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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I’ve made these several times and the family loves this dish. The only addition is flour to thicken the cream sauce, 2-3 Tblsp. I also increase the Parmesan cheese to 1/2 cup and 2 cups of heavy cream.
Looks wonderful…I am making this to take to a sick friend for her family…how would you suggest it should be re:heated?
You can reheat as needed on the stovetop, microwave or oven – it’s up to you!
It’s best reheated if you reheat sauce separate then toss pasta in.
Larry
Our family loved this easy recipe. It was great with turkey kielbasa.
This was good & the whole family enjoyed it. Next time I will double it.
This is great! Such a quick dish!
At first I thought it was going to be a bit bland, with all the cream an not that much amount of spice. I probably used more garlic than the recipe and decided to put some basil on top as well, which was a nice addition.
Great, creamy dish though with lots of flavour. I liked the touch of cold tomatoes on top and my chicken was nice and juicy.
Definitely goes on my ‘great recipe’ list.
Thank you!
This is “DELICIOUS”! That is the word my Husband used when he messaged me from work about the meal I sent with him. I tasted it as well and had to try hard to limit my portion! I added shrimp and this is now on the “Keeper list”!! Thank you.
I made this for dinner tonight and it was in fact DAMN DELICIOUS!! My whole family gobbled it up and it is going into the permanent dinner rotation. So yummy!
I love Chili’s CCP so hopefully this will turn out just as great! Btw, isn’t the blooming onion from Outback? Lol
A perfect meal for a hurried weeknight! My produce drawers are always filled with various odds and ends as well 😛
Would you be so kind as to share what brand cajun seasoning you use? Thanks so much!
I actually do not have a brand that I prefer over others – it just depends what my grocery store carries and if there are any sales. 🙂
Oh em gee. My husband and I made this tonight and followed it exactly except I didn’t have fresh parm (just the stuff in the jar and did half cup instead). He started chopping up the chicken before cooking so we didn’t cook it as a whole breast. It still turned out fine. Anyways – it was sooo good. Actually I ate so much and just about ate the whole thing myself. It makes a good amount too and very filling. It fed both of us plus left overs. Thanks again for a great recipe.
hi there! i can’t wait to try this, it looks delicious. however i have a question, is there any good substitute for heavy cream? i can’t seem to find it here in mexico unless it’s combined with whipping cream and it’s sweet, so i was wondering how can i substitute it
Half and half would be a great substitute.
This was super easy and delicious….my fussy husband even liked it! I will make this again for sure!
Just made this tonight. So incredibly tasty and easy to make! I made my own cajun spice mix (recipe from allrecipes.com) to put on the chicken breasts. I pounded the chicken breasts to make them even in thickness, and after flipping it onto the other side, I covered the pan and turned the heat to low, so the chicken stayed moist and was thoroughly cooked. The sauce was amazingly delicious as well, considering how simple it was to make. Was out of tomatoes but threw in some sweet corn as a substitute veggie. I have a lot of recipes saved from your website and I can’t wait to try them all over time!
I have been cooking your recipes everynight.. Hmm whats for dinner? Damn Delicious. We had this wonderful pasta dish tonight and It was AMAZING. we added basil instead of parsley and a little chopped baby spinach. SO Yummy. Thank you!!!!!!
Great idea with the spinach, always looking to sneak that in to meals 🙂
hands down my favorite recipe, sooooo good!
This chicken pasta looks absolutely amazing and the fact that it’s prepared in under 30 minutes makes it even better! Pinned and can’t wait to try. Love your new blog design, by the way! 🙂
Hi there
You probably won’t post this but a chicken breast is no way done is 6-7 minutes each side. I am a chef and no matter which way you look at it pan frying, grill pan, oven, steam etc a chicken breast cannot be done in that time
I understand you want to keep the time down but 6/7 minutes each side is either burnt and pink in middle or cooked okay outside and pink in the middle. Yes letting it rest by keeping warm may continue cooking it inside up to about 10 degrees more but that’s not enough for a whole chicken breast. Sorry if that annoys you but it’s a fact.
David, chicken breasts vary in size so yes, the larger ones will certainly take longer to cook through. The timing here is simply an estimation and obviously not set in stone.
You said “until cooked through” approximately 6-7 minutes on each side, KEY WORDS being UNTIL COOKED THROUGH! Obviously if David is a chef he would understand that! I don’t get why people have to always be so negative BTW Great recipe! Thanks for sharing
When I buy free ranch, organic chicken breasts, the cooking time is about 7 minutes per side. But if I have gotten some Anna Nicole full of steroids breasts, weighing in at over a pound a piece, those are obviously gonna take longer!
You use tenderizer hammer to flatten thicker part of chicken breast. it will cook on 5-6 min per side. Works every time 🙂
That’s what I did!
Hey David , the recipe calls for ” boneless ” skinless chicken breasts. 6 minutes per side is more than enough. Especially if pounded to even thickness. Hope your not annoyed but that’s a fact . Nice job Chungah. Keep up the good work.
Fact: The smaller chicken breasts I use cook perfectly in the amount of time that is recommended in this recipe, if not even less. I am paranoid and use a thermometer so I should know. Thanks Chungah, I have tried countless recipes of yours, and they have become favorites in our house, bravo!
6 minutes per side was just perfect for my chicken breasts (they were maybe even very slightly over). Thanks for the great recipe 🙂
I pounded out my chicken breasts and they absolutely cooked in the stated time in the recipe.
This looks lovely – this dish is really balanced but its delicious as well! Love it! xoxo Katei http://whatskatieupto.com
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.