Slow Cooker Olive Garden Chicken Pasta
1,842 CommentsUpdated Jan 18, 2026
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Use Olive Garden Italian Dressing to make this Slow Cooker Olive Garden Chicken Pasta! It’s a creamy pasta dish that has so much flavor.
We love easy pasta dishes for the crockpot! Try my Baked Spaghetti, Feta and Tomato Pasta, or Beef Stroganoff recipes too!
I found this recipe in my Facebook group and had to try it out! You can make this Olive Garden Chicken with or without the pasta! Serve over rice or just with green steamed vegetables.
How to make Olive Garden Chicken Pasta in the Crockpot:
- Add chicken breasts to the slow cooker.
- Pour over one 16-ounce jar of Olive Garden Italian Dressing (or any Italian dressing you have on hand.
- Shake over grated parmesan cheese and ground pepper. Add one block of cream cheese.
- Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 4 hours or low for 5-6.
- Shred the chicken with two forks right in the slow cooker.
- Cook 16 ounces of pasta according to the package directions on the stove-top. I am using penne pasta for this recipe.
- Add the drained pasta to the slow cooker along with the sauce and shredded chicken, stir.
- Sprinkle over more parmesan cheese if desired. I also garnished with a touch of oregano and black pepper.
Can I serve this chicken with something other than pasta?
- Serve over rice.
- Or with steamed vegetables.
Must I use cream cheese?
You can leave it out or add a cup of heavy cream at the end of cooking time is desired. Though the sauce will be thinner.
Does this taste like chicken alfredo?
This Olive Garden Chicken Pasta is thick and creamy like alfredo but has a zesty Italian dressing flavor
What should I serve with olive garden chicken pasta?
Chose one or more of these great dishes to go along with this dish:
- Olive Garden Salad – Recipe by The Cookie Rookie
- Olive Garden Bread Sticks – Recipe by Lil Luna (or buy them premade, I get mine at Safeway)
- Slow Cooker Copycat Gnocchi Soup
- Slow Cooker Copycat Zuppa Toscana
- Slow Cooker Copycat Minestrone – Recipe by Tammilee Tips
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Slow Cooker Olive Garden Chicken Pasta
How to Video
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast, (1.5-2 pounds works fine)
- 16 oz. Olive Garden Italian dressing, (or any Italian dressing you like) Note- olive garden dressing is high in sodium and can be salty. Choose a lower sodium dressing if desired.
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 tsp. black pepper
- 8 oz. cream cheese
Add these items after cooking time is up:
- 16 oz. penne pasta, cooked according to package directions and drain well
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Add the chicken breasts to the slow cooker.
- Pour over the Olive Garden Italian dressing and sprinkle over the parmesan cheese and pepper.
- Place the cream cheese on top.
- Place the lid on the slow cooker. Cook on HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for 5-6 hours.
- When the cooking time is almost done, start cooking the pasta on the stove top as directed on the package.
- Shred the chicken with 2 forks. Drain the pasta and add to the chicken and sauce. Stir. Sprinkle over the remaining parmesan cheese.
- Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
Awful taste
If I could give this less than 1 star I would. This has to be the nastiest thing i’ve ever eaten. My hubby who will eat anything could not eat this.
The first time this was made it was horrible. It was a very strong dressing taste it was cooked again later on another day, but only used a quarter of the dressing and it tasted so much better. Don’t use a whole bottle.
So many negative reviews. I guess it just goes to the matter of knowing what you are doing. Yes it’s Italian Dressing. First did you shake the bottle? Second you know it’s going to have that tang, what did you do to offset it? I didn’t add salt but added black pepper (heavily), garlic powder, onion power, oregano and a bit of cayenne. You can also add a thick base of vegetable or chicken. Did not use parmesan. If you do get the fresh stuff, not processed bottle. I used a blend of mozzarella and provolone to stir in last. You can also add fresh sautéed veggies to it. Mushroom, Broccoli, Red Bell Pepper, Asparagus etc. you have to tweak the recipe to your liking and play around with it.
This was weird. Very strong Italian dressing taste, it was all you tasted. I love italian dressing on salads and on cold pasta salads but this just wasn’t a good balance. Other commenters saying it is too tangy are correct, I agree it is too tangy. Italian dressing as the main flavor isn’t good. The chicken was cooked well though, if it had a better blend of flavors, this dish would be really good.
We made this last night and the family loved it. I reduced the dressing as was suggested on another post. Eating leftovers now and it is very good. We were concerned due to the comments but glad we made it anyway!
Agree it was WAY too salty! And the chicken only needs to be cooked on High for 2 1/2 hrs. I’ll never make it again but if I did, I would use a small amount of the Italian dressing and more low salt chicken broth, and half the pasta.
I put the leftovers (all of it) in the freezer hoping my family will eat it when there is absolutely nothing else in the house to eat!
This was very weird. Did not at all taste like it smelled cooking. My husband is not a picky eater and he didn’t like it. Probably won’t be in our regular rotation. 2 stars is generous.
Omg I had to trash it.. it has a very sour taste.. I won’t say what it taste like .. don’t know the vinegar in the olive garden dressing does not complement the cream cheese and the Parmesan cheese. I’ll never make this again.
This was pretty awful. Salt and vinegar, wasn’t what I was looking for in a dinner dish. It was so oily and I followed recipe as noted. We threw it out!
Have made this numerous times and have loved it every single time. My crockpot is pre-progammed with high being 4 and 6 hours and low being 8 and 10 hours. I have always made it on the high setting but was wondering if I could make it on the low settings on my crockpot or would the chicken get too dry.
Terrible I threw it all away . So salty we couldn’t eat it. And I didn’t even add salt to the pasta.