Creamy Italian Chicken Pasta recipe, packed with flavor from spinach, garlic, and sun dried tomatoes, your family will gobble this easy dinner right up!
Love easy chicken dinners? This Buffalo Chicken Pasta ranks as one of our reader’s favorite recipes! And who can resist a plate of cheesy Chicken Tetrazzini??
Table of Contents
Why this Recipe is best
Much like my Tuscan Garlic Chicken Pasta recipe, you’ll have tender chicken with a delicious, creamy tuscan sauce!
- Restaurant quality, made at home!
- Tender flavorful chicken
- Creamy sauce
- Made in a skillet for easy clean up!
Prep the Chicken
Place raw chicken breast into a bowl and pour milk and lemon juice over the top. Cover and refrigerate for 2-4 hours. You can also do this in the morning, so that it’s ready at dinner time!
PRO TIP: Did you know that soaking the chicken in milk and lemon helps it become more tender for cooking?
Step by Step Instructions
The crust.
When ready to cook, create your Italian chicken crust. In a pie plate, or shallow dish, combine flour, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and powdered sugar.
Drain chicken from milk marinade and dip into the flour, coating evenly.
Heat a large skillet with olive oil over medium high heat. Place chicken strips in hot skillet for about 3 minutes on each side. Remove and place onto a foil lined baking sheet.
Bake the chicken.
Bake chicken in 350 degree oven for about 18-20 minutes.
PRO TIP: If you smash your chicken with a meat tenderizer before dipping in coating, this helps it become the same thickness throughout, resulting in more even cooking.
Make the pasta and sauce.
PRO TIP: Skip the additional olive oil and use the oil from the sun dried tomatoes instead. Adds a rich flavor to the sauce!
Sprinkle 1 Tablespoon cornstarch over the tomatoes, and mix thoroughly.
Add chicken broth, whisk until combined. Cook for about 5 minutes.
In a small bowl, mix remaining cornstarch with milk and whisk. Add to the broth and continue whisking while adding in the cream, spinach, salt, and pepper.
Turn heat to low and simmer until sauce thickens and spinach wilts. Add in parmesan cheese.
Stir and heat on low until chicken and noodles are done.
Serve in a large bowl and enjoy.
Serving Suggestions
This Garlic Bread is always a great side dish to pasta. Who doesn’t love a fluffy, flavorful bread? Dinner rolls are great for sopping up that extra sauce.
This Olive Garden Salad is loaded with fresh flavor and the homemade Italian Dressing is zesty and flavorful! The perfect pairing to your weeknight meal.
Looking for a fresh bowl of homemade applesauce for dinner tonight? This Instant Pot Applesauce recipe is super quick and easy!
Don’t forget to finish the evening with a fresh batch of Rice Krispie Treats!
More Pasta Recipes
You’ll love this tangy, Lemon Garlic Pasta as a side dish with your favorite chicken or fish! Or enjoy it as your main entree in under 30 minutes!
Cajun Sausage Pasta is a delicious 30 minute dinner recipe! Colorful, spicy, and easy to make, you’ll want to put this dish on your menu!
Whether you’re looking for an easy weeknight meal or a dish to share at a potluck, this Chicken Pesto Pasta is your delicious answer! Packed with flavor from the homemade walnut pesto, you’ll love how tasty this easy dish is to eat!
Whip up this easy Instant Pot Spaghetti recipe packed with flavor and meatballs. Ready in minutes!
More Chicken Recipes:
- Italian Chicken Casserole
- Cilantro Lime Chicken
- Orange Chicken
- Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo
- Chicken and Dumplings
Italian Chicken
Ingredients
For the chicken:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 Tablespoon powdered sugar
- 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 3 Tablespoon olive oil
For the sauce:
- 2 Tablespoon olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- ¼ cup sun dried tomatoes in oil drained and finely diced
- 3 Tablespoon cornstarch divided
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 3 cups fresh spinach roughly chopped
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper don’t skimp on this
- 1 cup parmesan cheese grated
- 1 box linguine noodles 16oz
Instructions
- Place raw chicken breast into a bowl and pour milk and lemon juice over the top. Cover and refrigerate for 2-4 hours. You can also do this in the morning, so that it’s ready at dinner time!
- When ready to cook, create your chicken crust. In a pie plate, or shallow dish, combine flour, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and powdered sugar.
