This Creamy Chicken Bacon And Spinach Pasta is one of our all-time favorite dinner recipes. Tender juicy chicken over pasta in a rich creamy sauce with spinach and bacon.
An excellent easy weeknight or weekend dinner recipe for the whole family. Yum!
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Why It's Yummy
- It’s so flavorful and won’t take you longer than 30 minutes to make. Even faster if you have prepped ingredients ahead. Cook bacon, and chicken, make the sauce and cook the pasta in it.
- If you love easy Chicken skillet recipes try these no less flavorful dinners such as Creamy Cheddar Chicken and Creamy Chicken Pasta In White Wine Sauce.
- Easy Ingredients. I have (almost) always all of these ingredients in the kitchen so it’s super easy to throw together a perfect meal.
Instructions
This creamy chicken and bacon pasta is made with gluten-free pasta. We cook the pasta directly in the sauce and the starch from pasta gives the sauce extra thickness. If you are new cooking the pasta right in the sauce, I can reassure you, it is a very easy process!
Prepare your ingredients. Wash and dry spinach leaves using a Salad Spinner.
Rinse and pat dry chicken. Cut the chicken breast in half lengthwise.
If the halves seem too thick, pound them with a rolling pin through a zip lock bag or plastic wrap on an even surface.
Season chicken with paprika, oregano, basil, salt, and black pepper. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add oil, and once hot and sizzling cook the chicken for 5 minutes on each side until golden brown and not sticking to the pan.
If it sticks to the pan, it needs to be cooked longer. Depending on the thickness of the chicken breast you may need to cook it longer than 5 minutes.
Transfer the cooked chicken onto a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil. Slice it into thin slices (strips) against the grain (or you can cut it into bite-sized pieces, cubes). Set aside. Chicken is done when its internal temperature reaches a minimum of 165 F.
Cook crispy bacon. Wipe down the bottom of the skillet from darkened bits and fry bacon until desired crispiness. I don’t like very crispy bacon in pasta so I cook it just a little bit. Set aside.
Creamy parmesan sauce. In the same skillet with all the bacon drippings and bits (the skillet needs to be large and deep enough to fit the creamy sauce and pasta. Or use a dutch oven or large pot for this), add onion, saute for a couple of minutes and follow with garlic. Saute another 1 minute.
Add the broth, simmer for 5 minutes, add the cream and stir in the pasta (uncooked). The starch from the pasta will help to thicken the sauce.
Make sure to reduce the heat to low before adding the cream. Take it to a gentle simmer and until pasta is cooked al dente. About 10-15 minutes.
Once the sauce is thickened, stir in parmesan, (I also like to add a spoonful of butter here for extra creamy flavor!) and spinach. Toss in the sauce until fully coated, and top with bacon and chicken strips.
To thin out the sauce, you can add a bit of water or milk.
Serve with more fresh herbs, parmesan cheese, and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes (or leave this one out so the entire family can enjoy it!). Happy cooking!
Please note, that the sauce will start to thicken even more, so it’s best to enjoy the dish right away.
Storing Instructions
This Creamy Chicken And Bacon Pasta is best enjoyed right after making it. Most of the cooked food should be consumed within 1.5 or a maximum of 3 hours.
This will ensure that you get the most nutrients and value from this freshly cooked food.
However, to save for later, you can store the pasta in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Cream-based sauces don’t reheat so well and you’ll need to add some extra milk or cream when reheating. Don’t boil!
No freezing.
This recipe is approximately for 4-5 servings.
Tips
- Tender chicken. It is common sense, but don't overcook the chicken. I highly recommend using a kitchen thermometer for poultry and meat (chicken doneness is 165 degrees Fahrenheit). If you don't have a thermometer, the easiest way for you is to cut the chicken into small strips or the chicken breast in half lengthwise. This way it will cook even faster and you can taste test a small part to see the doneness level. For even cooking pound each breast lightly before cooking.
- Instead of dried herbs, you can use a mix of Italian seasoning. I just really like the combination of various herbs in pasta dishes.
- If you can find baby spinach, it is better than regular. Especially kids, tend to ''hate'' long green wilted leaves in pasta. At least mine does and I always cut it fine or use the smallest spinach I can! Another alternative is to chop up the spinach very fine to ‘’hide’’ it in the pasta for them. This really works .. sometimes!
- Gluten-free pasta - I love using Barilla pasta but there are so many other brands to choose from. Other pasta types: angel hair pasta, fettuccine or any kind of spaghetti, elbows, rotini.
Serving Suggestions
This pasta is best enjoyed on its own however an easy green salad, Avocado Corn Salad, or Marinated Vegetable Salad would add that delicious cherry on top!
