family of 3.
Nora says
This was amazing! I added 1/2 lb. ground italian sausage to chicken.