Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta

8 Servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes

Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta is an easy weeknight meal with chicken breast, garlic, heavy cream, sun dried tomatoes and Parmesan cheese in 20 minutes!

If you’ve made some of my other pasta recipes in the past, like Ultimate Meat Lasagna, Cheesy Baked Spaghetti and Shrimp Scampi Pasta, and are looking for something new that you can whip up on a weeknight, this is a good one to try. Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta plated

SUN DRIED TOMATO CHICKEN PASTA

This creamy sun dried tomato pasta recipe is a delicious Italian American comfort food that your family is going to love. One of the things that they’re also going to love is how short of a cook time it has, similar to my quick cooking Easy Bacon Carbonara Pasta.

Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta is reminiscent of flavors of your favorite Italian restaurant and anytime people see sun dried tomatoes they always assume the recipe must be difficult. This recipe is so easy, you’re going to want to make it as often as you can!

I also sometimes triple the sauce (calories just don’t have to count sometimes) when I want to make this extra creamy and serve it with additional vegetables in the pasta, like chopped steamed asparagus.

HOW TO MAKE SUN DRIED TOMATO CHICKEN PASTA

  1. Add the pasta and cook it according to the directions on the package minus 1 minute.
  2. Take out 1 cup of pasta water and set it aside for later.
  3. Season your skinless chicken with salt and black pepper
  4. Cook the chicken until it is cooked through then take it out and set it on a plate for later.
  5. Cook the garlic and sun dried tomatoes in the large skillet.
  6. Pour in the heavy cream, reserved pasta water and the parmesan cheese and bring everything to a boil.
  7. Thoroughly toss the pasta and the sauce together and then add the chicken. Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Spaghetti

VARIATIONS

  • Mozzarella: mozzarella melts very easily so add it right before serving if you want a thicker, meltier layer of cheese on top.
  • Artichoke: artichoke hearts are a delicious way to sneak some veggies into your dinner. They’re mild and add great texture to your main course.
  • Spices: feel free to sprinkle some oregano, paprika or tarragon on top of your plated pasta to mix up the flavor.
  • Rotisserie Chicken: if you’re in a rush and are feeling too hungry to make the chicken from scratch, you can buy a rotisserie chicken and use the breast meat from it for this recipe (or make my super easy Slow Cooker Rotisserie Chicken!). You don’t have to spend the time to cook it through but you also won’t get to have as much control over the flavor.
  • Zucchini noodles: if you’re looking for a low carb alternative to pasta, you can use zucchini noodles instead (like my crazy popular Healthy Thai Peanut Chicken Zucchini Noodles). You can make them at home with a spiralizer, either a free standing one or one attached to your stand mixer, or buy them precut at the grocery store. All you have to do to cook them is sauté them in butter or olive oil in a large skillet, drain the excess water and make the rest of the recipe as usual.

What to Serve with Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta: 

  • Garlic Bread: whoever thought to bake garlic cloves onto French bread was a genius. Garlic bread goes amazingly with almost any pasta and, if you’re trying to feed an army, you can easily make a Garlic Loaf.
  • Roasted Garlic Tomatoes: these are perfect served on top of garlic bread or even poured onto the main course. Roasted garlic tomatoes add little bursts of flavor to your pasta and are amazingly easy to make.
  • Parmesan Crisps: if you’ve never tried parmesan crisps, you are in for a treat! Crumble them over the top of the sun dried tomato chicken pasta for a delicious crunch or serve them on the side as a delicious garnish.

How to Store Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta?

  • Serve: because of the chicken, you should never leave this pasta out for longer than 2 hours. If you forgot about your leftovers and they sat on the counter last night, you are going to have to throw them out.
  • Store: sun dried tomato chicken pasta is good in the fridge for up to 3 days before it goes bad. You can make it a day in advance and thaw it out if you know your night is going to be crazy and you just can’t stand to go through a drive thru one more time.
  • Freeze: you can freeze your leftovers for about 2 months before it’s just not worth thawing them out.

WHEN IS CHICKEN SAFE TO EAT?

You can safely enjoy your chicken when the internal temperature is 165 degrees F (73.8 degrees C), according to the USDA’s website. You should always check the temperature of the chicken at the thickest part with a probe thermometer before you eat it no matter how cooked it looks. Trust me, cutting corners with meat is just not worth the literal stomach ache.

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Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta

Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta is an easy weeknight meal with chicken breast, garlic, heavy cream, sun dried tomatoes and Parmesan cheese in 20 minutes!
Yield 8 Servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Dinner
Cuisine Italian
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 1 pound spaghetti
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 chicken breasts boneless skinless, butterflied
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/2 c. sun-dried tomatoes
  • 1/2 c. heavy cream
  • 1/2 c. freshly grated Parmesan
  • 1/2 c. chopped fresh basil

Instructions

  • Cook pasta 1 minute shy of instructions, then reserve 1 cup of the water and drain the rest.
  • Do not rinse pasta
  • Add olive oil to a large skillet on medium high heat.
  • Season chicken with salt and pepper and add it to the skillet, cooking for 3-4 minutes on each side until cooked through, then remove them from the pan.
  • Add the garlic and sun dried tomatoes to the pan, stirring well for 2-3 minutes.
  • Add the heavy cream, reserved pasta water and parmesan cheese and bring to a boil, letting it reduce for 3-4 minutes before adding in the pasta and tossing it together.
  • Add the chicken on top and garnish with basil.
  • Garnish with more parmesan and basil if desired.

Nutrition

Calories: 474kcal | Carbohydrates: 52g | Protein: 28g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 66mg | Sodium: 640mg | Potassium: 915mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 1259IU | Vitamin C: 9mg | Calcium: 244mg | Iron: 3mg
Keyword: Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Spaghetti

Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. Love how easy this was, yet packed with flavor! Adding to my dinner line up to enjoy again later in the week!

  2. Thanks Sabrina, it was delicious and easy to make. I only had dried sundried tomatoes on hand, can only imagine how much better with the sundried tomatoes in oil.
    What was the purpose of reserving 1 cup of pasta water and when should it have been added?

    1. So sorry about that. You’ll want to add it back in with the heavy cream and the parmesan cheese. Thanks for catching that!