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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 liked the dish, it was easy to do. I did notice when reading the directions the recipe asked for grated and shredded cheese. But the instructions only asked for grated cheese to be added with the half/half and say a garnish. I don't know if this was correct but I hope both being the same kind of cheese that it didn't alter the taste.
Hi, I made this and it was very simple to do. My only complaint is it was WAY too spicy 🙁 so bad that we barely wanted to finish it without downing a couple of glasses of milk. Kinda disappointed. Not sure if it was supposed to be this spicy or not...Im sure I followed the recipe exactly. Will be making again though, but without the crushed red pepper.
Thank you!!
Has anyone tried to make extras and freeze in a pan for meal prep for a baby shower gift? This looks delicous and I would much rather have this on hand in my deep freezer than ordering pizza hut pasta meal for convienance. Thanks y'all!
I'm not the type of person to comment on stuff like this, but this is delicious. I don't know how you came up with the recipe but you either need a Nobel prize or a prison sentence( cause it's so good it should be illegal). Made it as is.
Help! I made this tonight and I could not get the sauce to be creamy. It was straight up liquid. What did I do wrong? I left the olive oil in the pot when I added the tomatoes and everything. Are you supposed to leave the oil? Also I would use less crushed red peppers. My poor husband had to take some tums lol but he did have seconds
I made this tonight. I substituted a bag of fresh baby spinach for the cooked spinach, but otherwise I followed the recipe. The chicken was surprisingly tender and tasty. The flavor was very good, but for some reason, the parmesan separated from the half-and-half. I'm not sure why. I've made many sauces (including alfredo) using half-and-half and parmesan, and that's never happened before. Oh, well. It was still yummy.
I made this tonight but with a few changes to fit my diet. I used canned low sodium petite diced tomatoes instead of the large slices. I also used Barilla Protein Penne Pasta to up the protein content. I also used precooked chicken since I was in a bit of a rush.
It came out soooo good! My husband (who is a bit picky when it comes to vegetables in his food ::eye roll::) absolutely LOVED it!!
What is half and half?
Half-and-half is a dairy product sold in the U.S. that we use as creamer in our coffee. It's cream that's a little lower in fat than heavy whipping cream. You can substitute heavy cream for half-and-half. It will make your sauce thick and creamy.
an established portion (like 1 quart of half and half) is 1 pint of milk and 1 pint of heavy cream. 1 quart = 2 pints ( half of amount is milk and the other half is heavy cream).
It's half milk and half cream.
Some also call it coffee cream 😉
Hope this helps!
(About 10% milk )
Just tried this last night. Not impressed. Just proves my theory that no Pinterest recipe should ever be trusted.
We felt the same way. This looked gorgeous, and we were excited to taste it, but it tasted bland. Not sure what happened. Maybe it will taste better reheated, as pasta often does.
This came out SO good! I made it dairy free by using Tofutti cream cheese and Earth Balance butter (maybe a half cup each) instead of the cream. Great recipe, thank you!
I have made this twice now and my family absolutely loves it!! It is delicious!! The first time I made it, I followed the recipe exactly. This time, I added chopped onion and mushrooms that I had sauteed. Perfect!! Thanks for the recipe!
Finally had the chance to make this tonight for my family & wowie was it a hit! Spicy, a little tangy from the tomatoes & pasta! Yum! I used turkey bacon.
Hi, im just wondering if it is possible to make the "half and half " from scratch? Or can i subtitute with something else? Cause i do not have that "half and half" here in my country. Thankyouuu
Heavy whipping cream
I made this last night, and it was delicious!
My husband (I'd call him a "distinguished" eater, who is never afraid to critique everything I cook/bake )was blown away. He actually said he thought it was something he'd order in a restaurant. 🙂
We are babies when it comes to heat, so I only used 1/2 the pepper flakes. We both thought it was still a little hot, but wonderful! I'll make this again for sure, and plan to share your recipe. Thanks!
This was delishious! I agree-- next time I'm only using a pinch of red pepper. But my family loves spicy.