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One Pot Creamy Mediterranean Chicken Pasta

You’ll fall in love with this easy one-pot creamy Mediterranean pasta with chicken, lemons and olives. It’s a simple and satisfying weeknight meal that comes together in just 30 minutes!

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    A pan filled with Mediterranean Chicken pasta, lemons and olives with a spoon

    Easy Mediterranean Chicken For Dinner, Everyone is Happy.

    This one-pot creamy Mediterranean pasta recipe is brought to you by the five o’clock dinner scramble. You know the one. You look at the clock and suddenly realize you need to get those kids (and yourself) fed ASAP. Thankfully, this uncomplicated dish is coming to the rescue. From fridge to table, it comes together in 30 minutes flat. Briny capers and olives, bright hits of lemon, and rich cream all join forces for a sure fire way to chase away that dinner-time panic.

    ingredients laid out pasta, chicken breast, olives, cream, stock, lemon

    One-Pot Mediterranean Pasta Dinner:

    This magical Greek influenced chicken pasta dish is a one-pot wonder. The key to its success is the secret thickening agent that turns the butter, chicken stock, and cream into a luscious sauce. As the pasta cooks, its starches are released right into the bubbling sauce mixture, bringing everything together to create one dreamy sauce.

    How Do You Make a Creamy Mediterranean Chicken Recipe Using Just One Pot?

    Your typical pasta dish starts with tossing try pasta into a pot of boiling, salted water. After eight or so minutes of boiling, the pasta is then drained and added to whatever sauce you’re using, but NOT in this dish. We wanted to keep the method and the cleanup for this meal really easy. Our one-pot Mediterranean chicken pasta uses those eight minutes to cook the pasta AND make the sauce all at once. No second pot or draining required! Here’s how we did it:

    1. This one-pot creamy Mediterranean chicken recipe starts with a little olive oil and a pound of boneless, skinless chicken breast. (This dish could easily be made vegetarian, or use another cut of chicken you have on hand, as well.) Cut the chicken into two-inch pieces and brown it in the olive oil.
    2. After you’ve removed the browned chicken from the pan (set aside for later), melt the butter and sauté the garlic for a few minutes until it’s fragrant.
    3. Here’s where it gets really fun. At this point, add your chicken stock, heavy cream, and fettuccine noodles to the pot and bring it all to a boil. It’s important to make sure that your noodles stay submerged in the liquid. Stirring continually also helps the fettuccine to cook evenly.
    4. Once the sauce begins to thicken, add the parmesan, lemon slices, capers, and olives. These flavor bombs bring a bright, super-savory, acidic touch to the dish and help to perfectly balance out the rich cream sauce.
    5. Finish this beautiful meal by adding the chicken you browned earlier, and topping it all off with a sprinkling of fresh parsley.
    Chicken breast pieces browning in a pan.
    ingredients in a soup pot, butter, cream, chicken, pasta, olives

    Tips for Making This One-Pot, Creamy Mediterranean Chicken Pasta Recipe:

    • If you’re an experienced cook, feel free to cook your chicken at the same time as you boil your noodles and make the sauce. By doing so, you’ll cut this meals' start-to-finish time in half. Just be sure to stir the pasta continuously so everything is evenly cooked.
    • Break your noodles in half. They may not as fun to twirl, but will stay fully submerged as the sauce bubbles around them.
    • Have fun adding your own twists! We love seeing the unique dishes you create using our recipes as a jumping off point. This dish could be customized further by adding sun-dried tomatoes, peas, artichokes, or spinach—the sky’s the limit!
    a Pot of Creamy Mediterranean Chicken Pasta

    But Wait! When I Boil the Noodles in Cream, Won’t it Curdle?

    You may be wondering if this Greek-inspired chicken pasta dish can be boiled without the cream curdling. You can trust us on this one—it can! We tested and retested this recipe to ensure that the method was spot on. We experimented with milk (too thin) and cream cheese (too sticky), before settling on heavy cream (just right) as the best way to give this pasta a gorgeous, velvety sauce.

    So, why doesn’t the heavy cream curdle? Well, because we add the chicken stock and cream at the same time, the cream is tempered, meaning we aren’t adding the dairy product to a hot liquid, which is what can cause separation. The high fat content of cream is also better suited to handle heat than its low-fat counterparts.

    One Pot Creamy Mediterranean Chicken Pasta with lemons and olives
    One Pot Creamy Mediterranean Chicken Pasta in a pot with a serving spoon

    Need Some More Easy Pasta Recipe Inspiration?

    If you make this one-pot creamy Mediterranean chicken pasta and are hungry for more easy pasta recipes, we’ve got you covered.

