This Spicy Chicken Pasta is the perfect level of spice, whilst absolutely bursting with flavour. It’s easy, creamy, hearty and delicious!
Reader, Lucy says: ‘Absolutely stunning! Made this for my husbands birthday tonight and we all loved it! Will definitely make again…. and again! ★★★★★’
The BEST Spicy Chicken Pasta Recipe!
Yep, you heard it here first. Chicken, spice, and pasta are one of the most delicious combinations of all time. It’s also mainly responsible for 90% of my food comas—delicious food comas nonetheless.
Here’s why I think you’ll love this recipe as much as I do:
- Flavoursome – This pasta is more than just spicy, it’s got a gorgeous, complex flavour.
- Creamy/Tomatoey – You should never have to choose between a tomato pasta or a creamy pasta, this is the best of both worlds and it works SO well!
- Date Night Dinner – This recipe is based on 2 servings, perfect for a cosy night in. It’s easily doubled for a family!
It’s also easy and quick to make! Follow me…
Spicy Chicken Breast
The spicy chicken is the heart and soul of this dish, so it’s important to make it shine. Nothing worse than bland, chewy chicken in any context, let alone in your pasta.
Flavoursome chicken
To ensure it’s bursting with flavour, we’ll first coat it in a mix of olive oil, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper and salt & pepper. This gives the chicken itself a nice kick of spice and a dash of smokiness too.
Tender chicken
Equally as important. Here are some tips to avoid chewy chicken:
- Bring the chicken close to room temp before you fry it (cold chicken seizes up).
- Butterfly to make two thinner breasts (cooks quicker and more evenly).
- Allow to rest after cooking (retains more juices)
- Slice at an angle and against the natural grain of the chicken (soft chicken strips instead of large and chewy)
Process shots: mix seasoning and oil (photo 1), slice chicken (photo 2), coat in oil (photos 3&4), add to pan (photo 5), fry (photo 6).
Creamy Spicy Chicken Pasta
Cream and spice is such an underrated combo, especially in this context. The cream not only adds richness, but also helps the spice not get too all up in your face.
Balancing the flavours
Whilst the most prominent flavours in this recipe are cream and spice, there’s a lot more going on to create a gorgeous final product:
- Spice – The spice comes from the cayenne pepper on the chicken, alongside some chilli flakes in the sauce.
- Sweet – You get little pops of sweetness from the sun dried tomatoes and sautéed onion. The tomato paste also adds a mellow sweetness.
- Richness – This comes from double/heavy cream, alongside a knob of butter to fry the onion.
- Sour – To help balance the cream, I love adding a splash of white wine to cut through the richness of the sauce.
- Saltiness – A good helping of parmesan through the sauce helps add a hit of salty, savoury flavour. The chicken stock also adds a little saltiness too.
Starchy Pasta Water
I like to use tongs to transfer the cooked pasta straight from the pot and into the pan with the sauce. This will bring some excess water with it, which is great for thinning out the sauce. The starch in the water will also help thicken the sauce and turn it a little glossy.
Top Tip
It’s important to fry and caramelise the tomato paste. It completely transforms the flavour and adds a nice sweetness to the sauce.
Process shots: fry onion, garlic and chilli flakes (photo 1), fry sun dried tomatoes (photo 2), reduce wine then fry tomato paste (photo 3), stir in stock and cream (photo 4), toss in pasta (photo 5), toss in chicken, parmesan and parsley (photo 6).
Serving Spicy Chicken Pasta
The sauce will thicken pretty quickly, especially once you’ve added the pasta. If you over-thicken the sauce at any point, you can toss through some more starchy water from the pot to thin it back out.
I love finishing with an extra helping of parmesan and parsley, but that’s completely optional.
This pasta is pretty hearty as it is, but Garlic Bread is always a winner with pasta. If you want to take it one step further, then check out my Cheesy Garlic Bread and Cheesy Pesto Garlic Bread!
Alrighty, let’s tuck into this Spicy Chicken Pasta recipe shall we?!
How to make Spicy Chicken Pasta (Full Recipe & Video)
Spicy Chicken Pasta
Equipment
- Sharp Knife & Chopping Board
- Small Pot/Bowl (for chicken marinade)
- Large Pan & Wooden Spoon
- Large Pot & Pasta Tongs
- Fine Cheese Grater
Ingredients
Chicken
- 2 tsp Olive Oil
- 1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
- 1x 9oz/250g Chicken Breast, brought close to room temp
Pasta
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 1 small Onion, finely diced
- 1 tsp finely diced Garlic (approx 1 large clove)
- 1/2 tsp Chilli Flakes
- 6x Sun Dried Tomatoes, finely diced (~2oz/60g)
- 1/4 cup / 60ml Dry White Wine (see notes)
- 7oz / 200g Linguine (or other long cut pasta)
- 2 tbsp Tomato Puree (tomato paste in US)
- 1/3 cup / 80ml Chicken Stock
- 2/3 cup / 160ml Heavy/Double Cream
- 1oz / 30g Parmesan, finely grated
- 1 tbsp finely diced Fresh Parsley
- Salt & Pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a small bowl or ramekin, combine 2 tsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika & cayenne pepper and 1/4 tsp salt & black pepper.
- Butterfly the chicken breast right the way through to make 2 even-sized breasts. Coat in the spicy marinade.
- Add the chicken to a large pan over medium-high heat and fry for a few minutes on each side, or until lightly charred and just cooked through the centre (depending on thickness it may take slightly more or less time). Place to one side and when needed, slice into thin strips, ensuring you slice against the natural grain of the chicken and at a slight angle.
