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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Omg, this was sooo good! Trying to get my husband to cook more so I gave him this recipe, and I would’ve thought it was from a restaurant if I hadn’t seen him cooking. Definitely adding this to our dinner rotation!
Made this for my bf and he loved it! Pretty easy although my sauce didn’t thicken up as much as I thought it might. Plenty for 2 meals.
I used this alfredo recipe as a base. I added more spices (Badia Complete, Slap Ya Mama, liquid smoke, Pink Himalayan Salt)
I used smoked sausage instead of chicken and added fresh serrano peppers to the top garnish…
I definitely made a double batch of the alfredo sauce because I like it like that. I used heavy cream and half and half because it was what I had.
Love the twang of the lemon zest!
I love Chili’s Cajun chicken pasta! I had a pasta craving so I made this last night. The flavor is spot on, a great dish. I used scallions on top instead of parsley. I was sort of wishing I’d cooked the scallions a little so next time I’ll add them to the dish earlier. I also felt like the recipe needed more sauce. Next time I will try 2 cups half and half (or heavy cream), 1/2 to 1 cup shredded fresh Parmesan, double the lemon zest, and I’ll add some Cajun seasoning to the sauce too. I will be making this again, the flavors are so good.
Delicious! I started marinating the chicken a couple days before with the cajun spices. Don’t know if that changed any flavor but the chicken was delicious! I also didn’t really measure anything. Just went with what felt right but I did add juice from half of the lemon and it was so good. I wish I had added more! This whole recipe was amazing and I can’t wait to make it again!
I’m making this tonight! I do not have heavy cream, couldn’t make it to the grocery store. Can you use milk to the mixture?
Did regular milk work?
Don’t use regular milk. Go to the store the sauce is amazing.
This was delicious, but I did make a few changes because we like things spicy. I added extra cream, more than doubled the fresh grated parmesan cheese, and added a can of drained Rotel at the end. We all loved it and it has already become a family favorite. I will make again! Thanks
I made this the other night and it was soooo good! I double the ingredients except for the pasta. I used Zatarains Cajun seasoning. I did add some of the Cajun seasoning to the sauce as well as someone suggested. To make it a little more saucy I added chicken broth to the cream sauce to get it to the consistency I wanted, as pasta absorbs sauce. Wonderful recipe!
Great dish just added buffalo sauce for spice a little jalapeño and mushrooms! Delish!
So amazing!!!
OMG!!!! So good!! Will definitely be adding to my dinner meals rotation!! I butterflied my chicken breasts and it was amazing!!
Super simple and oh so delicious!!! Thank you!! I added some Cajun seasoning to the sauce… so good
This recipe is delicious I like my pasta saucy so I agree double up on the recipe, I also make my own cajun spice using Paul Prudhommes’s blackened seasoning blend it’s perfect
Do you need to use parmasean cheese? Will pre-grated work?Can another type of cheese be used instead?
So good! My toddler and husband enjoyed it very much. I added broccoli to get a little more veggies in and it was a hit.
I’ve always loved this dish at Chili’s. It was my go-to. I’d literally go there just for this. This recipe is AMAZING. It tastes identical to the one at Chili’s. The only part I’ve had issues with when making is the sauce not getting thick. So I just continue adding parmesan cheese and it thickens up. And it’s probably me and not the recipe. I’m not good at cooking lol
add a quarter or a half tablespoon of cornstarch as youre mixing the sauce together. It’ll help thicken the sauce
Super delicious !!
Super good!! All of your recipes are damn delicious 🙂
Always great! I have 3 sons and this is one of their favorite dishes!
I’ve used this recipe before but I decided to make a few additions. I add chopped crispy oven backed bacon, slitghly steamed broccoli and carrots, chopped cooked onions, and parsley to the pasta mixture then serve it with garlic bread and a salad. It is quite yummy!
This recipe was so good! My husband is not a huge fan of pasta and he had two big servings. I did end up using a splash or two more of cream because I like my pasta saucy and I added a few dashes of cajun seasoning as well to give a little heat. I almost didn’t add the tomatoes because I felt they were just for garnish but they are very much needed to add some fresh cooling flavors that help cut through the delicious cream sauce.