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.
Can we use something other than the Italian dressing??
Cooked this for dinner. The sauce has a very strong taste it’s self. Add the cream cheese didn’t really help tone down the sauce. I over all it was very good hubby and friends loved it.
I made this and it was delicious! But it makes a lot for 2 people, I’m wondering if I can freeze it?
I don’t see why not!
I followed this recipe exactly and it ended up being really salty. If I made it again, I would eliminate or reduce the amount of cream cheese or italian dressing to reduce the sodium content.
Made this tonight. It was good but not the best thing ever. Hubby liked it so that’s good. And my young kids ate it fine. I wish I would have read the comments first as I almost didn’t add the whole bottle of dressing but did, as I was worried I wouldn’t have had enough liquid in the pot and would burn the chicken. I found it rich and a little salty but not too zesty at all. Sauce definitely doesn’t look like photo as the cream cheese didn’t blend well. Was more separated so I whisked it once I pulled the chicken out to shred.
Note- use boneless chicken. I only had bone in and it was annoying to have to shredded chicken and pick out bones.
Also make sure you use PHILADELPHIA cream cheese….it melts best in crock pot generic off brands don’t do well.
Wondering if it Would it be okay if I used half Italian dressing, half garlic Alfredo sauce?? Not sure if that would go together or not
We used Aldi Garlic and Herb chicken breast. Very good.
I made it but only used half the dressing and it was great. I’m wondering how well it freezes though because I made way too much.
I don’t wanna use the whole bottle of Italian dressing. What can I substitute for the other half so it won’t get so sour?
Some like cream of chicken with it.
It was tasty!
I did 4 chicken breasts and put only 1/2 the salad dressing, 1/2 the cream cheese and 1/2 the parmesan cheese-
Also used elbow noodles vs penne.
Less fattening, less caloric and still totally delicious!