Slow Cooker Olive Garden Chicken Pasta
1,838 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.
WAY too strong for my family’s taste! Trying to figure out how to doctor it up so I’m not wasting the leftovers?
I heard the same so when I cooked it i didn’t use the whole bottle of dressing just enough to almost cover the chicken and ours turned out so good.
Don’t use the Olive garden Italian dressing. I use the Walmart brand or whatever kind you can find and it’s not near as tangy. I hope this helps because now I love it and cook it as often as possible
I love Olive Garden, however this has an extremely weird taste. I was so excited to make this. Waited 5 hours and was so disappointed.. Never again!
The first time we made this we were a bit disappointed. It was good but the flavor was waaayyyy too strong. The second time I used half the bottle and an extra chicken breast. That seemed to cut down the strong taste and I also only used a 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese in total to keep the salt down. I added broccoli for the whole family and then some mushrooms to mine and it’s one of our favorite meals now.
I make it as directed. My whole family loves it!
Very delicious, but I use 2 packages of cream cheese to tone down the sweetness of the dressing.
Ivam not sure how this recipe hasn’t worked out for anyone? I use frozen chicken always, The original Italian dressing from olive garden and has no issues. My kids love this and its perfect when I work late because I only have to boil noodles…fyi any noodle works. We’ve used penne, farfalle and spaghetti. The only thing I change is sometimes I throw in chopped spinach and sundries tomatoes!
Just add some heavy cream at the end and it will cut that tangy sour flavor down just right.
Great idea!!!!
How much heavy cream did you add? How much longer to you cook it after you added the heavy cream?
Can you use frozen chicken with this recipe?
I don’t recommend using frozen meat in the slow cooker.
I have a chicken & dumplings recipe for the crockpot & the recipe actually calls for frozen chicken so I would think you could.
Highly recommend only using half the salad dressing, and replacing the other half with chicken stock/broth. Makes it much less tangy and a lot more enjoyable 😀
Neither my husband or I cared for this recipe!! The sauce had a sour/tangy taste that neither of us liked and it was may too rich. After a few bites we were both done!! Very disappointed!!