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Creamy Chicken and Bacon Pasta with Spinach and Tomatoes in Garlic Cream Sauce - an Italian-inspired dish with lots of vegetables! Sliced chicken breast and bacon are tossed with veggies and penne pasta in a delicious, creamy, homemade Alfredo sauce made with Parmesan cheese.
Family Dinner Win: Creamy Chicken & Bacon Pasta
Craving an easy-to-make comfort food that a whole family will love? Then, make this chicken and bacon pasta! Cream sauce absorbs the wonderful flavors from the ingredients in the recipe, and with every single bite, you get all the goodness and all the flavors! This is one of the best chicken pasta recipes you'll ever try! Serve it with my apple spinach salad, easy garlic bread, or homemade garlic butter dinner rolls. Also, don't miss my other family-favorites like chicken feta pasta, creamy chicken orzo with tomatoes and spinach, chicken burrata pasta, and sun-dried tomato chicken pasta.
Ingredient Notes
- Use thinly-sliced skinless, boneless chicken breasts or chicken tenderloin meat. Either cut of meat will work.
- Use shredded Parmesan cheese. Do not use grated Parmesan cheese, use the shredded kind. What I usually do is buy a block of Parmesan cheese and shred it myself. Freshly shredding the cheese results in the best sauce texture. You can, however, use store-bought pre-shredded Parmesan cheese. Just do not use the grated kind.
- You can use cooked spinach, frozen spinach, or fresh spinach. All will work.
- Make this chicken pasta gluten-free. All you need to do is use gluten-free brown-rice penne pasta instead of regular penne. You can also use gluten-free quinoa pasta, chickpea or lentil pasta.
How to Make Chicken Bacon Pasta (Step-by-Step Photos)
- Cook pasta: Bring a large pan of water to boil. Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain.
- Cook the chicken: Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add chicken and cook on one side for 4 minutes over medium-high, sprinkling paprika and Italian seasoning on top. Flip and cook for 3 minutes on medium-high heat, then reduce heat to low-medium, flip again, cover, and cook until the chicken is no longer pink in the center. Remove from the pan and keep warm.
- Make the creamy sauce + add veggies: In the same pan, add heavy cream and bring to a boil. Stir in Parmesan, reduce to low-medium, and simmer until the cheese melts and the sauce is creamy, about 1-3 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes, spinach, garlic, and crushed red pepper; cook on medium just until the spinach wilts. Add sliced chicken and half the cooked bacon, then mix everything together.
- Add cooked pasta to the sauce: Top with the remaining bacon and thinly sliced chicken, then sprinkle with Parmesan before serving.
What is Half-and-Half and Its Substitutions
- You can use either heavy cream or half-and-half in this recipe.
- Half-and-half is the US milk product that combines ½ whole milk + ½ heavy cream or whipping cream to form a lighter cream (unlike heavy cream).
- Substitute ½ cup of milk + ½ cup of heavy cream for 1 cup of half-and-half.
- If you live in the UK, half and half would be the equivalent of single cream. Alternatively, you can mix half double cream and half regular milk (if you live in the UK).
What to Serve with Chicken Bacon Pasta
I love serving Chicken Bacon Pasta with crusty garlic bread, homemade garlic butter dinner rolls, crusty rye bread, or bread machine loaves to soak up all that delicious Parmesan sauce. Since the pasta is already hearty, I usually pair it with a simple salad like one of these:
Other Chicken & Bacon Pasta Recipes
Chicken and Bacon Pasta with Spinach and Tomatoes in Garlic Cream Sauce
Chicken pasta recipes can get boring. Not this Italian-inspired recipe! You'll fall in love with the flavors in this Chicken Pasta with Bacon, Spinach, and Tomatoes in Garlic Cream Sauce. Easy weeknight dinner that the whole family will love! Sliced chicken breast and bacon are tossed with veggies and penne pasta in a delicious, creamy, homemade alfredo sauce made with Parmesan cheese.
Ingredients
- 10 oz penne pasta (for gluten-free version, use gluten-free brown-rice penne)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 lb chicken (skinless, boneless chicken breasts or tenderloins)
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (thyme, oregano, basil - combined)
- salt to taste
- 1.5 cups heavy cream
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese shredded
- 5 tomatoes (medium, chopped in large cubes)
- 3 cups fresh spinach or 1 cup cooked spinach
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes crushed
- 6 bacon strips cooked, drained off fat, and chopped
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese shredded, for serving
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to boil, add pasta, and cook according to instructions (usually 10 to 15 minutes). Drain the pasta. Proceed with the recipe while the pasta is cooking.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet, on medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook on one side on medium-high heat for 4 minutes. While it cooks, sprinkle the uncooked sides of the chicken with paprika, Italian seasoning, and salt. Flip the chicken over, and cook on the other side for 3 more minutes on medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low-medium, flip chicken over again and cook, covered, for several minutes until no longer pink in the center. Remove chicken from the pan and keep chicken warm.
- To the same pan (but without chicken), add heavy cream and bring to boil. Only after the heavy cream starts boiling, add shredded Parmesan cheese. Immediately reduce to simmer (low-medium heat) and stir, while simmering, until the cheese melts and the sauce is creamy, for about 1 or 3 minutes.
- To the same pan with the creamy sauce, add chopped tomatoes, fresh spinach, garlic, crushed red pepper. Stir in the sauce on medium heat just until the spinach starts to wilt and sinks into the sauce. Add ⅓ of the cooked chicken (sliced into small strips) and half the bacon (already cooked and drained of fat). Mix everything. Remove from heat.
- Add cooked pasta to the skillet with the sauce and reheat on low heat. When ready to serve, top the pasta with the remaining half of bacon (cooked, drained of fat, chopped, gently reheated) and the remaining ⅔ of the cooked chicken (sliced into small strips, gently reheated). This is done for presentation purposes.
- When serving, top the pasta with ½ cup of shredded Parmesan cheese.
Video
Notes
- Cream: You can use either heavy cream or half-and-half.
- Lower-fat alternatives to cream: To replace 1 cup of heavy cream, whisk 2 tablespoons of cornstarch into 1 cup of milk. Cornstarch thickens without adding flavor. Or, use evaporated milk (NOT condensed milk).
- How to cook pasta al dente? Cook the pasta about 2 minutes less than indicated on the package instructions. "Al dente" literally means "to the tooth" or firm to bite.
- Do you rinse pasta? If using regular, wheat pasta, do not rinse it with cold water. Rinsing pasta with cold water removes the starch which helps absorb the sauce.
- If using gluten-free pasta, rinse it with cold water after cooking to prevent it from getting mushy.
Storage & Reheating Tips
- Fridge: You can store the leftover chicken bacon pasta refrigerated in an air-tight container for up to 4 days.
- Reheat: Reheat the pasta gently on the stovetop on medium-low heat, without simmering. Or microwave for 1 minute, checking for doneness every 30 seconds. Make sure the sauce does not overheat and separate. Keep in mind that reheating the cream sauce on high heat will cause the cream to separate.
- I do not recommend freezing this dish: If you freeze it, the creamy sauce might not have the same texture when you reheat it. It might separate.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information
Chicken and Bacon Pasta with Spinach and Tomatoes in Garlic Cream Sauce
Amount per Serving
Calories
1149
% Daily Value*
Fat
77
g
118
%
Saturated Fat
35
g
219
%
Trans Fat
0.2
g
Polyunsaturated Fat
9
g
Monounsaturated Fat
28
g
Cholesterol
225
mg
75
%
Sodium
755
mg
33
%
Potassium
1071
mg
31
%
Carbohydrates
65
g
22
%
Fiber
5
g
21
%
Sugar
9
g
10
%
Protein
48
g
96
%
Vitamin A
5361
IU
107
%
Vitamin C
31
mg
38
%
Calcium
438
mg
44
%
Iron
4
mg
22
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
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.
I really was excited about this dish, but it just didn’t work out for me. The Parmesan kept clumping to the spinach.. even when I let it boil really good first, so I made it again and cooked the spinach seperate and was going to add it in after the cream sauce wasn’t made, but the Parmesan stuck to the chicken the second time. I let it boil for a long time, I mixed constantly, let it simmer a long time too.. still a no go. Next time I try this, if I do, I will use cheddar.. Parmesan just isn’t the right cheese apparently.
So sorry to hear that! I would suggest the following:
1) Keep stirring the sauce with the cheese on low boil (the liquids should be visibly boiling-simmering), until the cheese does start to melt. Sometimes the cheese doesn't melt because the pan, the sauce and everything in the skillet is not hot enough.
2) Try using heavy cream instead - it has a higher fat content than half and half.
3) Use a block of Parmesan cheese and shred it yourself - that's what I usually do.
Made this basically as described and it's quite good.
You could substitute various parboiled vegetables for the spinach, such as broccoli, zucchini, etc.
Ingrate children even begrudgingly ate it. Definitely, I'll make it again.
Thanks.
Thank you, Bob! I am so glad you liked it! True - you can use all kinds of vegetables instead of spinach here.
My boyfriend and I cook this ALL the time. It's our absolute fav! Thanks SO much.
You're very welcome! I am glad you liked it!
Thank you so much for sharing and providing step by step instructions. It was super easy to make and it was delicious . My husband and daughter loved it.
Monica, I am so happy the recipe was enjoyed! Thank you for taking the time to share such a kind comment and the 5-star review! 🙂
It says “Garlic cream sauce” but you don’t use ANY garlic. Just confused if I missed something?
There is 5 cloves of garlic in this dish.
Yes, there are 5 cloves of garlic listed in this recipe.
Yes, there is garlic in the recipe ingredients list.
How many does this serve?
This recipe serves 4 people.
My cheese starting clumping up with the spinach. How can I avoid this? Other then that this was a great dish.
Make sure to bring the sauce and all the ingredients to a quick boil, add the cheese, stir everything while it's boiling for 10 or 20 seconds, then immediately reduce to simmer and keep stirring. This should help to avoid the clumps. If you have a clump in the sauce, add more liquid ingredient (such as half and half or heavy cream) and increase the heat until the sauce is simmering and keep stirring until the clump is gone.
Is the spinach measured before or after cooking? Asking because I was going to use up that package of frozen spinach I have in the freezer 🙂
The spinach is measured after it's cooked. So, you use 1 cup of cooked spinach in this recipe. You can thaw frozen spinach, measure 1 cup of thawed frozen spinach and use it in this recipe.
Just made this and it's AMAZING! I changed a couple things. I don't like regular tomatoes, so I used sundried tomatoes instead. Also, I didn't have italian seasoning so I used mrs dash. My family loves it! It will definitely be on our table again. Thanks for the recipe Julie.
You're very welcome, Beth! I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe! 🙂 Thank you for stopping by and leaving your comment.
Mine came out really watery. Never thickened.
I think this happens because the pan with the ingredients is not hot enough. Make sure to bring everything to boil before you add the cheese. Add the shredded cheese while everything is boiling, stir for about 10 seconds, then reduce to simmer (the sauce should still be boiling but on a lower level). Keep stirring at all times until the cheese melts with the sauce.
Can the recipe be adapted for preassambly and baking. There is nothing easy about assembling, chopping, cooking and serving all at one time. Thank you
Because the creamy sauce requires constant stirring and changing of cooking temperatures for the cheese to melt, I don't think that this recipe is easily adaptable for baking as it is. Maybe, at some point later, I will make a baked version of this dish.
Would be perfect if it were able to be pre assembled and baked. Standing over the stove and serving immediately is a hassle and tiring. Any ideas? Otherwise, great.
Thank you, Mary. Because the creamy sauce requires constant stirring and changing of cooking temperatures for the cheese to melt, I don’t think that this recipe is easily adaptable for baking as it is. Maybe, at some point later, I will make a baked version of this dish.
have you come up with a baked version?
59 grams of fat per serving?? NO THANK YOU!!
How much is a serving???!!!
The recipe makes 4 servings.
Thank you for the great recipe. This was our Friday night meal.
This was a winner with 2 teenage boys and a construction worker.
You're very welcome! I am glad everyone enjoyed it!
My daughter and I made this delicious recipe last night. Yummy! We only made 2 changes- no red pepper flakes since they are too spicy for us, and I made the cream sauce a little differently. I have not had good success with making homemade Alfredo sauce until I came up with this trick: I warmed the half and half in a sauce pan and added the shredded parmesan cheese. Parmesan never completely melts for me so I put the warm mixture into a blender. That was just what it needed to make a creamier, smoother Alfredo sauce. Then I added the sauce to everything that was in the skillet and gave it a good stir. We will definitely make this recipe again.
Thank you, Alison, for such a great feedback and your cooking tips! I am so glad you've been enjoying this recipe!
Hi! I cannot tolerate dairy. Any recommendations for a substitute? Thanks!
If you can eat coconut milk - use coconut milk instead of half and half. Somebody commented earlier that they used coconut milk in this recipe and it worked really well.