- Turn the heat down to medium and melt in 1 tbsp butter, scraping off any flavour in the pan with your wooden spoon. Add the onion and fry until it begins to soften and pick up colour. Add 1 tsp garlic, 1/2 tsp chilli flakes and the sun-dried tomatoes and fry for a minute or so, then pour in 1/4cup/60ml dry white wine. Allow the wine to completely reduce (important to burn off the alcohol, should take 3-4 minutes or so).
- Meanwhile, add 7oz/200g pasta to salted boiling water and cook until al dente.
- Add 2 tbsp tomato puree to the pan. Fry for a couple of minutes (important to sweeten the taste) then deglaze the pan with 1/3cup/80ml chicken stock. Pour in 2/3cup/160ml heavy/double cream and season to taste with salt & pepper. Bring to a gentle simmer then lower the heat.
- Use tongs to transfer the cooked pasta straight from the pot into the pan and toss to combine. Add 1oz/30g freshly grated parmesan, 1 tbsp fresh parsley and the chicken strips (alongside any resting juices). Continue tossing, adding leftover starchy pasta water from the pot to thin out the sauce as needed.
Video
Notes
Your Private Notes:
Nutrition
Looking for more?
You’ll find plenty more delicious comfort food like this in my Debut Cookbook ‘Comfy’
Spicy Chicken Pasta FAQ
Double/heavy cream is important to create a rich and thick sauce. Something like milk will be too thin, unless you use a thickening agent (i.e. flour or cornflour/cornstarch). Something lighter like crème fraîche could work, but you won’t get that fuller, richer flavour that this recipe aims for.
Yep! I prefer a long-cut pasta, so everything is easier to toss and combine. But realistically, any type of pasta will do the trick.
I actually prefer the texture of breast in pasta recipes, but you could use thigh if that’s what you have. Just pound them to even thickness beforehand and keep in mind they’ll take a little longer to cook through. Other than that, it’s the same process.
This dish is the perfect dinner for two, so do check out my other Date Night Dinners if you fancy! Also, whilst you’re here, I’ve got a sneaky suspicion you might like these too:
Spicy Chicken Pasta Recipes
- Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese
- Cajun Chicken Pasta
- Chicken and Chorizo Pasta
- Peri Peri Chicken Pasta
Chicken Pasta Recipes
- Chicken and Mushroom Pasta
- Chicken Bacon and Ranch Pasta Salad
- Chicken Avocado Pasta
- Chicken Broccoli Pasta
- Creamy Tuscan Chicken Pasta
Spicy Pasta Recipes
- Sausage Harissa Pasta
- Penne Arrabiatta with Smoked Sausage
- Spicy Bacon Mac and Cheese
- Spicy Rigatoni
Absolute perfection, thank you so much!!
Thanks for the review, Alex 🙂
Awesome! Hubby & I made this last night and it was delicious. Only change we made was that we used chicken tenderloins because I forgot to take the chicken breast out of the freezer,oops! Spicy but not too spicy. We will definitely be making this again.
Glad to hear this went down well, Caroline! Thanks for popping back for a review 🙂 C.
Wonderful recipe thanks Chris! We actually were forced to make it vegan and it was still superb. I hope you can forgive us but we roasted red peppers alongside our rubbery vegan ‘chicken’ in the same spice rub and thought that worked well. One day, we might actually not have to distill all the fun out of it and make it non-vegan too and that is a day I shall look forward to with all my heart. Tragically, my young daughter has gently forced this way of life upon me, so I may have to wait until the sweet release of her finally leaving home to really enjoy the full potential of the dish. Until then, I have my memories of my non-vegan life to conjure up what this might have tasted like. Exquisite.
Hahah you are definitely forgiven for veganising it, but I’m still so happy to hear it went down well! Thanks for popping back for a review 🙂 C.
Cooked this recipe for my family last night and everyone LOVED it!
They all asked for the link to this page, which I’ve sent. Will become a staple go-to dish. I added some parmesan to the dish before serving too. I also like the suggestions from others in the chat to add spinach or roasted red peppers.
Thank you for sharing.
That’s so great to hear! I can imagine it’s great with spinach or roasted red peppers too. Thanks so much for the review! C.
Delicious! Easy to adapt. As some other folks noted, I used jarred roasted red peppers and added spinach. I used left over chicken so added the spices as I was sauteing the onions and adding the paste, had no wine used a bit of red and cooked it down, used milk blah blah, the garlic bread sopped it up! Wholly run on sentence. It’s forgiving. Our son who is a BIG eater but not a pasta lover gave it a big ‘delish’. It’s a winner and a keeper!
Happy to hear this went down well, Cindy! Thanks for the review 🙂 C.
I never rate recipes but as this has now become our go-to Friday night in meal, thought I should! My boyfriend and I both love this dish – super easy and so delicious, Only change I make is swapping double cream for single cream.
So happy to hear you love the recipe, Gillian! Thanks so much for the review 🙂
Can I replace the cream with something else
The cream is quite a key component unfortunately, so I don’t recommend removing it from the recipe.
This was absolutely delicious !!!! the best pasta dish I have ever made, I followed the recipe exactly to what you said. Thank you for sharing this recipe. Im definitely making this pasta dish again and again and again.
So happy to hear it went down well! Thanks for popping back for a review 🙂 C.
Omg thank you for sharing this recipe it was absolutely delicious I followed the recipe exactly as u said and we all loved it i will definitely be making it a weekly meal
That’s so great to hear, Dawn! Thanks so much for popping back for a review 🙂 C. x
Made this tonight and OMG!!!!! Seriously the best chicken pasta dish ever… I used chicken thigh instead of breast. Other than that, stuck to the recipe.
So happy to hear it went down well! 🙂