Garlic Butter Fettuccine with Chicken and Zucchini
So buttery, so garlicky, and just so creamy! Made with lemon-herb chicken and crisp-tender zucchini.
Garlic. A whole mess of butter. Parmesan. Heavy cream. And pasta. So let’s just call this what it really is. It’s not diet food. It’s not healthy. It’s pure comfort food with crisp-tender zucchini for a little bit of balance. It’s perfection, really.
And you can easily swap out the chicken for shrimp or take it out completely to convert this to a meatless meal. It’s up to you.
But there’s two important things to do here.
1. It is best to use freshly grated Parmesan cheese. I recommend staying far away from that green can.
2. Extra Parmesan never hurt anybody so be sure to add that on.
Garlic Butter Fettuccine with Chicken and Zucchini
Ingredients
- 8 ounces fettuccine
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 zucchini, sliced
- 1 yellow squash, sliced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup heavy cream, or more, to taste
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
- Season chicken with Italian seasoning; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a grill pan over medium high heat. Add chicken and cook, flipping once, until cooked through, about 5-6 minutes on each side; add lemon juice. Set aside and keep warm.
- Add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to the grill pan. Add zucchini and squash in a single layer and cook until charred on both sides and just beginning to soften, about 2 minutes per side; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Set aside and keep warm.
- Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
- Gradually whisk in heavy cream, basil, oregano and red pepper flakes. Cook, whisking constantly, until incorporated, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in Parmesan until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. If the mixture is too thick, add more heavy cream as needed; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Stir in pasta and gently toss to combine.
- Serve immediately with chicken and zucchini, garnished with parsley, if desired.
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This looks so good so excited to try this and make this
This is one of the easiest creamy Alfredo-like sauces I’ve made. Everything came together perfectly!!! Amazing flavor — I highly recommend this.
Hi I noticed that you have 2 tablespoons of parsley in there twice. Is it all for garnish or do you add it somewhere else at some point? Thanks.
Wow! This is the most delicious alfredo pasta I’ve ever had! Can not believe how amazing this turned out! Definitely my new go-to for a quick and tasty dinner !
This recipe was so delicious. My entire family loved it!
A little labor  intensive but well worth the effort!  Olive Garden has nothing on this recipe!
First, I love your website and recipes. It’s my go to! I made this tonight and the parmesan to butter/cream ratio seemed off. My kids turned their nose up at the pasta and just ate the chicken and zucchini. I have to say….I personally think more cheese is needed.Â
I made this for dinner and it was delicious!!! I used the same pan to cook all of it in shifts (I cooked the pasta in a separate pot) and it was easy too! Yummo!!!
Oh great!
I’m having guests over for dinner tomorrow and am thinking about trying this! I’m lactose intolerant so I’m thinking about using ghee instead of butter and full fat coconut milk instead of the cream. Do you think those substitutions would work?
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
This dish looks so mouthwatering, @ 11:24 in the morning its making my mouth water. Â Yum!
Love this dish  and will make it tonight, but how do you measure 8  oz of pasta?
One package of pasta is typically 16 ounces so you can simply use half (you can eyeball it!). Or you can use a scale for more precise measuring.
Is so good for Sunday with my grandson!Â
This looks awesome..
This was delicious! I used turkey cutlets because that’s what I had on hand and my family loved it. I will definitely make it again, but maybe make a little more sauce. Thank you!
Holy cow, was this GOOD! Followed the recipe exactly, except subbed the heavy cream with half and half (that’s what I had on hand). My only regret was not doubling the recipe! I can’t make the full-fat version of this next!Â
Very high in saturated fat……………
I made this for dinner yesterday and it was delicious even though I forgot to get heavy cream from the store. Luckily I had some half and half and it still came out great. I made the Roasted Parmesan Garlic recipe earlier this week and it was very tasty as well. I have added many of your recipes to my bookmarks and printed them for my recipe binder. There are many veggie recipes for me that I like because I am vegetarian but my boyfriend is not so these recipes work. I am glad I found your site thanks!
This chicken fettuccine recipe looks amazing – I can’t wait to try it! I usually make chicken and broccoli Alfredo in a cream cheese sauce (http://doubletherecipe.com/2016/01/13/chicken-broccoli-fettuccine-alfredo/) but I am definitely going to have to make this soon. I love the use of zucchini in the dish!
Thanks for a great post!
Wow, this is an incredible recipe. Our whole family enjoyed this deeply satisfying, comfort food meal. Thank you!
We have a bunch of zucchini from our garden to use up, excited to try this tonight. I Love the flavor combination, garlic butter and use of veggies in here!
THANKS FOR THE AWESOME RECIPIE :DD CNT WAIT TO MAKE IT!!!!! XD
if we dont have a grill pan can we use a regular grill or a frying pan?
~THANKS AGAIN 4 ALL UR TASTY RECIPES~
Yes, a standard pan will work just fine.
This was fantastic! So easy, and my boys gobbled it up ( okay, they skipped the zucchini).
I used half and half instead of heavy cream (slightly less sinful) and it came out great. This is a keeper- maybe not the healthiest recipe , but I am sure it beats a restaurant version of chicken alfredo.
Chungha, you are the best! I love your website, and every recipe I have made has been a keeper.
That looks delicious!! Nice and easy to do. Thanks for sharing your recipe. I love Italia!!
Greets
NJ-Cook4You Catering
Wow!! This looks so delicious. We have a pasta dish at least once a week so will be making this very soon.
yummm! fettuccine is definitely NOT a diet food and for good reason! this looks super good
I will definitely be making this, however, I’ll set aside some of the pasta water to use if the sauce is too thick and may sub 1/2C of the heavy cream with whole milk.
What is heavy cream?
Heavy cream, also known as whipping cream, is the thick, fat-rich part of milk and has a fat content between 36 and 40%. You can learn more about it here.
Doesn’t this look amazing! Garlic butter and zucchini all wrapped up in carby chicken goodness!
Looks so good. Thank you Chungah. Have a great Sunday and all of next week.
This looks fantastic! As do all your recipes. I will be sure to add it to my bookmarks to make soon!
Wow! This pasta was fantastic! I invited some family over just to try this cause I was so excited at how delicious it came out. All were in agreement that it was restaurant quality and waaaaaay better than anything at Olive Garden! So flavorful and creamy and the charred veggies kick it up a notch! Definitely adding this to our dinner rotation Â