Slow Cooker Cajun Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo
212 Comments Jun 23, 2022
Updated Jun 01, 2024
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Creamy cajun chicken fettuccine alfredo is a perfect meal for any weeknight. You can make a homemade cajun alfredo sauce and tender chicken in the slow cooker, then add cooked fettuccine noodles to complete the dish.
If you are looking for a plain chicken alfredo recipe, try my crockpot chicken alfredo recipe.
Table of Contents
This slow cooker Cajun chicken fettuccine was one of 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.
Cajun chicken alfredo pasta is a great spicy recipe for pasta night! This pasta has a bit of a kick to it, mainly from the cayenne. It was a nice change from my regular pasta recipes.
Recipe Ingredients
- Chicken – Use boneless skinless chicken breasts for this dish. They shred up perfectly.
- Seasonings – Make a homemade cajun seasoning blend with cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper. You can add more cayenne pepper for a bolder cajun flavor.
- Chicken broth – This is the base of the sauce and will help keep chicken breast moist during the cooking process.
- Heavy Cream – Makes the dish creamy and helps thicken it, don’t use half and half or milk.
- Parmesan Cheese – This adds flavor to the creamy alfredo sauce. You can use shredded parmesan cheese or grated parmesan cheese.
- Fettuccine Noodles – A classic noodle for cajun chicken pasta.
Step One – Add the chicken broth to the slow cooker. Add the seasonings to the chicken broth and stir. Add the chicken breasts to the broth.
Step Two – Add the onion on top of the chicken.
Step Three – Cook on low for 6 hours.
Step Four – Shred the chicken with two forks right in the slow cooker.
Step Five – Add the heavy cream.
Step Six – Add the cooked and drained fettuccine noodles and a 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese.
Step Seven – Stir gently.
Step Eight – Add additional parmesan cheese, parmesan, paprika, and parsley (or oregano) on top—Cook for an additional 20 minutes. Serve the alfredo pasta with salad and bread sticks.
Variations
- Shrimp – Add shrimp 15 minutes before the cooking time is done. Shred the chicken, add the cream and noodles and cook for the 20 additional minutes still. Make sure the shrimp is cooked through.
- Andouille sausage – You can add one pound of sliced andouille sausage at the beginning of the cooking time.
- Penne Pasta – You can use penne pasta instead of fettuccine noodles for a heartier noodle.
Recipe FAQs
You can use two teaspoons of cajun spice seasoning (such as Tony’s Chachere’s Creole Seasoning) instead of the different seasonings in this dish. Don’t add any more, for it can be on the salty side.
Cayenne pepper loses its potency the longer it’s been on the shelf, or it can sometimes not be as spicy as other brands. You can add additional cayenne pepper after the dish is done cooking for more cajun spice.
You can add a block of cream cheese to this dish instead of heavy cream. You can add it at the beginning of the cooking time or microwave it for 30 seconds before adding the dish at the end of the cooking time.
To make this a complete meal, add steamed broccoli or frozen peas to the pasta just before serving.
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Slow Cooker Cajun Chicken Fettuccine
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
- dried parsley or oregano for garnish
- paprika for garnish
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, shred the chicken with two forks right in the slow cooker. Add the heavy cream.
- 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!
How to Video
Sarah’s Notes
- To make this a complete meal stir in steamed veggies into the pasta with the noodles at the end of the cooking time.
- You can add a block of cream cheese to this dish instead of heavy cream. You can add it at the beginning of the cooking time or microwave it for 30 seconds before adding the dish at the end of the cooking time.
- Cayenne pepper loses its potency the longer it’s been on the shelf or it can sometimes not be as spicy as other brands. You can add additional cayenne pepper after the dish is done cooking to taste.
- You can use two teaspoons of cajun spice seasoning (such as Tony’s Chachere’s Creole Seasoning) instead of the different seasonings in this dish. Don’t add any more, for it can be on the salty side.
Nutrition
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
Can I use cream cheese instead of cream? I’m trying to find something that’s a cross between this and the Olive Garden chicken (which was AMAZING)
Yes! Of course, will work great. I would put cream cheese in every recipe but I always fear people would be bored.
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!