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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.
My boyfriend said this was the best pasta dish he ever had! The only thing I did different was add garlic salt and a little bit of butter to the dish. I let the parmasean cheese melt a little longer than 2 minutes just to make sure it turned out creamy. Thank you for the recipe!! We loved it.
Had higher hopes for this dish. Was expecting it to be creamier and richer. Seemed to be missing something.
This recipe looks delicious! I was wondering if you have any recommendations on how I can make this ahead and freeze it? I'm about to have a baby and am looking for things I can freeze and then pop in the oven. Kinda tired of crock pot and casserole recipes. Let me know if you think it can be done!
Hi Julia, this recipe looks very good however we have food sensitivities and cannot have a cream sauce. Would you have any advice on how the recipe could be slightly altered so the pasta dish was made with tomato sauce? Thank you.
I love this dish and my family loves it too! It's become a regular at my house.
I am looking forward to making this for dinner tomorrow but I do need clarification on the spinach. The step-by-step instructions say to add it after sautéing the chicken; however, the ingredients say 1 cup spinach cooked. It says cook the bacon but nothing mentions cooking the spniach ahead. I have fresh spinach, can I add it in after sautéing the chicken or does it need to be cooked ahead.
I made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious! I added some chopped green onions in as well. I will definitely make this again. I highly recommend this recipe!!
Thank you, Mandy, so glad you liked the recipe! I love chopped green onions - they are a great topping for just about any dinner or salad!
I make this recipe all the time and the Hubby and I LOVE it. He doesn't like spinach so I add broccoli instead. We actually like it spicy so I add extra red pepper flakes. For those that are complaining about it being too spicy. You CAN adjust it to your liking, it's really simple to do....just add LESS or none at all. The recipe is perfect the way it is. YUMMY!!
Thank you, Jen, so glad you liked it! I like it on the spicier side, too. 🙂
I found this recipe and saved it to my pasta list as I knew that it sounded like something that my husband and I would love…and it is! I made it tonight it was perfect, so delicious and quite filling, actually.
Happy to hear that you enjoyed it! 🙂
This looks like a beautiful pasta recipe and I have everything in the fridge. So it is on the menu for tomorrow.
I would have liked to stay and browsed. Except your site was moving so slow. I had to keep xing out ads. I know that is how you earn some money. But,it was extremely annoying . When I printed my recipe it had a ad right over the top left corner. Craziness.
Sorry to complain.
Thank you for adding my pasta recipe to your menu! 🙂 I hope you enjoyed it!
The spinach looks so good and delicious, thanks for sharing with us these pictures and detailed recipe.
Thank you, Maria!
Made this tonight and while it was pretty tasty it never thickened. We don't have half and half in the uk so I combined 210ml of single cream and 105ml of full fat milk. Think that was why? Added all the Parmesan and it never made much difference, should it be simmered for a longer time?
Shane, what you combined should've worked. Did the cheese melt? There is enough cheese in the recipe to make the sauce creamy, given other measurements. Did you heat up the cream and full fat milk to a boiling point and then add the cheese and watch the cheese boil and melt and blend? Let me know. Julia.
Shane, I did more research, and turns out single cream in the UK is the equivalent of half and half in the US. So, that's why your sauce had a hard time thickening - you should've used all of single cream AND BRING IT TO BOIL, ADD CHEESE, AND WATCH IT BUBBLE AND MELT FOR 30 SECONDS, then reduce heat to simmer.
Also, alternatively, you can make American half and half by mixing half double cream and half regular milk (if you live in the UK).
Wow, this looks amazing. Dishes like this make me crave pasta. This looks like a great Mother's Day meal.
Thank you! And, it's very easy to make, too, which is great for any holiday dish!
Hey Julia! I was curious what measurement you considered a serving for this? 1 cup? 2 cups? Please let me know asap, I'm using this recipe for a school project!
Keely, there are 4 servings in this recipe, so I would say 1 cup or 1 and 1/2 cups of pasta + everything else per serving.
I made this for dinner tonight ...Omg delish!!
My house smells amazing .I'm excited for leftovers!!!