One-Pot Creamy Garlic Chicken Pasta
This One-Pot Creamy Garlic Chicken Pasta blog post is sponsored by Almond Breeze. The content and opinions expressed here are that of Emily Bites.
This One-Pot Creamy Garlic Chicken Pasta is an easy, lightened-up comfort food dish that’s sure to become a staple in your household. With a creamy, dreamy sauce that’s dairy-free using Almond Breeze Unsweetened almondmilk, this satisfying dish is full of flavor. I used mushrooms and spinach alongside the chicken and pasta to add some fresh, healthy vegetables. If mushrooms aren’t your favorite, feel free to substitute broccoli, asparagus, carrots, cauliflower, zucchini, or whatever else you prefer! I absolutely love one-pot meals because my least favorite part of cooking is cleaning up. A one-pot recipe means less dishes to wash, which means more time to enjoy the meal with your family! This One-Pot Creamy Garlic Chicken Pasta tastes like decadent comfort food, but each serving is only 331 calories or 7 WW Points. To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here! Your family will never guess it’s lightened up!
If you keep a dairy-free diet, you’re probably already a big fan of Almond Breeze almondmilks. I personally consume plenty of dairy, but I love Almond Breeze Unsweetened almondmilk because it’s a tasty low calorie, low sugar alternative to cow’s milk. A cup of Almond Breeze Unsweetened almondmilk has 30 calories and 0 grams of sugar, and is still a fantastic source of calcium and vitamins. Not only does it provide all of this nutrition with less calories and sugar, it also tastes great on its own and in recipes like this one. In addition to loving their almondmilk, I’m also a big fan of Almond Breeze’s almondmilk creamer, both in my coffee and in recipes, so make sure to take a look at my recipe for Strawberry Almond Cream Pancakes using Almond Breeze almondmilk creamer!
Looking for more tasty, lightened-up, one-pot meals? Check out my One-Pot Mediterranean Chicken with Orzo, One-Pot Barbecue Chicken Mac and Cheese, One-Pot Spicy Dirty Rice with Chicken and Sausage, Spanish Chicken and Rice Skillet, Beef Enchilada Pasta Skillet, Turkey Sloppy Joe Pasta, Chicken Pot Pasta, Mexican Chicken Cauliflower Rice Skillet, Thai Turkey with Carrot Noodles, Lemon Chicken Orzo with Tomatoes and Asparagus, Rustic Sausage and Potato Skillet, Beef Stroganoff, Beefy American Goulash, One-Pot Cincinnati Chili Spaghetti Bake, Cheesy Chicken Veggie Pasta Skillet, Sausage Tortellini Skillet, Beef Barley Skillet and more in the One-Pot Meals section of my recipe index!
One-Pot Creamy Garlic Chicken Pasta
Ingredients
- 5 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 ½ lbs uncooked boneless skinless chicken breasts, chopped into bite-size pieces
- 8 oz sliced Baby Bella mushrooms, you can also use white mushrooms
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ cup flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 ½ cups Almond Breeze Unsweetened almondmilk
- 2 ½ cups reduced sodium nonfat chicken broth
- ½ teaspoon chicken bouillon powder or paste
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 10 oz uncooked pasta, use whole wheat pasta if following the myWW Purple plan
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 3 cups torn fresh spinach leaves
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
Instructions
- In a Dutch oven or other large pot, bring one tablespoon of the olive oil over med-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the chopped chicken (if you over-crowd the pan the chicken will not brown, so you may want to do this in two batches) and cook for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally until chicken is cooked through. Add the mushrooms and garlic to the chicken and stir together. Continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes until mushrooms are softened. Transfer the chicken and mushrooms to a side plate and cover with aluminum foil until needed. Discard any remaining liquid in the pot.
- Add the remaining 4 tablespoons of olive oil to the empty pot and bring over medium heat. When the oil is hot, whisk in the flour, salt and black pepper until combined with the oil and continue to whisk for 1-2 minutes. Slowly whisk in the Almond Breeze Unsweetened Almondmilk a little at a time until combined, creamy and smooth. Add the broth, bouillon and oregano and whisk to combine, scraping up any remaining brown bits from cooking the chicken.
- Increase the heat to med-high and stir occasionally until boiling. Add the pasta and reduce the heat to med-low. Cook for 10 minutes uncovered, stirring every 2 minutes or so to prevent sticking.
- When the pasta is cooked and the sauce is thickened, reduce the heat to low and stir in the lemon juice, spinach, and the reserved chicken and mushrooms and stir until thoroughly combined. Cook for another few minutes until the spinach is wilted and all ingredients are heated through. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
Notes
331 calories, 30 g carbs, 2 g sugars, 12 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 27 g protein, 3 g fiber (from myfitnesspal.com) MyWW SmartPoints per (1 cup) serving:(SP calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com) Green: 8 SmartPoints/ Blue: 7 SmartPoints/ Purple: 3 SmartPoints (if using wheat pasta...if not, use Blue points) Weight Watchers Points Plus:
9 per (1 cup) serving (PP calculated using a WW PointsPlus calculator and the nutrition info below)
Looks great! Could you use regular milk instead?
