20-Minute Garlic Parmesan Chicken Pasta

Sometimes you have plenty of time to plan ahead and prep an elaborate meal.

But as busy adults, we are often pressed for time at the end of a busy weekday, and that’s why recipes like this 20-minute garlic parmesan chicken pasta exist.

By prepping the chicken, pasta, and sauce simultaneously, this entire creamy pasta dish comes together in just 20 minutes!

And don’t be fooled by the creamy nature of this dish. As with all my recipes, this pasta dish has my own healthy spin.

It may look like a calorie-dense pasta dish with heavy alfredo sauce, but this dish has just 325 calories and 37 grams of protein per serving! Go ahead and enjoy 2 servings and you’ll be consuming nearly 75 grams of protein.

 

How to make garlic parmesan chicken pasta

This dish has 3 components: chicken, pasta, and garlic parmesan sauce.

As far as the pasta is concerned, you can truly use any pasta noodles you’d like. I like to use Banza, which is noodles made from chickpeas, because it adds some extra protein to the dish, but stick with whatever you like best.

Have you ever wondered why some pasta pairs better with certain sauces? Well, it’s all in the shape and texture. For example, tube-shaped pasta like penne is great for this dish as its hollow center captures the sauce, and the ridges on its surface clings onto more, meaning every bite is full of flavor.

Fusilli, with its spiral shape, is another good option as the spirals help to trap the sauce. It’s all about maximizing surface area to hold onto that delicious garlic parmesan sauce.

To keep this dish lean, we’re using boneless skinless chicken breast as our protein source. That being said, you can certainly use chicken thigh if that’s what you prefer.

For quick & tender chicken, I used my air fryer. By pounding the chicken breasts flat (like you would do when making chicken cutlets for chicken parmesan), they cook up very well in the air fryer at 370 degrees for 12 minutes.

You can grill the chicken, bake it, or even pan-fry it. If you want to make things even easier, you can even use pre-cooked or frozen chicken.

While the chicken cooks, I like to prep my garlic parmesan sauce to use my time most efficiently.

Instead of using heavy cream as the base of our sauce, our secret ingredient is actually cottage cheese!

When you blend up cottage cheese, it becomes silky smooth and the perfect base for a creamy sauce.

If you don’t have cottage cheese, or can’t use it for any reason, cream cheese would work as a decent substitute, although it won’t come with the added protein that cottage cheese provides.

To transform the cottage cheese into a parmesan garlic sauce, we’re going to whisk in some chicken stock, grated parmesan cheese, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

The sauce will have a garlic taste at this point, but we’re going to kick the garlic flavor up a bit more by using some minced garlic as well.

You can really elevate the flavor of this dish by using roasted garlic, but I find that the flavor is great without that extra step.

Now that we’ve mixed up the sauce and cooked the chicken and pasta, it’s time to bring it all together…

In a pan over medium heat, we’re going to saute minced garlic with a little bit of butter. You can use olive oil here as well, I just prefer the buttery flavor.

The act of sautéing minced garlic in a bit of butter before adding in the cooked pasta and sauce is not simply for convenience. This method of cooking, known as sweating, allows the garlic to release its aromatic oils, which then get absorbed by the butter and subsequently coat every pasta piece when mixed together.

This is a clever trick to enrich the overall flavor of the pasta recipe without adding extra ingredients or calories, so you don’t want to skip it!

After about one minute, we’re going to add the cooked pasta and parmesan garlic sauce to the pan and lower the heat to low.

Mix up the cooked pasta with the pasta sauce to coat all of the noodles, then add the cooked chicken to the pan. Stir everything together and allow it to heat for 5 minutes.

The final stir and heat is not just to mix everything together, but it allows the flavors to meld and the pasta to absorb the sauce, taking on the wonderful garlic and parmesan flavor profile.

By this point, your kitchen will be filled with the most amazing garlic scent, so it’s going to be hard to wait those extra 5 minutes, but it will be worth the wait.

Top your chicken parmesan garlic pasta with some fresh parsley and/or additional shredded parmesan cheese, then dig in!

This pasta dish is not just delicious when served immediately, but it’s also a perfect choice for meal prep. It keeps well in the fridge, with the flavors even deepening after a day or two.

So, it’s a great idea to make a larger batch and enjoy a few days of hassle-free meals. Simply heat in the microwave or on the stove, and you have a quick, protein-packed meal ready in minutes.

The beauty of this 20-minute garlic parmesan chicken pasta is not just in its taste, but also in its versatility. This dish can easily be adapted to suit different dietary requirements, too.

For a vegetarian pasta dish, you could replace the chicken with a plant-based substitute or add more vegetables. If you’re on a gluten-free diet, choose gluten-free pasta like the chickpea pasta I used. 

Feel like experimenting? Add in sundried tomatoes or spinach for extra flavor and nutrients. Pasta dishes are a blank canvas for creativity, so feel free to get carried away with it!

 

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If this recipe is appealing to you, that means you love creamy pasta, garlic, chicken, or all three. Well, you’re in luck! I’ve got tons of other recipes on my blog that I know you’re going to love.

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