Slow Cooker Olive Garden Chicken Pasta
1,803 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.
Tang is rough. Hard no from me on this one.
I made this dish today and it is absolutely delicious! It was easy to make and it turned out perfect. It was so good that I can use it when company comes.
I made two batches today. One for us and one for my boys. The boy’s, I used chicken breasts and a bottle of Ken’s Northern Italian dressing and steamed cauliflower instead of pasta. For ours, I made as per instructions except used chicken tenderloins and gemelli pasta. I added onion powder and garlic salt at the end to both as another user had done. Both are good but I would have loved to keep the boys’ version instead. It is driving away as I write this!
Wow 2 different meals, your like a super hero I guess your boys don’t like pasta but like cauliflower… cool.
Can you freeze this dish?
I don’t see why not.
Has anybody made this in the instant pot?
Here is a version where you can cook the pasta with everything else: https://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/instant-pot-olive-garden-chicken-pasta/
If I accidentally used filet chicken thigh do you think it will turn out okay?
Yes, it will be fine. 🙂
This is THE best most easy recipe ever!!! So good I can’t believe it uses so few ingredients and tastes incredible!
I used canned chicken and cooked it in a large skillet and it was AMAZING! I was hungry and wanted to try it, so I skipped the slow cooker and went straight for the canned chicken. Haha!
Awesome add ins
I read all the reviews before making this a few months ago and have made it about 6 times since and have adjusted it each time to find the right balance. I used the original recipe the first time and not only did it come out too tangy, but it simply did not keep the next day and just became a dried noodle mess. The following are my changes:
Add bacon (around .5lb? still playing with this because my family loves bacon)
1 can of cream of chicken
1 cup of chicken broth
1 cup sour cream
Red pepper flakes
This dies town the tang of the italian dressing without removing the flavor. It also makes the sauce creamier, so the leftovers also keep their consistency.
Do you add the sour cream at the beginning or very end?
At the same time as all of the other ingredients.
First time making this myself and I could not agree more with the “tang”. Will try your suggestions next time. Thanks!