Slow Cooker Olive Garden Chicken Pasta
1,779 Comments May 11, 2020
Updated Mar 01, 2025
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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.
My husband and I loved this! We used 2 lbs of chicken and it was great. Might add bacon next time, because bacon
I made this last night & we loved it! I added mushrooms in the last 30 minutes & because it is a very rich dish, used a bit more pasta. Paired with salads, it was a perfect Sunday night meal.
Very disappointed… I seriously had to put the entire meal in a colander and rinse most of the sauce off, then it was pretty good. The original flavor was so intense from the dressing I suppose.
I agree 1 star is over rating this recipe. It tasted horrible. I wish I had read the 1 review.
Wanted to try this recipe because it looked really good as well as easy. Honestly 1 star might be a bit much. Don’t waste a bottle of Olive Garden dressing. The chicken was maybe .5 stars. It all went to the trash. Sorry but need to be honest.
How long if you wanted to make this recipe in an instant pot?
My question too!
Also my question
I don’t use an insant pot often but my guess is to cook as you would any chicken breast and sauce recipe then stir in the cooked pasta after cooking.
Yum!! I am not a pasta lover, but this recipe is going into our family favorites cookbook!
Can I use mozzarella cheese instead
You can, but I would only put on top. It can gum up if stirred in.
I was excited to try this, I love the Olive Garden salad made with this dressing. Recipe followed exactly. It was awful. The flavor was overwhelmed by the sour vinegar taste. I could detect no other flavors at all. One might as well have saved the cost of the bottle of dressing and just used only vinegar and get the same result. I hate to be so very negative, by the taste was very close to when one vomits and has the sour acid taste in the mouth. It was NOT that good tangy taste of, say, barbeque or even sauerkraut A total waste of chicken. My adult daughter thought it was “OK”, said with hesitation. But she left quite a bit on her plate. After a few forkfuls, mine went into the trash. I have the leftovers in the fridge, I am debating if it will work to rinse it with water and try to reuse the chicken in some other recipe. I have no doubt, 3 days from now, into the trash it will go.
Are you saying you didn’t really care for this recipe
I’m a little unclear about your feelings.
Just kidding….
How is this comment helpful at all? What a sour angry person you must be. You don’t like the recipe fine, your vomit diatribe is awful.
I agree
Would frozen chicken breasts work as well? How would the recipe change?