- Drain chicken from milk marinade and dip into the flour, coating evenly.
- Heat a large skillet with olive oil over medium high heat. Place chicken strips in hot skillet for about 3 minutes on each side. Remove and place onto a foil lined baking sheet.
- Bake chicken in 350 degree oven for about 18-20 minutes.
- While the chicken bakes, cook your linguine (or favorite pasta) according to package.
- To make the sauce, using the same skillet as the chicken, add additional olive oil, scraping the bits from the pan. Over medium heat, add garlic and sun dried tomatoes to the pan, heat for several minutes.
- Sprinkle 1 Tbsp cornstarch over the tomatoes, and mix thoroughly.
- Add chicken broth, whisk until combined. Cook for about 5 minutes.
- In a small bowl, mix remaining cornstarch with milk and whisk. Add to the broth and continue whisking while adding in the cream, spinach, salt, and pepper.
- Turn heat to low and simmer until sauce thickens and spinach wilts. Add in parmesan cheese.
- Stir and heat on low until chicken and noodles are done.
- Serve in a large bowl and enjoy.
Notes
- If you smash your chicken with a meat tenderizer before dipping in coating, this helps it become the same thickness throughout, resulting in more even cooking.
- Skip the additional olive oil and use the oil from the sun dried tomatoes instead. Adds a rich flavor to the sauce!
Video
Nutrition
Creamy Italian Chicken Pasta recipe, packed with flavor from spinach, garlic, and sun dried tomatoes, your family will gobble this easy dinner right up!
This is definitely not an easy or quick meal to make, HOWEVER, it is so delicious! Well worth the effort for a good size group.
Absolutely delicious, however it’s not a 5 min prep meal… not something you can cook in a hurry.
Agreed
The taste was great!! It was a little thick for me, so next time I’ll cut back on the cornstarch. I topped it with fresh tomatoes and fresh basil to and it was delicious.
Amazing, my family loved it !!!! Thank you for sharing!!
This sounds delicious but you advertised this as a 30-min meal when it’s really a 4.5-hour meal ?
I’ve made this on multiple occasions and it’s so delicious! My fiancé takes it to work as well and wants all the leftovers!
Honestly Aimee, you’ve shared a really scrumptious chicken recipe here and oh my gosh I’m totally drooling over it right now!
The cakes are so fresh, the recipe you made is so great and you have really clever hands, I really like the way you decorate them.
Loved this recipe! It was a crowd pleaser! Thank you for sharing.
Do you slice the chicken breast into strips before or after cooking? The recipe doesn’t mention when to cut up the chicken, but it is cut in the final pictures. Thanks!
I was wondering this too…
Has anyone substituted a milk alternative, like Almond milk, with the lemon to soak the chicken? I’d love to make this but we are dairy free and I don’t want to ruin it.
It sure was delicious. My husband loved it.
One thing I would like to point out is that it did not take 30 min but little over an hour and I am experienced cook . Otherwise great recipe thank you for posting it.
Couldn’t help but leave a comment here. Made this yesterday for my BF. I’ve NEVER made any sort of cream sauce before. Marinated the chicken for ~3 hrs – it came out super juicy and tender. It was the first time I’ve seen him load up his plate with more than he could eat xD. Surprisingly simple and low-prep for how well it turned out! Thank you! This recipe lives on our fridge now 🙂
So yummy, but my sauce was definitely sort of red, how could you leave out the tomatoes and add mushrooms?
I don’t have sun dried tomatoes in oil. Could I substitute for regular diced tomatoes and just drain the juice?
They will definitely be too “wet” for this dish. You could leave them out. Or at the end, toss in some fresh tomatoes (or diced tomatoes, drained) right before serving.
I would love to make this but there are no measurements
If you scroll to the end of the post, the ingredients and measurements are there.
Made this today. Started at 3:30. Finished at 6pm. 30 min….more like almost 3 hours. Too peppery for me and way too much work.
This sounds amazing! I have to say the powdered sugar is throwing me off a bit. I have breaded chicken with a LOT of different things but never powdered sugar! Does it make it sweet? Is it for texture?
It adds a touch of sweetness to the coating of the chicken. Not enough that you think “wow this is sweet” but enough to say, ‘omg this is amazing”
I made this tonight, it was so good!! Wouldn’t change a thing!
This is such and easy and delicious family meal! We love it!