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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.
Asiago Chicken Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Spinach
Ingredients
- 8 oz penne pasta (use gluten free brown rice penne, for gluten free version)
- ⅓ cup sun-dried tomatoes with oil 2 tablespoons
- 1 lb chicken breast sliced in half, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- salt
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- 1 cup half and half and more - (half milk - half cream to form a lighter cream)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup Asiago cheese shredded
- 2 cups spinach fresh
Instructions
- 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 ¼ teaspoon salt - bring to boil. Add ½ 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 ½ of Asiago cheese on medium heat, constantly stirring all around the skillet.
- If the sauce gets too thick, add another ⅓ cup of half and half and stir.
- Taste the sauce - if ¼ 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.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious. I'm bringing some of the leftovers to work for lunch tomorrow. Next up, chicken with bacon mustard sauce.
2 words...Yummy Goodness!
So easy, so flavorful!
Already cannot wait for leftover lunch and haven't finished dinner yet !
Thank you for sharing!!
Thank you, Theresa! So excited you liked it! 🙂
Tastes great solid recipe. However a few things to note. You shouldn't put garlic in that early as it will burn. Also never rinse pasta. Take it directly from boiling water and mix in. The starch will give flavor and texture.
I tend to use gluten free pasta which is why I always rinse it to keep its texture.
This was delicious!! I can't wait to make it again. Thanks!
Rissa, thank you! I am so glad you liked it! 🙂
A must try dish!!
Thank you! 🙂
Very good! We have added this recipe to our rotation!
Also....Step 1 and 2 have the exact same instructions.
Jennifer, thank you so much for stopping by and leaving a comment! So glad you liked it!
Hi there, I am in the UK and have never heard of this cheese, what would be an alternative.
Kim, Romano or Pecorino Romano cheese would be a good alternative. Asiago cheese is stronger in flavor than Parmesan, so you would want to substitute with a strong, flavorful hard cheese, such as Romano cheese.
I replaced chicken with sausage but other than that followed the recipe to a t. Served it with my favorite, cavatellis. It was fantastic everyone loved it! Super easy too. Can't wait to have it again
Thank you! I am glad you liked it! Thanks for letting me know that sausage works well in this recipe!
What a fantastic dish! The house smelled amazing and hubby liked it so much he had a 2nd bowl! Even my toddler who hates everything ate some of the pasta! Thanks for sharing... this will be a staple in our household
Thank you Rebecca! So glad everyone in your family liked it! This recipe is surely a favorite in my house.
A TOTAL hit! From a 3 year old to us grandparents, everyone complimented me on the meal and said I MUST make it again! It was VERY yummy. I did add an orange bell pepper, thinly sliced to add more veggies in it, but kept to the rest of it to the 't'.
Thank you, Cherie! I am very glad your whole family enjoyed this recipe! The more veggies the merrier - glad to hear that bell peppers worked well here.
This dish was OK I had high expectations but my cheese didn't melt the right way. It was probably from putting all of the cheese in too fast, but when I put the two cups of spinach in, the water in the spinach made the cheese curdle, which continuously got worse until I couldn't tell the difference between the chicken and the cheese curds. The taste was amazing though just the texture was ..ugh. 2 Stars.
Thank you for your feedback, Kiera! The cheese has to be completely melted and the sauce should be smooth, with heat on simmer, before you add the spinach. At this point, the sauce will keep its texture, and the spinach will wilt, adding extra moisture to the sauce (which won't hurt it but only make it better!).
Julia,
I had the same experience as Kiera so I thought I'd ask is there another cheese that would melt better?
Made this tonight according to the recipe and it turned out great! Next time, I'll double the sun dried tomatoes, half the garlic, use garlic salt when seasoning the chicken, and skip the 1/4 teaspoon salt at the end. And I used about 2 teaspoons of paprika, which I think was the perfect amount 🙂
Thank you - I am glad you liked it!
One of the Bestest ! (I had to come up with word for it ...)
on the real side, it's a great dish, and it's still tastes good after a few days in the Ref' though...
Thank you so much for such a kind comment! So glad to hear you liked the recipe!
made this for my bunco group. One recipe severed 12 ladies.
It turned out great. I used farfalle pasta and made it
ahead of time and put into a 9 x 13 pan.
I just topped with a little more cheese , covered with
foil and heated in the oven for about 1.2 hour.
Thanks!
Loved this!!! So easy and full of flavor. I will be preparing this dish again!!