A creamy garlic alfredo sauce covers tender chicken and pasta for a great family meal that can be enjoyed even on weekday nights.
For even more delicious Alfredo recipes, why not try Linguine Alfredo? Or making your own Garlic Alfredo Sauce?
Chicken Alfredo
Chicken Alfredo is a classic dish that everyone loves. Most people typically think of Chicken Alfredo as a dish that they have as a treat at a restaurant.
Despite its rich and creamy taste and texture, Chicken Alfredo is surprisingly quick and easy to make. Chicken Alfredo is the perfect weeknight meal for those times when you want to serve up a treat without having to spend hours in the kitchen.
Almost all of the ingredients needed for Chicken Alfredo are kitchen staples so that you can quickly whip up this satisfying pasta dish any night of the week.
Chicken Alfredo Ingredients
Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.
• Pan-fried Chicken Breasts
• 4 servings of your pasta of choice
• Salted butter
• Minced garlic
• Cream cheese
• Milk
• Parmesan cheese
• Fresh parsley
How To Make Chicken Alfredo
• Prepare 4 chicken breasts as per the recipe, and keep the chicken warm in the pan
• Prepare 4 servings of Linguine pasta according to the package directions
• In a large skillet, melt the butter and fry the garlic until it is browned
• Add in the cream cheese and grated parmesan cheese and melt
• The cream cheese will be lumpy, but whisk the milk in slowly and cook until it turns smooth
• Add in your pasta into the pan and swirl around to cover with the sauce
• Divide onto 4 plates and serve, topped with fresh parsley
How To Pan-Fry The Perfect Chicken Breasts
The pasta is definitely the star of this recipe, but cooking the chicken breasts to perfection can take the entire dish to the next level.
We have all had the disappointing experience of ordering Chicken Alfredo at a restaurant only for it to arrive and the texture of the chicken to be rubbery. You then find yourself leaving most of the chicken and just eating the creamy pasta.
Cooking your very own Chicken Alfredo at home means that you can cook your chicken breasts to the perfect texture for guaranteed empty plates all around.
When cooking chicken breasts, it is all about confidence and temperature. Knowing the precise temperature to pull your chicken from the pan will prevent that rubbery texture that no one enjoys.
People often fear cooking chicken, worrying that they could potentially make someone ill if they undercook it. As a result, most people choose to overcook chicken believing that it is better to be safe than sorry.
Overcooking your chicken breasts is not necessary. All you need is an instant-ready thermometer and confidence in your judgment.
Using an instant-read thermometer, test the temperature of your chicken when it starts to brown and firm up. At 165F, your chicken can be pulled from the pan and placed on a chopping board ready for slicing and serving.
Once you have really built up your confidence, you can try removing your chicken from the pan at 160F and leaving it on a board for several minutes before cutting. The carry-over heat will continue to cook the chicken resulting in safe and deliciously juicy chicken breasts.
The Best Pasta Shape For Chicken Alfredo
It is easy to forget that underneath the rich and creamy sauce and slices of succulent chicken, there is also an entree layer of pasta.
The pasta is definitely the part of Chicken Alfredo that people pay the least amount of attention to, seeing it as more of a delivery system than its own part of the meal. However, even if they are not conscious of it, most people have a pasta shape preference when it comes to Chicken Alfredo.
The shape of the pasta affects the entire texture and mouth feel of the dish, which, when wrong, can be just as disappointing as an overcooked chicken breast.
Some people prefer long ribbon pasta such as Mafaldine, Spaghetti, and Linguine. Ribbon pasta adds the tactile experience of twisting the pasta around your fork that many people enjoy. The action of twisting and picking up ribbon pasta also provides a way to catch the creamy sauce and ensure the full force of the flavors in this dish with each bite.
Alternatively, shapes like Penne that allow the sauce to get caught in the gaps of the past also work great. The smaller shape of Penne requires less work than ribbon pasta as it can be easily lifted from the plate with just a fork. Penne also has more of a bite, which adds a more robust mouth feel to the dish.
Why not try out some of your favorite pasta shapes with this Chicken Alfredo recipe and see which ones create the perfect bite and sauce to pasta ratio for your taste?
Looking for more tasty Chicken Breast recipes? Try these out:
• Mom’s Easy Honey Garlic Chicken
• Creamy Garlic Swiss chard Chicken
Happy Cooking
Love,
Karlynn
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Chicken Alfredo
Ingredients
- 4 Pan Fried Chicken Breasts
- 4 servings your choice of pasta we like fettucini noodles
- 1/2 cup salted butter
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2/3 8 oz. package cream cheese
- 2 cups milk
- 2/3 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
- Fresh minced parsley
Instructions
- Prepare 4 chicken breasts as per the recipe beforehand, keep chicken warm in pan. Set aside.
- Prepare 4 servings of your favorite pasta, drain, toss with olive oil to prevent it from sticking. Set aside.
- In a large skillet, melt the butter and fry the garlic in it until browned. Add in the cream cheese and melt.
- The cream cheese will be lumpy, but whisk in the milk slowly and cook until smooth.
- Add in the Parmesan cheese and cook until smooth again.
- Add in the 4 servings of pasta – right into the pan! – and swirl around to cover with the Alfredo sauce.
- Divide onto 4 plates, garnish with fresh parsley, and serve!
Linda Hensens says
I have made this recipe before, and my husband and I liked it. Then I made my alfredo sauce with heavy whipping cream, 1/2 & 1/2, parmesan, garlic, salt and pepper. I have also added pesto to my alfredo sauce along with the chicken breasts included, and I used linguine pasta. This alfredo with the pesto was incredible! I had a dish like this one at a local Ragazzi’s Italian restaurant, and I wanted to re-create the dish at home. I definitely have a repeat recipe in my rotation.