FAQs
You can use milk, plant-based milk instead of heavy cream in pasta. However, milk will not give you the same creamy result as it would heavy cream. What I would do in this case is add a tablespoon or two of flour when adding the oil and butter to create a roux. The sauce should thicken better this way.
You can freeze creamy sauce but when reheating it may separate and not be as thick and flavorful as it was when first made.
I hope you'll enjoy this Creamy Chicken and Bacon Pasta recipe, please leave a rating on this recipe below and leave a comment, take a photo of your food and tag me on Instagram @theyummy_bowl. I love seeing your creations!
Thank you for reading! Have a yummy day!
Love, Julia
Easy Chicken Recipes
For more easy gluten-free chicken dinner recipes check out my Chicken recipe index. Some of our family's favorite pasta recipes we make on permanent rotation include the famous Old Fashioned Hamburger Casserole, Mexican style Chicken Fajita Pasta and our latest favorite Chicken Tetrazzini.
Creamy Chicken And Bacon Pasta
INGREDIENTS
- 10 oz your favorite pasta such as penne fusilli, bow ties, i used gluten free fusilli here
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 12 oz heavy cream
- 2 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup parmesan cheese
- 1 pound large boneless skinless chicken breasts or chicken thighs
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 slices thick or thin bacon
- ½ of medium brown onion diced
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 5 cups fresh spinach I used baby spinach
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- Black pepper
- good quality olive oil or avocado oil for cooking
INSTRUCTIONS
- Prepare your ingredients. Wash and dry spinach leaves using a Salad Spinner. Rinse and pat dry chicken. Cut the chicken breast in half lenghtwise.
- If the halves seem too thick, pound them with a rolling pin through a zip lock bag or plastic wrap on an even surface.
- Season chicken with paprika, oregano, basil, salt, pepper. In a large skillet over medium high heat, add oil and once hot and sizzling cook the chicken for 5 minutes on each side until golden brown and not sticking to the pan. If it sticks to the pan, it needs to be cooked longer. Depending on the thickness of the chicken breast you may need to cook it longer than 5 minutes. Transfer the cooked chicken onto a plate lined with a paper towels to absorb the excess oil. Slice it into thin slices (strips) against the grain (or you can cut it into bite sized pieces, cubes). Set aside. Chicken should be a minimum of 165 F.
- Crispy bacon. Wipe down the bottom of the skillet from darkened bits and fry bacon until desired crispiness. I don’t like very crispy bacon in pasta so I cook it just a little bit. Set aside.
- Creamy parmesan sauce. In the same skillet with all the bacon drippings and bits (the skillet needs to be large and deep enough to fit the creamy sauce and pasta. Or use a dutch oven or large pot for this), add onion, saute for a couple of minutes and follow with garlic. Saute another 1 minute.
- Add the broth, simmer for 5 minutes, add the cream and stir in the pasta (uncooked). The starch from the pasta will help to thicken the sauce.
- Make sure to reduce the heat to low before adding the cream. Take it to a gentle simmer and until pasta is cooked al dente. About 10-15 minutes.
- Once the sauce is thickened, stir in parmesan, (I also like to add a spoonful of butter here for extra creamy flavor!) and spinach. Toss in the sauce until fully coated, and top with chicken strips.
- To thin out the sauce, you can add a bit of water.
- Serve with more fresh herbs, parmesan cheese, and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes (or leave this one out so the entire family can enjoy!). Happy cooking!
- Please note, that the sauce will start to thicken even more, so it’s best to enjoy the dish right away.
PRIVATE NOTES
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)
Liz
wow this sounds sooooo good! the yummy creamy sauce is making my mouth water!
Julia
the sauce is unbelievably good! thank you 🙂
Dannii
Oh wow. What an epic pasta dish. Super comforting.
Julia
thank you Dannii
Erica
This looks amazing! I bet my kids would even eat it. Going to have to try this for next week's meal plan!
Julia
thank you Erica, hope they will love it!
Michelle
Yum! I love that this pasta is like a full meal in one pot!
Julia
absolutely I agree with you Michelle, a proper delish meal 🙂 Thank you!
Beth
This looks wonderful and so tasty! My family is definitely going to love this recipe! I'm putting the ingredients on my list now! So excited!
Julia
thank you so much, hope you gonna love this one!
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
Delicious and kid-approved chicken dinner!
Dorothy Starns
Made this dish for my very picky granddaughters ; and they loved it. The adults enjoyed it as well. The sauce is very tasty. I love one skillet dinners.
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
yes Dorothy! Thank you, and so glad your granddaughters loved it. It means a lot to me!
Jill Dummer
I'm confused a little bit. Step 7 says add uncooked pasta. Step 10 suggested adding water from the pasta to thin out sauce if to thick?
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
sorry, that's a mistake. We cook the pasta directly in the skillet and to thin out the sauce just add water or milk.