This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
Chicken Mozzarella Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes - Italian-inspired dinner with the best homemade creamy pasta sauce! The sun-dried tomato pasta sauce is made from scratch using basil, red pepper flakes, garlic, paprika, cream, and shredded Mozzarella cheese.
I am a huge fan of pasta, and some of the most popular pasta recipes on this site include this chicken mozzarella pasta that you are reading right now, creamy chicken pasta with bacon, and pesto chicken pasta. One thing all these pasta recipes have in common is that they use creamy, comforting sauces.
If you want to try chicken pasta that is more refreshing, without the creamy sauce, I whole-heartedly recommend family favorite chicken pasta with spinach and tomatoes or super flavorful Italian sausage pasta.
Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta with Chicken
- This recipe features sun-dried tomatoes and basil. Both ingredients are popular in Italy and in the Mediterranean region.
- The most prominent flavor in this recipe is the homemade sun-dried tomato sauce. The sauce is made from scratch by combining cream with shredded Mozzarella cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, basil, and red pepper flakes.
- Cooked chicken and penne pasta are then smothered in this delicious creamy Mozzarella pasta sauce. There is enough sauce to coat every single bite.
Ingredients for sun-dried tomato sauce
- 3 garlic cloves
- 4 oz sun-dried tomatoes
- olive oil
- salt
- paprika
- basil
- 1 cup half-and-half (or ½ cup heavy cream + ½ cup milk)
- 1 cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
How to make sun-dried tomato sauce
- In a large skillet, cook 3 cloves of minced garlic and 4 oz of chopped sun-dried tomatoes in 1 tablespoon of olive oil on high-medium heat for about 1 minute.
- Add ½ cup of heavy cream + ½ cup of milk (or 1 cup of half-and-half) to the same skillet and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer.
- Add 1 cup of shredded Mozzarella cheese.
- Simmer and stir until the cheese melts and forms a creamy pasta sauce.
- Add 1 tablespoon of dried basil, paprika, and at least ¼ teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Stir to combine.
- Season with about ¼ teaspoon of salt.
Cooking Tips
- Use either sun-dried tomatoes without oil or sun-dried tomatoes in oil (in a jar). Note: if using sun-dried tomatoes in oil (in a jar), make sure to drain sun-dried tomatoes from oil, before using them.
- Sprinkle a small amount of paprika over the chicken before cooking - it adds flavor as well as the color to the dish.
- Make sure to reserve some pasta water as you will DEFINITELY need it to thin out the cream sauce.
- Feel free to increase the amount of spices for this recipe: basil, red pepper flakes, paprika. This will make the sun-dried tomato sauce even more flavorful!
- Make sure to season the chicken mozzarella pasta with just the right amount of salt. That means you might have to add more salt. Salt will enhance the flavors of basil and sun-dried tomatoes.
How to Make Chicken Mozzarella Pasta
1) In a large skillet, on medium heat sauté garlic and sun-dried tomatoes in the olive oil. Remove the sun-dried tomatoes from the skillet.
2) Season sliced chicken with salt and paprika.
3) Add the chicken to the skillet and cook on high heat.
4) Add back the sun-dried tomatoes. Add half-and-half and shredded Mozzarella cheese.
5) Bring the mixture to boil, then reduce to simmer and stir the sun-dried tomato sauce until the cheese melts.
6) Add spices: basil, crushed red pepper flakes, salt.
7) Add cooked and drained penne pasta and stir to combine.
More recipes featuring sun-dried tomato pasta
- Creamy Shrimp Pasta with Mozzarella Sauce features shrimp instead of chicken.
- Asiago Chicken Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Spinach - this sun-dried tomato pasta is made even more flavorful with the addition of Asiago cheese and spinach.
- Scallop Pasta features scallops - another protein you can use in place of chicken in a recipe that is otherwise very similar to this one.
- Creamy Mozzarella Pasta with Smoked Sausage is a great choice if you want to make the same pasta with sausage.
- Sun-Dried Tomato and Mushroom Pasta is the meatless version of this recipe.
Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta with Chicken and Creamy Mozzarella Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 garlic cloves , minced
- 4 oz sun-dried tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 lb chicken breast tenderloins , sliced
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- 1 cup half and half (or use ½ cup heavy cream + ½ cup milk)
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese , shredded (do not use fresh Mozzarella, use pre-shredded Mozzarella)
- 8 oz penne pasta (for gluten free, use gluten free brown rice pasta)
- 1 tablespoon basil
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ½ cup reserved cooked pasta water or more
- ¼ teaspoon salt to taste
Instructions
- In a large skillet, sauté garlic and sun-dried tomatoes (drained from oil) in 2 tablespoons of olive oil (reserved from the sun-dried tomatoes jar) for 1 minute on medium heat until the garlic is fragrant.
- Remove the sun-dried tomatoes from the skillet, leaving the olive oil.
- Add sliced chicken (salted and lightly covered in paprika for color) and cook on high heat for 1 minute on each side. Remove from heat.
- Cook pasta according to package instructions. Reserve some cooked pasta water. Drain the pasta.
- Slice sun-dried tomatoes into smaller pieces and add them back to the skillet with chicken.
- To make creamy pasta sauce, add half-and-half (see substitution for half-and-half in the Recipe Notes section below) and Mozzarella cheese to the skillet, and bring to a gentle boil.
- Immediately reduce to simmer and cook, constantly stirring, until all cheese melts and creamy sauce forms.
