Garlic Chicken Pasta with an incredible garlic butter pasta sauce is the best quick and easy comfort food that you can have on the dinner table in less than 20 minutes!

Garlic Chicken Pasta

This is seriously one of the quickest and easiest dinners to make. Even with such a short cook time and such a small ingredient list, it looks and tastes like there was way more time and effort put into it.

The chicken is so juicy and flavorful, and the garlic butter is truly melt in your mouth good. Garlic butter noodles with chicken is just simply delicious and is guaranteed to be popular with your whole family.

Tips For The Best Garlic Butter Sauce

There are a couple of tricks for making the world’s best buttery garlic pasta sauce.

  • Keep a close eye on the garlic while it sautés. You don’t want the garlic to burn, and you don’t want the butter to simmer. You’re really just trying to get the butter just warm enough to coax the delicious flavors out of the garlic. If garlic burns, it turns bitter, so instead of trying to save a sauce with burnt garlic, it’s best to start the pasta sauce over.
  • Add some of that flavorful starchy cooking water to the pasta dish. Since we’re using salted cooking water, it adds tons of flavor, and the starches in the water makes a deliciously creamy sauce without using heavy cream.
A spoon pouring garlic butter onto chicken pasta.

Garlic Chicken Pasta with garlic butter pasta sauce is the best quick and easy comfort food that's ready in less than 20 minutes!

PREP TIME5 minutes
COOK TIME15 minutes
TOTAL TIME20 minutes

Ingredients

Chicken and Seasoning Blend:

  • 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 2 large breasts)
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Pasta and Garlic Butter Sauce:

  • 8 ounces spaghetti (226 grams)
  • 1/2 cup salted butter
  • 6 medium cloves of garlic (minced)
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (divided)
  • 1 Tablespoon diced fresh parsley (optional, for garnish)

Instructions

Pasta: 

  1. Boil a large part of salted water. Add pasta to boiling water and cook to al dente, according to the package instructions. Before draining the pasta after it is finished cooking, reserve 1 cup of the starchy cooking water.

Chicken:

  1. In a medium bowl, combine the garlic powder, dried parsley, fine sea salt, black pepper and olive oil together.
  2. Carefully butterfly the chicken breasts all the way through so you have 4 even filets. Add the chicken to the oil and spice blend and coat evenly. 
  3. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and cook the chicken until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side, or until the internal temperature reads 165 F on an instant read meat thermometer.
  4. Remove the chicken from the pan and cover it with aluminum foil to keep it warm.

Butter and Garlic Sauce:

  1. Melt the butter in the skillet over medium-low heat, add the minced garlic and cook for about 2 minutes, or until it’s aromatic. 
  2. Once the garlic butter is done, spoon out half of it from the pan into a small bowl.
  3. Put the spaghetti into the skillet and toss to coat in the garlic butter, mix in 1/4 cup parmesan cheese then mix in 1/3 cup of the starchy cooking water. If it still needs some thinning out, add more starchy water, a little at a time, until desired consistency is reached.
  4. Slice the chicken into thin strips and put on top of the spaghetti or beside it, spoon out the rest of the garlic butter on top of both the chicken and spaghetti. Then garnish with fresh parsley, the rest of the parmesan cheese, and some black pepper if desired.

Notes

If you enjoy a little heat, crushed red pepper flakes would be amazing to add in with the garlic while it’s sautéing to give the sauce a little kick. 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon (depending on your spice preference) would be perfect.

Nutrition Information:

 

SERVING SIZE:

 1/6
Amount Per Serving: CALORIES: 450TOTAL FAT: 24.7gCARBOHYDRATES: 31.1gFIBER: 1.4gSUGAR: 1.1gPROTEIN: 24.7g

Nutrition information isn’t always accurate. This recipe makes 4 large or 8 small servings. Nutrition was calculated assuming 8 servings.

What Kind Of Chicken Should I Use?

Air chilled boneless skinless chicken breast is my favorite for most pasta recipes. I love how chicken breast takes on the flavors of the dish, and air chilled chicken is always so juicy and delicious.

Feel free to use chicken thighs if you prefer! It’s totally up to your preference. You could also use shredded rotisserie chicken, just sauté it in the oil and spices first so that it takes on all those delicious flavors.

A process collage showing garlic parsley chicken breasts before and after cooking.

What’s The Best Pasta Shape To Use?

I love spaghetti for this recipe – it’s cheap, the buttery sauce coats the long noodles, and this is just a good recipe for slurping up the noodles while you’re eating it. It’s also delicious with fettuccine, bucatini, linguine, and angel hair pasta. If you’d prefer a short noodle, I’d recommend farfalle (bowtie), penne, or rotini.

No matter which noodle you choose, be sure to boil the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water.

  • Choosing a large enough pot is critical to giving the pasta plenty of room to cook in water that’s at a rolling boil, which is how you stop the pasta from sticking together.
  • Salting the pasta water is your only chance to season the inside of the pasta, because the pasta will absorb that flavorful cooking water while it boils.
Piles of labeled garlic powder, parsley flakes, black pepper, and salt on a plate.

Ingredients

You only need 10 pantry friendly ingredients to make this quick meal. You’ll need: chicken breasts, olive oil, dried parsley flakes, garlic powder, salt, pepper, spaghetti, butter, garlic, and parmesan.

How To Make Garlic Butter Chicken Spaghetti

This 20-minute recipe is honestly so simple, but it brings a ton of flavor to the table. All you have to do is coat the filleted chicken in the oil and spices, then sauté it until it’s cooked through.

Cook the pasta in salted water, and while that’s cooking, make the sauce by sautéing the garlic in butter. Toss the pasta with the sliced chicken and garlic butter sauce, and voila! That’s all it takes (which is why it will be your new favorite meal idea). See the recipe card below for the full recipe including ingredient amounts, cooking times, and helpful tips, etc.

A process collage showing making garlic butter pasta sauce, and then spaghetti tossed in the sauce.

What To Serve Garlic Butter Pasta With

My favorite side for this dish is my easy Italian Green Beans recipe. It would also be delicious with a side salad, some roasted vegetables, or a slice of garlic bread.

Optional Additions

There are three different ways you can play with the flavor of this dish. You can change the meat, you can add vegetables, or you add or swap the herbs or aromatics. Some delicious options are:

  • Meat: Grilled Chicken, Shrimp, Pancetta, Bacon, Crispy Parmesan Chicken, or Sausage.
  • Vegetables: Tomato (especially cherry tomatoes), Onion, Spinach, Broccoli, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, or Golden Brown Mushrooms.
  • Herbs, Spices, and Aromatics: Chili Pepper Flakes, Lemon Juice, Lemon Zest, Pesto, Basil, Italian Seasoning, or Roasted Garlic.
Sliced chicken breast on top of garlic butter pasta.

If you like this recipe, be sure to check out our entire pasta recipe section! Some reader favorite pasta with chicken recipes are: