Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo Pasta
Who doesn’t love a good Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo Pasta? I know I do. In fact, Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo Pasta is one of my favorite dishes to eat. I like serving it to my family even more. Whenever I make it, I typically make a big pot of it to last for a few days. This means that I buy a lot of my ingredients for it in bulk. In fact, it makes so much that I cut the recipe in half just to be able to share it with you here.
The recipe here can serve four people, happily. I am gauging this as if you were to have pretty big helpings. If you have medium sized portions, then there will be plenty of leftovers for you to enjoy the next day. And trust me, this Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo Pasta is SO MUCH BETTER the next day. This is because all of the flavors get a longer time to marry each other and seep into the chicken, broccoli and pasta.
Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo Pasta
4
10
15
minutesIngredients
- For the Pasta:
3 cups pasta, cooked according to package instructions (I use Bow Tie)
- For the Chicken:
1 tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil
1 large chicken breast
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
salt and pepper, to taste
- For the Broccoli:
1 cup frozen broccoli florets
- For the Sauce:
1 jar Alfredo sauce (16 oz)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon of the starchy pasta water (optional, depending on the consistency you like the Alfredo sauce)
Directions
- Season chicken chunks with garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper.
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook the chicken for about 8-10 minutes being sure to cook each piece all the way through. (I do this by continuing to stir after 5 minutes of cooking time to make sure each piece gets cooked.)
- Remove chicken from the pan and set aside.
- Turn heat down to medium and add the Alfredo sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper and pasta water. Cook for 3-5 minutes.
- Add the cooked pasta, frozen broccoli and cooked chicken back into the skillet and toss everything together.
- Serve with breadsticks and enjoy!
This recipe is easy and makes for a great meal option to serve to kids, family and guests. If your children are not fans of broccoli, hopefully the Alfredo sauce helps to mask the flavor of the broccoli. If I am honest, the broccoli is actually my favorite part of the meal which is why I use a lot of it in this recipe. Feel free to half the broccoli along if you wish.
For the ingredients, I use 1 large chicken breasts, frozen broccoli, pasta, and Alfredo sauce. I season the chicken well because the ingredients in this dish build upon each other. I also salt my pasta water since this is the only flavoring that the pasta can get other than the coating of sauce. I add a few other spices to the Alfredo sauce as it heats.
I like using Farfalle, which is Bow Tie pasta.I cook it according to package instructions (about 8-9 minutes). Bow Tie pasta is great to use because it has that middle section that gives it a great chew when bitten into. Penne is also a great option. It is best to use a type of pasta that you can just pick up with one poke of the fork as opposed to using spaghetti or linguine that you would have to either cut or twirl.
The sauce is easy. It’s simply Alfredo sauce from a jar that I jazz up with some extra seasoning. I have made Alfredo sauce from scratch, but when I am in a pinch or do not have the ingredients to do so, a jar works just as well. For the sauce, I heat it up in the skillet after cooking the chicken. Doing it this way gives it more flavor from the browned pan bits left over from the cooked chicken. I add garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper.
Use a little bit of that starchy pasta water to add to your Alfredo sauce if you need to loosen it up. I do not like a super thick coating of sauce on my pasta, broccoli and chicken. If you like the jar sauce’s thickness as it is, then there is no need to add any liquid. After everything is nicely combined and coated with the sauce, plate it up and enjoy!
-Madison
