A 30 minute kid-friendly dinner with pasta, cheese AND bacon. What’s not to love? Creamy Chicken, Broccoli and Bacon Pasta is a recipe that will have everyone coming back for seconds!
This was a last minute recipe inspired by Anthony. D.J. surprised me with a date night, and I needed to make dinner for him and our awesome sitter, Ashli. Since it was a Wednesday night, and Wednesday’s are usually BRINNER nights, we had some bacon defrosted. Ashli LOVES bacon. More than me I think.
As I looked through the fridge, I found some chicken and broccoli. Broccoli is Anthony’s favorite vegetable so I wanted to include it into our meal. I knew I could have probably just tossed everything together and made a casserole, but I didn’t have any rice, so a pasta dish it was.
This recipe is similar to my recipe for Pasta with Bacon and Peas, but takes it to a completely new level, and can be made in only 30 minutes. It was such a quick and easy dinner to make, I was able to get dressed and ready AS I was making dinner.
I used fresh broccoli for the recipe, and in these pictures, but frozen broccoli works perfectly, and will save you a few minutes of prep! There are even already chopped up and ready to go fresh broccoli florets that you can get at the grocery store – usually around the salad. They cost a little bit more, but if you’re pressed for time, can make dinner easy.
What saves a lot of time on this recipe, is cooking the broccoli and pasta together. Broccoli can take a while to cook if you just cook it in the frying pan, but by adding the broccoli to your boiling water, you cook the broccoli fast AND flavor the pasta a little bit.
Ingredients:
1lb chicken breast
1/2 lb diced bacon
2 cups broccoli florets
1 lb pasta (we used elbow macaroni)
1/2 onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup cream or milk
2 tsp salt
1 tsp each; garlic powder, black pepper, thyme
Directions:
In a large deep pan, over medium-high heat, cook bacon until it starts to crisp up and curl. Add chicken and onions to the pan, season with salt, pepper, garlic powder and thyme. Cook, stirring constantly until chicken is cooked through and bacon is crispy – about 8-10 more minutes. Pour extra fat out go the pan.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add broccoli and pasta, and cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside
Once chicken and bacon is cooked, add garlic and stir in just until you can smell it.
Add chicken stock, and use a wooden spoon to break up any browned bits on the bottom. Bring a boil, and then reduce heat to low.
Add cream and parmesan cheese. Stir frequently until all of the cheese is melted. Let simmer for about two minutes, until the sauce thickens.
Add pasta and broccoli to pan and stir to combine all of the ingredients. Let simmer on low for another 2-3 minutes. Serve right away with extra parmesan cheese.
To download the printable version of this recipe, click the link below for the PDF version.
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