Asiago Chicken Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Spinach – with everything smothered in a delicious Asiago cheese sauce. Easy recipe that tastes great and looks great.
If you love Asiago cheese, this is a great recipe to try! Asiago definitely has a very strong and distinctive flavor, and when melted into a creamy sauce for this Asiago Chicken Pasta, that flavor becomes more smooth yet you can still recognize it’s an Asiago cheese. To me, using Asiago cheese in a pasta sauce is my favorite way to use it. And it is perfectly complemented by chicken sauteed with garlic, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes!
Short pasta, such as penne, is perfect for creamy pasta recipes like this one – Asiago cheese cream sauce perfectly coats every single pasta bite. Both pasta and chicken are literally drowning in the Asiago sauce deliciousness! This recipe can easily be made gluten free by using gluten free brown rice penne.
In this recipe, everything is smothered in a delicious Asiago cheese cream sauce: chicken sauteed with garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, and spinach.
- 8 oz penne pasta (use gluten free brown rice penne, for gluten free version)
- 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes with oil 2 tablespoons
- 1 lb chicken breast sliced in half, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- salt
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1 cup half and half and more - (half milk - half cream to form a lighter cream)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup Asiago cheese shredded
- 2 cups spinach fresh
- Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain, rinse.
Use sun-dried tomatoes in oil - if the sun-dried tomatoes are too big, chop them into smaller bites.
- Heat sun-dried tomatoes (cut them) in 2 tablespoons of olive oil and chopped garlic on medium heat. Add chopped chicken breast to the sun-dried tomatoes and oil - generously season the chicken in the skillet with salt and paprika. Cook chicken until it's cooked through completely.
To the same skillet with chicken and sun-dried tomatoes, add 1 cup of half and half and 1/4 teaspoon salt - bring to boil. Add 1/2 cup of grated Asiago cheese (half of what the recipe calls for) and stir for about 30 seconds to melt the cheese. Reduce the heat from boil to medium and continue stirring to make sure all cheese melts. At this point, if the sauce is too thin, gradually add the remaining 1/2 of Asiago cheese on medium heat, constantly stirring all around the skillet.
If the sauce gets too thick, add another 1/3 cup of half and half and stir.
Taste the sauce - if 1/4 teaspoon salt was not enough, add more.
- Add cooked and drained pasta to the sauce. Add spinach, mix everything - cover with the lid and let the pasta sit to allow spinach to wilt, on low simmer. After spinach has wilted, stir everything together to combine, taste and add more salt, if needed.
What is half-and-half?
To substitute for 1 cup of half-and-half, do this: combine 1/2 cup of whole milk with 1/2 cup of heavy cream.
Absolutely delicious. I used half Asiago and half parm. And added crispy bacon.
Lots of oooohs and aaaaahs on this easy to make dish. So delicious!
I am so happy to hear that! Thank you for your comment! 🙂
This recipe is just amazing!! I used rigatoni and Parm because that’s what I had on hand, but next time I’ll use Asiago, the Parm got a little stringy for my taste. And I always add about 1/4 cup green olive brine to my white sauces, just adds some depth. But the FLAVORS of this dish! Just incredible! Thanks so much for sharing, Julia. This is a keeper! Now I am going to try some of your other recipes…
Sheila, thank you for such a wonderful comment! I am so glad you enjoyed this pasta!
Have you ever substituted Parmesan cheeese?
Dorothy, I tried Parm in this recipe tonight and it was very good, but I have to agree with Julia’s Asiago choice and will use it next time.
Parmesan will work too, but Asiago cheese has a very particular flavor that really makes this dish special!