- Add cooked and drained pasta to the skillet with the cream sauce, and stir to combine.
- Add 1 tablespoon of basil, and at least ¼ teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Stir to combine.
- If the creamy sauce is too thick: Add about ½ cup of reserved cooked pasta water to the skillet to thin it out. Do not add all of pasta water at once - you might need less or more of it.
- Season the chicken pasta with salt and more red pepper flakes, to taste, if needed. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes for flavors to combine.
- Note: Make sure to salt the dish just enough to bring out of the flavors of basil and sun-dried tomatoes.
Notes
- What is half-and-half? Substitute ½ cup of milk + ½ cup of heavy cream for 1 cup of half-and-half.
- If using sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil (in a jar), make sure to drain sun-dried tomatoes from oil, before using them. Reserve 2 tablespoons of this drained olive oil.
- Do not use fresh Mozzarella. Fresh Mozzarella is usually sold as a large ball or small balls in a brine or water solution. Do not shred fresh Mozzarella. Use pre-shredded Mozzarella cheese sold in bags.
Nutrition
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.
This recipe was originally published in October 2014 and updated in 2018.
The chicken mozzarella pasta was delicious, but it was very difficult to get through the recipe because your page kept making me close my browser, because it's too full of ads.
Made this tonight and it was very good! I added a little extra garlic and made a bit more cream sauce. Personal preference. Next time I will try with lemon chicken (my daughters suggestion) and fresh basil. Think it will add a little extra something. My only complaint was the ease of reading it. Maybe I'm overly exhausted today, but the directions didn't flow well to me. Definitely not a deterrent to try this meal! My daughter and I both enjoyed it. Thank you for a wonderful, easy weeknight dinner!
i know i'm pretty late to the party to be commenting on this recipe but i've made it a few times and it's amazing! everyone who i've served it to loves it, even my kids who have a love-hate relationship with sundried tomatoes, which in fair are quite piquant and maybe taste a little weird to them while they're still little. i'm not trying to be a snob here but honestly...i think maybe a lot of the people who are saying it's bland are maybe not used to 'grown up food' with more complex flavors. i wouldn't say everything in this dish was super subtle or a very acquired taste but it's true, it doesn't smack you in the face the way a tinned-soup-and-three-types-of-cheese chicken casserole might. as an adult you shouldn't have to be adding tons of extra salty meat and cheeses to this pasta to enjoy it. artichokes and white wine are great suggestions, though!
I'm not sure about cooking the garlic on high heat with the tomatoes. Burnt garlic is nasty, so I think I would wait until tomatoes are nearly charred, then turn down the heat and add the garlic.
you're right. the garlic burned almost immediately. my house was filled with smoke and i used a few choice words. 🙂
So i used a bunch of different kinds of cheeeses. Mozza, tex mex, goat cheese and some others. Used 1.5 cups of half and half and about 3 cups of cheese. Didnt use the pasta water. I made it really thick like a paste. I had leftover fried chicken that i had made from the night before and i used that as the chicken. The coating made it really flavorful and added a great flavor. Used about a tablespoon of red pepper flakes. Also i used 5 garlic cloves. Anyways i made this before but with the exact recipe following it. But this time it was sooo much better. Use different cheeses is all i can say. Its very delicious. I wish i had more basil to add but i ran out when i was almost at a tablespoon. Anyways the mixture of the extra red pepper flakes and the tex mex made it a little spicy.
Love your recipes but was wondering about how well they freeze. if you could include that info would be great. I fix things for my daughter in college that can be frozen and reheated. tks
I made this tonight, with a few changes. I used heavy cream, and added parmesan, bacon and broccoli. So so good! Definitely a keeper in my book!
Thank you for this recipe! I am not much of a cook. My family is tired of the same old things, but when I do try to make something, they never like it, but they loved this. I made a couple mistakes and should have read the comments first, but next time I will use more salt and boil the half & half first before I add the cheese. Thank you for this recipe. Next I'm going to look for another recipe to try on your site.
Perfect!! Added fresh mushrooms and extra half and half and cheese. I allowed liquid to boil and added cheese. Removed from heat and stirred constantly. Added green onion for garnish. So good.
It needs white wine and goat cheese.
Has anyone come up with a suitable substitute for all that cream? Seems far too rich and far too heavy, especially if you're trying to cook healthy food for your family. Open to suggestions!
I just made this last night and it was great! I forgot to add the red pepper flakes and basil. My sauce was pretty dry, even after adding pasta water but I think it's because I kept it cooking on the stove for too long. Will definitely make this again soon!
The picture with the chicken and the tomatoes doesn't make sense because following the recipe that never occurs, right? (I haven't ruled out that I'm an idiot here, but I think I'm right...)
But the recipe is dynamite... Incredibly delicious.. I diced up chicken after cooking so it's easier to eat and added mushrooms to initial steps because... Creamy sauce and mushrooms, right?
But this is in our permanent recipe file and I can't thank you enough. Crazy yummy and super easy.
hey Julia,
I made this tonight and I'm not sure what happened... It was tasty but the sauce was... Broken? Maybe too much grease? It wasn't creamy but more (having a hard time describing) beaded? I am unsure, any thoughts? Any assistance you could offer would be much appreciated, I really want to make this again, and successfully.
followed your "recipe" to the letter. what a complete waste of time and energy not to mention food. this was so bland and far from creamy. I should have known better when pasta water is used in the sauce. I will be sure to not to use any of your "recipes" ever again!!!!