Slow Cooker Cajun Chicken Fettuccine is a great spicy recipe for pasta night!
Hi all! This slow cooker Cajun chicken fettuccine was one of the those recipes that changed after the ingredients were bought. I had planned to make a dish called chicken lazone, but decided to add a few more Cajun seasonings then add pasta and Parmesan cheese to the pot at the end of the cooking time along with the cream.
Below is what the dish starts out looking like before cooking. I start with chicken broth and a few seasonings to make it Cajun flavored. I do have a premade Cajun seasoning I could have used but it is too salty by the time you add enough to make a dish spicy.
After the chicken is done cooking, I shred the chicken and add heavy cream, cooked fettuccine noodles and parmesan. I let this cook for 20 minutes more to let the sauce thicken a bit and the flavors of the sauce get into the pasta.
This pasta has a bit of a kick to it, mostly from the cayenne. It was a nice change from my regular pasta recipes.
This recipe has received so many rave reviews I hope you give it a try. Besides making this recipe I plan on trying this recipe from a friend of mine called Crock Pot Salsa Ranch Chicken Pasta, I can’t get enough slow cooker pasta meals!
Slow Cooker Cajun Chicken Fettuccine
Equipment Needed:
- Slow Cooker- 6 quart or larger
Ingredients:
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp. onion powder
- 1/2 tsp. dried leaf oregano
- 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
- 1 1/2 tsp. paprika
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 small white onion diced
Add at the end:
- 1 lb. fettuccine noodles cooked according to package directions
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 3/4 cup parmesan cheese divided
Instructions:
- Add the chicken broth to the slow cooker, add the cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, red pepper flakes, paprika, salt and pepper. Stir.
- Add the chicken breasts and flip them around in the seasoned chicken broth to get the seasonings on the chicken.
- Sprinkle the onions over the chicken and broth.
- Cover and cook on low for 6 hours without opening the lid during the cooking time.
- After the cooking time is done, add the heavy cream and shred the chicken with 2 forks right in the slow cooker.
- Add the cooked and drained pasta and a ½ cup of the Parmesan cheese. Stir.
- Sprinkle over the remaining parmesan cheese. I added a touch more paprika and also parsley flakes to the top of my pasta to make it look pretty. Cover and cook for 20 more minutes. Cooking for a bit longer helps the sauce thicken from the gluten in the pasta.
- Serve and enjoy!
This recipe was excellent! It had so much flavor and was definitely a family favorite. I’ll be making this again for sure ☺️
I make this recipe once a week. It took a few tries to get it to suit our preferences perfectly, though. If you follow the recipe as is it’s quite bland. It is a wonderfully safe base to play with.
Our Adjustments:
1. Use about 2.5 lbs of chicken, which is about 3 large chicken breasts
2. Double or triple every seasoning, depending. I basically did 1tsp for every seasoning, unless it called for 1tsp+, then I added 1/2-
3/4 tsp more.
Note: if you use an onion, I’m not sure you’ll want to do 1tsp of onion powder like we do. We omit the actual onion because my husband hates the texture of it in dishes.
3. Add about 1/4 a cup more chicken broth.
4. Double the parmesan. Half to cook with the noodles at the end and the other half to add right before eating.
5. Use overflowing cups of heavy cream (so a bit extra), makes it creamier but not overly so.
6. Cook the last 20 minutes (after adding the noodles) on high, not low. It makes the sauce thicker.
Make sure you use good quality noodles! It makes a huge difference. We use a delicious italian brand of noodles and use lots of salt to boil them in and it’s perfection. We fully cook them because we don’t like al dente noodles, and it is the perfect texture for us by the end of the 20 min in the slow cooker (we are weirdos that usually add a min or two to the package directions). When cooked al dente they still felt too hard for us.
These adjustments make it feel like spicy cajun chicken, with a really nice kick to it that the base recipe lacks. And, as a bonus, this dish reheats really nicely. The sauce doesn’t break and stays creamy and delicious.
My husband is extremely picky and doesn’t like 90% of the things I make, but this has gotten his stamp of approval.
Made this tonight, turned out awesome! Even my two boys ate it right up and they can be rather picky!
I love slow cooked meal like this one .Im looking for a recipe for slow cooked meatloaf also
Hi! I have a few meatloaf recipes. You can use my search bar to find them.
Runny and no flavor.
can you add cornstarch to thicken the cream?
yes, add a few tablespoons to the cold cream (whisk) then add to the slow cooker.
Super runny and bland even adding way more spices than listed. There is no saving try a different recipe.
Could this be made with a sausage like your baked spaghetti rather than chicken?
Yes, that will work fine!
I used boneless skinless chicken thighs for this recipe. I also used my favorite spices instead of the cayenne. For step 5, I removed the chicken from the crock pot to shred. While I was shredding, I added the heavy cream and sherry (to taste) to the pot and turned it on high and put the lid on until the chicken was ready. Then I added the shredded chicken back into the pot to let it soak up the juices. Then I started my pasta on the stove. I used 2 bags (9 oz each) of Rani fresh fettuccini. I cooked it for exactly 2 minutes then drained it and stirred it into the liquid in the pot. Then I followed the rest of the recipe and toppings and let it cook on high for 20 minutes. The texture was perfect and the flavor delightful.
Since it was summer, I served it with slices of watermelon.
I have a fussy family and this turned out perfectly. They decided that it was a keeper.
Note: The sherry really added another layer of flavor!