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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've been making this recipe for a few years now. I do not make the creamy garlic sauce, partly for fat but I like it much better without. To avoid soggy bacon pieces(with or without making the sauce) , don't add until your serving. I use alot of parm cheese it's so good!! This dish doesn't reheat well for me so multiple servings the night of!! Thank you Julia!!
I am so happy to hear you've been making this for a few years. Comments like that truly make my day. Thank you for sharing your feedback on how you like to prepare it (without the cream) and I really appreciate the 5-star review! 🙂
I’be made this recipe several times before and it was excellent. However, the recipe has changed. The ratio of cream and parm is different and the order is different. Would you please publish the prior recipe?
Karen, you are correct - I have recently updated this recipe - I thought this version was better. I will paste the original recipe in my next comment. If I get more feedback similar to yours, I will revert to the original recipe.
Sorry but never rinse the pasta and also adding a bit of the pasta water to the sauce helps!
Great tips!
Can I use shrimp with this recipe instead of chicken?
Yes, you can. In fact, I have a very similar recipe to this with shrimp: Creamy Pasta with Shrimp, Bacon, Spinach, Garlic, and Tomatoes
I’ve made this recipe a million times and it’s always a hit in our family!!
I am so happy to hear that! Thank you for the comment and the 5-star review!
It was really good, I just added potato starch with half and half to make the sauce thicker. Also, I added lemon rinds.
Ria, I am glad you liked it! Thank you for your comment and a 5-star review - I appreciate it!
My 13 year old grandson has made this twice (with my help) and it is one of his favorite dishes to make along with a side helping of garlic bread. The first time he made it it was a little dry so this time instead of 5 tomatoes, we added 2 cans of diced tomatoes and a can of Rotel. We also used a whole can of evaperated milk (1 1/2 cups). By adding the canned tomatoes and extra milk it gave it a very creamy base which was excellant for sopping up with the garlic bread. She said he wants to make it again next week!
Deana, so glad you and your grandson enjoyed this recipe! Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing such positive feedback - I really appreciate it.
Followed the recipe exactly, just used cocktail tomatoes instead of regular tomatoes. It was delicious! Very flavorful-no need to add any additional salt. The sauce could have been slightly thicker, but I wouldn’t say it was “watery.” Leftovers will just soak all the sauce up and make for an even more delicious 2nd day meal!
So glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks for the comment!
Quite delicious! I used full cream milk and one less tomato and it was fantastic!
Marianne, so glad you liked it! Thank you for the comment! 🙂
Great recipe except like people saying very watery. I think using full cream instead of half and half would fix this. When I added the half and half that was when I was less confident in the recipe.
Very tasty indeed! However a little Watery and Parmesan clumped together with the spinach. Is this really over 1,000 cal per serving? Seems like a lot.
This recipe has become a regular in our house! The only thing I change is I only use cream, no milk and only about half the amount as I find it is way too watery if I stick to the recipe.
Great idea in this, but agree with another commenter: very very watery. I ended up having to throw in way more cheese and try some thickening techniques that ended up working but resulted in very over cooked pasta and spinach. In fact, all of my shredded Parmesan clumped around the spinach becoming big wet globs that were less than appealing. The end result was still tasty but only after throwing everything in the cupboard at it... Disappointing recipe but a great start.
I have made this recipe so many times now!! Can't even begin to tell u how wonderful it is!! It is most definitely one of my regular recipes now, whether family nite or guests! LOVE IT!!!!!
What an amazing collection of recipes! Especially the pasta. Thanks! I don't know where to start!
This was absolutely delicious..thanks for sharing..went exactly by the recipe..will definitely make again!
Easy to prepare; reasonably quick, & SO VERY DELICIOUS
Thank you for sharing, Julia!