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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.
We decided to make this tonight but our cream never thickened 🙁 We thought we did everything right... any suggestions?
This is one of our all time favorites. I add some extra tomatoes to make it a more rosa cream sauce. It’s just as good the next day, if there are any leftovers.
Awesome recipe! I make it all the time. But please tell me how to stop the cream from curdling when I add it. It does not stay smooth looking 🙁 I do use canned tomatoes and I have tried warming the cream first but it still curdles.
Thanks!
Thank you, Brenda! So sorry to hear the cream curdles. What kind of cream do you use? Heavy cream?
Hi! This recipe looks absolutely amazing! I wanted to make this tonight, but I was just wondering if it could be made without the bacon? Thanks!
You can definitely make this without bacon! There are so many flavors in this dish that even if you remove the bacon, the recipe will still have lots of flavor!
My family loves this - every time - we use heaps of fresh spinach - add chilli flakes - gradually 🙂 and lots of cracked black pepper. We do keep the sauce separate so it can be used on different pasta over the next few days - we also use light sour cream with a bit of milk as our 1/2 and 1/2
Thank you, Anne! So glad your family has been enjoying this recipe. What a great idea to keep the sauce separate from pasta - it does help keep the texture of both the sauce and the pasta intact. Thanks for sharing that using light sour cream with a bit of milk works as a base for this cream sauce!
Hi Julia...I'm an Truck driver and avid cooker and am always searching for something different for the family after a long day on the road. Everything came out to a tee except when I added the cheese. It clumped up after I added it. I made sure the 1/2 & 1/2 was boiling before I added the cheese. However all things being equal. It still tasted amazing and the family loved it. Oh I did have to add a little flour and water at the end as I found the sauce to be a little watery. I think it might of been the frozen spinach. Next time I'll def use fresh spinach. Keep up the fresh new ideas. Your a god send when I'm searching for something to make
And I left my creativity on The New Jersey Turnpike...lol
Larry, thank you for such a kind comment! I am glad you enjoyed this recipe even though the cheese clumped up. I think what might have happened is that your pan and the sauce was not hot enough. If clumping occurs, increase the heat from simmer to boil for a quick period of time and keep stirring at all times. Then reduce the heat to medium simmer (not the lowest setting of simmer) and keep stirring the cheese in the sauce until the cheese completely melts.
If I use heavy cream in place of half and half do I have to adjust the amount? More? Less?
Use slightly smaller amount of heavy cream, it's also likely that your sauce will get too thick, in which case thin it out by gradually adding cooked pasta water (or milk) while the sauce simmers, constantly stirring.
This recipe is great with shrimp!
Yes, I agree!
Hi, is this the calorie count and macros per serving?
Yes, the calories are per 1 serving. There are 4 servings in total.
I love how this recipe tastes, it tastes amazing. But, I really suck at cooking, I think I might have simmered the parm for too long and all the cheese stuck to the chicken and kinda clumped up. While the recipe didn't come out looking too great for me because I'm not the greatest cook, it still tastes amazing!!
Stephanie, I am glad you enjoyed the recipe! The cheese could have clumped up because the pan was not hot enough. I would increase the heat to bring the sauce to a quick boil and then reduce to medium simmer and keep stirring until the cheese starts melting.
Hi, Recipe looks delicious!! Do you think coconut milk/cream would work as a dairy free option?
Thanks!
Yes, coconut milk will work!
Can fresh spinach be used instead of cooked? Or are you meaning to hat the spinach will cook down and wilt when added with the tomatoes? Just curious... I'd rather start with fresh than cook already cooked spinach longer if I can.
I use fresh spinach everytime I make this recipe. I’ve added the spinach to the 1/2 and 1/2 and wilted it down that way and I’ve also dropped it in the boiling pasta water for a minute and then scooped it out with a slotted spoon. Both worked just fine.
Thank you, Jessica, for your feedback! Yes, I've done that many times too - just used fresh spinach and added it to the sauce.
You can definitely add fresh spinach instead of cooked. Add fresh spinach right to the sauce and it will wilt pretty quickly.
Can I use pepper jack cheese instead of parmesan?
Flavor-wise, Parmesan cheese is much better suited for this recipe than pepper jack cheese. I would stick with Parmesan.
Hi, Would this recipe work with spaghettini?
Yes, it will!
hi just new too your site. from n.z. we are huge pasta lovers in my family and this sounds awesome too have after a day in the garden.
Enjoy this recipe! 🙂