This creamy chicken florentine pasta is ready in 30 minutes - tender pieces of chicken, shell pasta that really scoops up the sauce and garlicky spinach in a creamy sauce. It's everything that's comfort food for dinner on a weeknight!
My heart skips a beat everytime I think about this recipe. Is that weird? Getting so excited about pasta.
But do you notice how that creamy sauce pools into those pasta shells and coats them so that every time you scoop them up, you have chicken and spinach and lots of sauce with the pasta? I'm just so into this.
This is really one of my favorite retro chicken dishes and I figured it was time to turn it into a pasta recipe. Because I can live on pasta. And so can Denver. So I'm always looking for new ways to cook with it and this is my favorite these days!
For once I'm not making a bechamel sauce to create that creamy base. So there is nothing to get worried about. I know many people try making a bechamel and feel like they can't get a smooth consistency, so I've kept it really simple. That creamy cheese sauce base is made up of cream, cream cheese and mozzarella. Everything melts together to make a delicious creamy sauce that doesn't become gluggy or has lumps, but is a smooth, cheesy base that's perfect for pasta, spinach and chicken.
Chicken Florentine Sauce
If you've never tried chicken florentine, the sauce of a chicken florentine, which is baked casserole dish is usually made with either flour and milk, or cream mixed with garlic, parmesan and italian seasoning. The chicken is usually laid on a bed of spinach and this sauce, topped with mozzarella and baked.
I'm switching this up by cutting the chicken into bite sized pieces, keeping the same sauce and tossing together the pasta, chicken and spinach in it.
Again drawing your attention to that pool of sauce that is just enough but a little extra so that every bite is saucy and you are not deprived. This bowl of creamy chicken florentine pasta just screams winter comfort food to me!
More Creamy Pastas:
- Pasta in Jalapeno Pesto
- White Sauce Pasta with Vegetables
- Creamy Sun-dried Tomato Chicken with Pasta
- Creamy Lemon Mushroom Kale Linguine Pasta
- Lemon Orzo Pasta Salad
Watch Creamy Chicken Florentine Pasta Recipe Video
Creamy Chicken Florentine Pasta
Ingredients
- 250 grams Pasta dried (shell shaped)
- 2 Chicken Breasts cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 teaspoon Oregano dried
- 1 teaspoon Paprika Powder
- ½ teaspoon Garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 tablespoon Butter
- 1 teaspoon Garlic finely chopped
- 3 cups Spinach or baby Spinach roughly chopped
- ¾ cup Heavy Cream
- ½ cup Cream Cheese
- ½ cup Mozzarella grated
Instructions
- Cook pasta in salted water according to package directions till al dente. Drain and set aside.
- In a bowl, mix together chicken, oregano, paprika, garlic and salt. Set this aside for ten minutes.
- Heat olive oil and butter in a pan and add chopped garlic. Saute the garlic for a minute till fragrant and add the chicken. Cook the chicken for four minutes, stirring once or twice. Add chopped spinach, mix and cover and cook on medium heat for two minutes till the spinach wilts.
- Add cream and cream cheese, mix and simmer till the cheese melts. Toss the pasta in this sauce and add mozzarella. Mix the mozzarella till it melts. Taste for seasoning and serve the pasta immediately.
Nutrition
Priyanka says
Wow, what a delectable recipe. It has a delicious flavour. I ordered chicken from online meat in bangalore last week. I used your recipe to make chicken florentine pasta. It was delicious.
Sam says
Thanks for the recipe, it turned out delicious! I added about two teaspoons freshly crushed black pepper for an enhanced flavour. The only thing was that the sauce turned out slightly clumpy and not smooth. I'm not sure whether this was because of the mozzarella or the cream cheese (I used Boursin).
kom says
hey, this isn't fair! could you give us veg pasta recipes too, richa?
Richa says
Absolutely Kom! I already have a few vegetarian pasta recipes on the blog but I'll share more soon.
sameera says
Wow, very delicious recipe. It tastes yummy. Yesterday I ordered chicken from https://fipola.in/chicken. I prepared chicken florentine pasta with your recipe. It was very yummy.