Chicken & Bacon Pasta with Spinach & Tomatoes in a Garlic Cream Sauce
Craving an easy-to-make comfort food that a whole family will love? Then, make the most pinned recipe on Pinterest with this Chicken & Bacon with Spinach & Tomatoes in a Garlic Cream Sauce Pasta! The creamy garlic sauce absorbs the wonderful flavors from the ingredients in the recipe, and every single bite is delicious and full of flavor! All you need to make this dish is The Pan and The Spoon to stir & serve!
Servings: 4
Total Time: 40 minutes, 20 minutes to prepare, 20 minutes to cook.
What you’ll need to make Chicken & Bacon Pasta with Spinach & Tomatoes in a Garlic Cream Sauce:
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 lb chicken (skinless, boneless)
- 1 tsp. paprika
- 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
- 1.5 cups heavy cream
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese shredded
- 5 tomatoes (medium, chopped in large cubes)
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 3 cups fresh spinach or 1 cup cooked spinach
- 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes crushed
- 6 bacon strips cooked, drained off fat, and chopped
- 10 oz penne pasta
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese shredded, for serving
- Salt to taste
How to prepare the dish:
- Heat 2 tbsp. of olive oil in The Pan, on medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook on one side on medium-high heat for 4 minutes. While it cooks, sprinkle the uncooked sides of the chicken with paprika, Italian seasoning, and salt. Flip the chicken over, and cook on the other side for 3 more minutes on medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low-medium, flip chicken over again and cook, covered, for several minutes until no longer pink in the center. Remove chicken from The Pan and keep chicken warm.
- To the same pan (but without chicken), add heavy cream and bring to boil. Only after the heavy cream starts boiling, add shredded Parmesan cheese. Immediately reduce to simmer (low-medium heat) and stir, while simmering, until the cheese melts and the sauce is creamy, for about 1 or 3 minutes.
- To the same pan with the creamy sauce, add chopped tomatoes, fresh spinach, garlic, crushed red pepper. Stir in the sauce on medium heat just until the spinach starts to wilt and sinks into the sauce. Add 1/3 of the cooked chicken (sliced into small strips) and half the bacon. Mix every thing. Remove from heat.
- In the meantime bring a large pot of water to boil, add pasta, and cook according to instructions. Drain the pasta.
- Add cooked pasta to The Pan with the sauce and reheat on low heat. When ready to serve, top the pasta with the remaining half of bacon and the remaining 2/3 of the cooked chicken. When serving, top the pasta with 1/2 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese.