Slow Cooker Olive Garden Chicken Pasta
1,842 CommentsUpdated Jan 18, 2026
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
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
Want to make more magic in your crockpot? Stay up to date and subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube.
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.
This was so dang good, I’ve already made it three times in four weeks! But it’s so easy, and keeps well, and is delicious! By “keeps well” I mean that while it doesn’t last in the house long, it actually seems to taste even better the next day!!!
This is a new Go To dish for me!
I forgot to add that I used 1 cube butter for the oil for the dressing – I cut it up and tossed it on top of the uncooked noodles and block of cream cheese – I didn’t want bitter tasting olive oil either. I was soooo good!
This was delicious! And I will make this regularly – So to begin with I knew I was not going to use Olive Garden dressing – because it has soysbean or canola – both seed oils. And we avoid those.
Instead I subbed – 2 packets dry italian salad dressing mix to have the volume of salad dressing needed- 2 cups. – I only used 1/2 the amount of vinegar called for in the dressing instructions tasting as I added because I knew a whole whole cup of vinegar would be a disaster.
Then for the water, I used 2 cups of chicken broth to add for the prepared dressing mix. And it would add extra flavor to the finished dishs. This was all done in the crockpot on High. I then added the uncooked Penne noodles with another 2 cups chicken broth and the block of cream cheese on top of that and let it cook. I did’nt want to mess up another pan cooking pasta and because I used cut up rotisserie chicken breasts so I was able to halve the cooking time- Primarily I did it this way, because I only had 2 hours to cook dinner And it worked well the noodles cooked, and the cream cheese melted, – I had to beat it around with a bamboo spatula for a bit, but it smoothed out just fine – Because I did not use the Olive Garden dressing, the salt level allowed me to actually to adjust and add a bit more salt. I added the diced chicken, pepper, stirred it and let it cook another 30 minutes before adding the cheese, I thought it needed more noodles, becuase it was saucier than I wanted, but after another 20 minutes of cooking the texture was great, and noodles absorbed excess sauce- Pure delliciousness!! Thank you Sara!
This taste awful the dressing gives it a bad taste. How do I fix it? Is there anything I can add to improve the taste?
You’re all nuts. What’s wrong with tang? I’ve made this nearly once a week for over a year now and everyone i’ve served it to loves it. Y’all need to get your taste buds checked For the normal people who like it lol, use rotini noodles instead. It’s so much better!
Excellent. Very much appreciate you posting this! The recipe is great but it allows a little tweaking if folks want. That’s one of the things I loved about it. Did tweak it abit. Used bone in chicken thighs, skin removed, seasoned with onion & garlic powders and Italian seasoning. (Removed meat from bone once cooked.) Used Ken’s Steakhouse Zesty Italian dressing. Cooked some sliced onions on stovetop short of carmelized stage. Threw them in when everything was combined. Subbed Neufatchel for cream cheese to lower fat abit. Really didn’t fundamentally change alot from recipe tho. Can see how you could take this from copycat recipe to something else – add sundried tomatoes, Kalamata olives, spinach, etc. Thank you again!
LOVE this stuff. I make it once a week now. Whole family loves it and there’s leftovers for another night. Im gonna try putting frozen chicken in this time. I’m sure it will be fine. Just might have to cook a little longer. I forgot to get the chicken out yesterday.
Made this for the first time today, not sure what people are doing wrong? My cream cheese stirred right in, when I shredded the chicken with forks and stirred the pasta in, it’s delicious!! Maybe people didn’t add the Parmesan cheese?? I’ll be making it again!! I did use the whole bottle of dressing. Going to serve it with bread sticks.
I’ve made this many times. My son loves it. I have taken it to potluck many times and it is always well received. I do add some cream to make it a bit more alfredo, and more chicken than it calls for because my weight-lifting son likes LOTS OF MEAT!
Terrible don’t make it !!!!