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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Love the look of this pasta. So many colors, it looks delicious. Pasta is almost daily on the menu in my family and the children can never have enough of it! Love your blog.
This looks absolutely delicious, would love to try it out some time soon. 🙂
Looks tasty! We’ve lived in louisiana all our lives and cajun food is by far the best! So can’t wait to test our your recipe!
Makes me so hungry! Looks really delicious!
Hey Chungah!
This recipe looks and sounds absolutely delicious. I cooked a cupple of your recipes so far and you just hit the top of my favourite recipe-blog-list.
I actually don’t live in the US (I’m from Germany) and Cajun-Spice is something you definitely cannot buy here. I have some ideas of how this might taste, but maybe you can help me out and give some details on the ingredients so I can mix something up myself? Thank you! Yvonne
There are actually many easy DIY cajun seasoning recipes available online. I have been meaning to make it myself but I have not gotten around to it just yet!
Easy DIY cajun seasoning recipe:
2 teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons garlic powder, 2 1/2 teaspoons paprika, 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 1/4 teaspoons dried oregano, 1 1/4 teaspoons dried thyme, 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (more or less optional)
Stir together until evenly blended. Store in an airtight container.
Greetings to Germany (I am German but live in the US)
Thanks for the recipe. I can’t do much spice, so I will modify this with less cayenne and red pepper.
If you are able to get it….red peppet(cayenne) works great
This looks delicious! I love alfredo sauce and spice, so this combo is perfect! 🙂
Dani | http://www.styledvariety.com
This sounds absolutely delicious! Just wondering if there’s a way to make it w/o the cream and butter … maybe substituting a little olive oil for it to “stick” to the pasta? In any case – I’m printing this one out! Thanks.
Unfortunately, the cream and butter are key ingredients in this dish so I do not recommend any kind of substitutes without further recipe testing. But as always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions to better suit your dietary restrictions.
Deb- I’m with you and try to curb the fat in my meals as much as possible. I find substituting a low or even Fat Free sour cream or pain yogurt does the trick. It will be less rich, but no decernable difference in flavor. Most people will never notice the switch if the rest of the dish is great!
yes there is you can use no butter an use no dairy creamer instead of the cream it tase just as good it works
I read an alternative for heavy cream is Greek yogurt and milk!
I am always tempted by the color and eye appeal of your recipe long before the taste reaches my lips! A beautiful dish, and I am sure just as creamy and tasty. I love your recipes.