I was just going to ak the same question
Regular milk would really bump the points up.
You can substitute cow’s milk for the almond milk, but it will change the nutrition information and WW points.
By “regular” milk, I meant cow’s milk and 1% because that’s what we have on hand. Would this be a big difference in points? Would evaporated skim milk be better? I just don’t want to have a carton of almond milk for one recipe, and I’d be the only one to drink it.
Using 1% milk or skim milk (not sure about evaporated) would bring the WW Freestyle SmartPoints up to 8 SP per serving.
I definitely recommend trying the almondmilk though! You can actually use it in most recipes that call for milk (no need to buy it just for the one recipe) and it’s a great option if you’re looking to consume less sugar. I’ll be posting another recipe using it soon!
You did not mention the garlic in the recipe
Oops, fixed! Sorry about that, it’s added in with the mushrooms in step 1.
Mary
Can you suggest how to make this recipe using pre-cooked chicken?
Sure! If you want to use pre-cooked chicken, skip the chicken part of the first step and just cook the garlic and mushrooms together in a little bit of the oil. Then follow the recipe as stated, adding your pre-cooked chicken in with the rest of the ingredients in step 4. Just make sure it’s warmed through before serving!
Can you suggest how to prepare this recipe using pre-cooked chicken?
This dish is one that my family & I would definitely love. A complete meal in one pot, seeing that it contains pasta, chicken, mushrooms, & spinach. The Nutritional Info states that 1 (one) portion equals 1 Cup (8 oz.). Seriously, no adult would be satisfied with one cup of this on their plate. We need to pay closer attention to the portion sizes in the Nutritional Info, since they’re (sometimes) unrealistic. Nevertheless, this is a lovely recipe, and one which I plan to make very soon.
Hi Angelina,
I personally do think a cup is a realistic portion size, though I totally recommend serving every main course with a side salad, roasted or sauteed vegetables, or another side dish to fill out your meal. I completely agree that paying attention to serving sizes is important! I hope you and your family really enjoy this dish 🙂
Thank you Emily. I really enjoy your recipes, Making your chicken divan now
I made this last night to have for my lunches this week and just had my first serving. it’s SO delicious and was so easy to make.
So my husband and I are both allergic to tree nuts so almond milk was out. We subbed coconut milk and it gave the sauce such a good flavor. Unique and delicious! This recipe is a winner!
I’m so happy you loved it! Sounds delicious!
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I have a similar recipe that my daughter loves , but it requires heavy cream and Parmesan cheese! When I put it into the WW recipe builder it was a whopping 27 points for 1 serving! I made this lightened up recipe of yours for dinner tonight and you would never know the difference!! Thank you.
Emily. This recipe is fantastic. We made this last night for dinner and the flavor was so delightful and I am looking forward to eating it for lunch today. I’m so glad we found your site! We started our WW journey 2 weeks ago and most of the recipes we have made are yours. Thank you for your time and effort into making a place specifically for the WW community, but that is delicious and tasteful for all. <3
Another tasty one-pot meal! Thanks, Emily!
I made this for my fiance and I the other night, we loved it!
This was wonderful! swapped chicken breast for chicken thighs because of popular demand in my house. The instructions were spot on! Thank you!
Another delicious recipe! The family loved it!
Made this tonight and it was sooooo good! Will definitely by in the rotation. I didn’t read the recipe close enough and left the chicken in the whole time the pasta was cooking, but still came out great! Love a forgiving recipe!
Will this freeze well? So excited to try this, but there is only one of me.
Can I use vanilla almond milk?
I do not think that would taste good!
One of my favorite recipes!
Could you use arrowroot flour instead of regular flour? Thanks!
Hi Meghan, I have never worked with arrowroot flour before so I have no experience with it. My apologies!
Do you think you could make this without the pasta? And add cannelli beans?
Hm, I don’t have any direct experience doing that so I can’t give you any specific advice, but you’ll likely want to use less liquid if you’re replacing the pasta with canned beans. I guess you can give it a shot and play around with it! Hope it works out!
What about milk? I don’t trust almond juice and would rather use normal milk.
Sure, you can use milk
This was *so good*. I don’t cook much with almond milk, but I’ll definitely be trying it again! I added some onions in the beginning with the mushrooms and garlic. I also finished with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese which I know negates the non-dairy aspect, but it was delicious even without it. Loved how it all came together in one pot as well! Definitely adding it to the rotation!
This is absolutely delicious! I did have to cook my pasta longer i guess it depends on the brand used so I had to add another half a cup of broth, truly, truly, delicious, I’ve never cooked with almond milk thinking that I would not like it But you don’t taste it, so so good, thanks for all the time you take to make these delicious healthy recipes for us and sharing them. I divided the recipe into six servings instead of eight just because I like more pasta lol for the extra point it was worth it.
Could I use chickpea flour?
The almond milk is an allergy issue. I know you use ff half and half in some recipes. Would it work in this one? Thank you.
I wished I would have cooked the pasta before instead of cooking it with the sauce and stuff. It’s taking forever for the bow tie pasta to cook thoroughly.