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You know that moment when you realize it is 4:00 PM and you have nothing planned or defrosted for dinner? Of course, those moments won’t happen often if you use a tool like Real Plans for meal planning (shopping list to my phone? Yes please!) but inevitably, they sometimes do.
And this recipe and one pan beef and cabbage stir fry is my go-to meal on most of those nights. However, that gets old quick, so I’ve been experimenting with some new, easy to make, one-pan recipes.
One Pan Cooking
I love any recipe with a few basic criteria:
- Real food ingredients
- Cooks in one pan (to minimize the dishes)
- Easy to make
- Ready to eat in under 30 minutes
This chicken alfredo recipe meets all of those criteria and is absolutely delicious. You can make it in about half an hour, even if you have to defrost some frozen chicken in warm water first. If you have some leftover chicken to use, it will cut the time in half!
The Catch…
I know, I know, there is always a catch. In this case, the catch is that it is fastest if you use shirataki noodles instead of other types of pasta. If you want, you can absolutely use vegetable noodles or any other type of noodle, but it is just fastest with shirataki noodles (like these) and I prefer the texture of them anyway.
Other than that, you don’t need any unusual or special ingredients and you can have a better-than-restaurant meal on the table in under half an hour.
Bacon Chicken Alfredo Recipe
Bacon Chicken Alfredo Recipe (One Pan)
Ingredients
- ¼ cup olive oil (or coconut oil)
- 1 lb chicken breasts
- 4-6 oz fresh spinach (roughly chopped)
- 1 tsp onion salt (or sea salt)
- ½ tsp white pepper
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 TBSP onion powder
- 1 TBSP dried parsley
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 3 (7oz) pkg angel hair shirataki noodles
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese (grated)
- 4 slices bacon (precooked and crumbled)
- ¼ cup fresh parsley (finely chopped, optional)
Instructions
- In a large skillet, heat the olive or coconut oil.
- Cut the chicken into ½ inch pieces.
- Add the chicken to the preheated skillet and saute until the chicken is cooked through.
- Once the chicken is cooked, add the spinach and saute until just wilted.
- Sprinkle with the onion salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and parsley and stir to combine.
- Cut cream cheese into roughly 1-inch pieces and add it to pan.
- Stir often until the cream cheese is melted.
- While it is melting, rinse shirataki noodles as directed.
- Add the noodles to the pan and stir until all are heated through and sauce has thickened. If your sauce is too thick, you can add ½ cup milk or coconut milk.
- Add the Parmesan cheese and stir until evenly mixed in and melted.
- Remove from heat.
- Top with crumbled bacon and parsley, if using, and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
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Chicken alfredo (topped with bacon) has become one of my family’s favorite meals. I think your family will love it too!
Do you have a favorite recipe that is quick and easy to make on busy nights?
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What an awesome idea. I buy ground beef and chicken in 5lb bulk bags and have always divided it up ready to cook and stored in the freezer, but pre-cooking would save so much more time. Have you found that the cooked/reheated meat does or doesn’t absorb your spices as well? That would be my only concern, although I think you could avoid the bland meat scenario by putting some garlic, salt, pepper and some other “general” seasonings (parsley, minced onion) in there when you cook in the crock pot. I would think these are common enough to most things you do with the finished meat that you wouldn’t endanger the final dinner product.
Great recipe! Very rich, so I used carrot and zucchini noodles to lighten the taste up a bit.
Tofu comes to mind, especially a creamed tofu. But there must be more specific solutions on the internet. Try googling vegan cream cheese substitutes.
I have to be dairy free for a month. Ugh! Can anyone suggest a substitute for the cream cheese, cause I need this for dinner??
I made this last night but altered it a bit. I omitted the bacon but added mushrooms and fresh baby spinach and used 4 oz. cream cheese w/ 6 oz. of cream. We used chicken thighs rather than breast meat but that is just our preference. My partner and I LOVED this! Thanks!
Could you make it without the cheese? (Can have daiiry but not fermented dairy)
Thanks
I made this last night, and it was amazing. I did use regular pasta (I know, for shame) because it is what I had. But this sauce was so good, it wouldn’t have mattered what I put it with! My entire family loved it, and my 2 yr old that has eaten a very healthy diet her whole life and usually dislikes pasta, absolutely loved it. If it has her approval, it was done right! She is picky unless it’s meat, salad, many raw veggies (only raw though), or yogurt! I also made the homemade caesar dressing for our salad with it, also incredible! Thanks for another winner, Katie! I’m off to make a gingerbug now, and I have a kombucha SCOBY that’s doing great too!