Cajun Chicken Pasta
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Chili’s copycat recipe made at home with an amazingly creamy melt-in-your-mouth alfredo sauce. And you know it tastes 10000x better!
I honestly haven’t been to Chili’s in about 10 years, but this place really holds such good memories for me. I’ve come here with family on many occasions and I might have had my first real date here. No joke.
Hey, when you’re 16, Chili’s is the best date night you will get. And I wouldn’t mind it on a Friday night right now. After all, have you seen their blooming onion?
But this cajun pasta has always had my heart and soul. That creamy alfredo sauce just melts right in your mouth, complemented by the spicy kick of the cajun chicken topped with refreshing tomato chunks and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
The flavor combination is just perfect, and you can make it right at home in 30 minutes or less. That way you can have date night with the same restaurant-quality at home, in sweats, binge-watching Netflix. Done.
Cajun Chicken Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 tablespoon cajun seasoning
- 8 ounces penne pasta
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup heavy cream, or more, to taste
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 Roma tomatoes, diced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine chicken, 1 tablespoon olive oil and cajun seasoning.
- Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a cast iron grill pan over medium high heat. Add chicken and cook, flipping once, until cooked through, about 5-6 minutes on each side. Set aside and keep warm.
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
- 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 and lemon zest. 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, garnished with tomatoes and parsley, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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Absolutely delicious! Always on rotation at my house.
Made this so many times and it’s always delicious!
Damn Delicious! I use different noodles and is still great!
It was better than Chili’s! We double the sauce
This was soooo good! I cheated a bit and bought Classico roasted red pepper Alfredo…adding in the lemon and garlic….a little more kick! Served it with cheese garlic toast and a salad and it was so satisfying. They discontinued this dish or altered it so badly at chilis that it is not worth ordering anymore..now we have a better version to enjoy!
Loved it! We used half and half instead of heavy cream to reduce fat, and we also sautéed a sliced green bell pepper and a pack of sliced mushrooms in some olive oil and Cajun seasoning and added those on top for extra veggies.
This recipe is just “Damn Delicious” But for real it’s awesome . I don’t use the lemon because I just don’t think I would enjoy that flavor in it . But do everything else by recipe and it turned out great and this recipe made it to our dinner rotation. Family loves Thanks for another great recipe ❤️
Made this it was super delicious
All the family loved it
This was so good! We took another reviewer’s suggestion to use less lemon zest because my hubby doesn’t love lemon. We just did a couple of scrapes of the zester. This was so freaking good! Another hit from damn delicious! Thank you.
I don’t have heavy cream I have half and half can i use it
You can sub half and half for heavy cream by adding a little butter, just google it, I never have what I need so half my search history is substitutions haha
This was delicious! My only critique would be the 1/2 tsp lemon zest was a bit too much. Lemon was the first thing we could taste. I would half that next time and possibly double the sauce.
How many cups of heavy cream did you use?
This recipe was absolutely delicious!!! It satisfied my Chilis craving and I think I will opt for this before paying $14/dish at Chilis. The amount of Cajun seasoning was absolutely perfect. My only complaint is that this recipe does not call for scallions, which I added myself, because Chilis includes them and they add some delicious flavor. This recipe will be a staple now!
The first time I made this I love it so much I make it either every week now or every other week! Way better than chilis version
Made this today and it was so good!!! I tweak the recipe a little and added some bell peppers and chili flakes and it really hit the spot!
Easy and delicious!!! Made for dinner today! Sauce was creamy and just right.
This is awesome. Will be making it on a regular basis. I did double the sauce. Absolutely delicious. Going to try the chicken grilled next time now that it’s getting warm. Thank you for this recipe
Very good recipe, but next time I would probably half the Cajun spice.
Love the recipe! So good!
Thanks for the recipe! I just sprinkled my chicken bc my son doesn’t like it spicy haha. Super easy! Will make again
Absolutely delicious!
Family raved about this one. Thanks!
So good! The only thing we did different was green onion instead of parsley
This recipe is awesome. EVERYONE in my family loves it and raves about it. We even commented recently that this recipe is better than the Cajun Pasta at House of Blues (Orlando). Definitely a “keeper.”