Slow Cooker Olive Garden Chicken Pasta
1,841 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.
Discussing!
Way too much salad dressing. Also, the consistency was not what I thought it was going to be. The shredded chicken was not good. Would rather have had sliced chicken breast with it. Unfortunately, we will not be making this one again.
I would definitely not use 16 oz of the salad dressing otherwise you’ll be eating what tastes like tuna casserole.
Use half a bottle and half a can of cream of mushroom as others have mentioned
Made this last night for me and my very picky 13 year old son. Since it was just the two of us, I used one chicken breast. Going on the reviews saying it was very vinegary, and knowing how he doesn’t like super-strong flavors, I used about 1/2 cup of the Olive Garden salad dressing, black pepper, about 1/3 block of cream cheese and parmesan. I didn’t measure the pasta, just cooked some and threw it in until it looked about right.
He cleaned his plate, which is very unusual for him! So this recipe is definitely a keeper for us. Since I didn’t use as much salad dressing as was called for, it was a little dry, rather than giving a lot of creamy sauce for the pasta. Maybe next time I’ll put in a little chicken broth.
I put in 1 c of dressing and 1 can of mushroom soup. I also add 1 cup chicken broth….when I made it for my son and his friends it was GONE in minutes!!
If you add the whole bottle like I did before reading the comments, what I ended up doing was adding two cans of cream of mushroom soup, 4 more ounces of cream cheese and about 8 ounces of heavy whipping cream. It still tasted pretty sour to me, but no one else could really tell. Oh and I also added additional can of mushrooms, but only because I love mushrooms.
It ended up making so much, and came out like a consistancy of chicken spaghetti. (also I used angel hair pasta). I’m sure this would have been a better experience had I only used half the bottle instead.
I followed directions to the letter. It was awful. Way too salty, and I expected a creamy sauce, but instead it was just a paste. Did I do something wrong? As I said I followed directions… I’m not a bad cook, but nothing I could think of would have made this salvageable.
I M trying this tonight I bought mushrooms and have carrots. Thought I would add to the chicken and I will use 1/2 the dressing. I have a garlic butter spread thought I would add some of that with a little wine. Will it work.
Easy + Delicious = My kind of meal!
I used about a pound of chicken + the full amount of dressing – turned out perfect!
This makes leftovers we will happily eat! 🙂
So easy and absolutely delicious!! A hit with hubby, kids and, of course, momma! We will be having this again!
A full bottle of dressing is way way too much. Maybe half of that. I would add crumbled bacon to it for added flavor.
Yes, I agree. I only used about 1/2 my bottle. It was a little dry, so maybe next time I’ll add 1/2 cup cream. I was going to add in some pancetta, but I’d forgotten I’d used it earlier, bacon sounds good too!