    • This Baked Penne Alla Vodka dish is the cat’s meow. I like to double the recipe and freeze half of the sauce for another time. I simply thaw it out and add the kale, parsley, and pasta and bake.
    • Our Slow Cooker Mushroom Macaroni and Cheese is another winner. Sweet, nutty gruyere cheese pairs perfectly with the earthiness of the mushrooms. The pasta requires just a quick four minutes boil, before everything is added to the crockpot. The result is pure gooey magic!

    Was This Mediterranean Pasta Dish a Hit?

    If you make this recipe we’d love to see how it turns out! As always, post it to Instagram and tag @themodernproper and #themodernproper so we can drool along with you. Happy eating!

    One Pot Creamy Mediterranean Chicken Pasta

    • Serves: 6
    • Prep Time:  20 min
    • Cook Time:  25 min
    • Calories: 865

    Ingredients

    • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
    • 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
    • ½ teaspoon sea salt, plus more for serving
    • 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper, plus more for serving
    • 4 tablespoons salted butter
    • 4 garlic cloves, minced
    • 4 cups chicken stock ​
    • 2 cups heavy cream
    • 1 pound fettuccine or spaghetti noodles, broken in half
    • ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
    • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
    • 2 tablespoons lemon juice, from 1 lemon
    • 1 (3.5-ounce) jar capers, drained, about ½ cup
    • ½ cup kalamata olives, pitted, cut in half
    • ½ cup flat-leaf parsley, minced

    Method

    1. Heat a large Dutch oven or pot over medium-high heat. Add the oil and swirl to coat.

    2. Season the chicken all over with the salt and pepper. When the oil is glistening, add the chicken, in batches, and cook until browned on all sides and cooked through, about 12-15 minutes total. Transfer the chicken to a plate.

    3. Add the butter to the pot. Once the butter is melted, Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute.

    4. Stir in the chicken stock, heavy cream and pasta. Submerge the pasta in liquid. Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring, until the sauce begins to thicken, about 10 minutes.

    5. Add the parmesan cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice, capers and olives.

    6. Cook, stirring, until the pasta is tender and the sauce has thickened, about 8-10 minutes longer.

    7. Add the chicken to the pasta and cook, stirring, until just warmed through, about 2 minutes.

    8. Serve immediately sprinkled with parsley and extra salt and pepper to taste.

    Nutrition Info

    • Per Serving
    • Amount
    • Calories865
    • Protein29 g
    • Carbohydrates61 g
    • Total Fat58 g
    • Dietary Fiber3 g
    • Cholesterol153 mg
    • sodium1280 mg
    • Total Sugars4 g

    One Pot Creamy Mediterranean Chicken Pasta

    Questions & Reviews

    Join the discussion below.

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    • Rebecca

      Would this recipe work as well with pene pasta or another smaller shape and would it work well to double it?

      Yes to both! Hope you enjoy, Rebecca!

    • Delores DelVecchio

      what do you think about making this dish with salmon?

      It would be a pretty different dish with salmon instead of chicken. You could try it! Or, we also have a delicious salmon pasta recipe here that you might try: https://themodernproper.com/salmon-pasta-with-homemade-pesto

    • Dan Joel

      Would you have to scale the entire recipe up for 16oz pasta rather than just 12oz or would just a bit more chicken stock do the trick?

      Hi! The recipe uses 1 pound of pasta, so it's already written assuming you're using 16 ounces of pasta. You should be good to go!

    • shelby

      this looks amazing! Do you think full-fat coconut milk could sub for heavy cream?

      Because this relies so heavily on the cream—2 full cups of it!—this is one time when we wouldn't recommend making that swap. You could reduce the amount a bit, maybe, but not fully swap it out.

    • Che

      I am not great at cooking, I just don’t have the patience but this recipe was so easy to follow with simple ingredients. My son, who is my pickiest eater, loved it! I did leave the olives out of his servings. Over all I love this creamy, Mediterranean noodle masterpiece!

      This is awesome Che! I love that you gave it a try! So happy you guys enjoyed it and that is was simple to follow along. Thanks for letting us know!

    • Elizabeth Macbeth

      Tried this easy receipe for dinner last night and my husband and I thought it was fabulous!! Used the recipe as written. I will pass it on to my children as they love to try new recipes also. It was a real winner for us!! I served it with peas (which we both mixed in with it) and a loaf of french bread and a glass of Pino Grigio. Will definitely make it again and it would be great to serve to guests also. Thank you.

      Thanks Elizabeth! Happy to hear that you enjoyed it!

    • Elli

      OMG! Pure yummiest! My 3-year-old devoured it. Thank u. Added onion & mushroom xx

      So glad to hear! Love the additions!