This Chicken with Blush Sauce Pasta is one of the first 30 minute recipes I shared here. It’s a tasty, creamy and cheesy pasta dinner that not only is ready in 30 minutes, but it’s a crowd pleaser. Loaded with chicken and bacon, a delicious cheesy blush sauce, this pasta recipe is indulgent and delicious.
This is a quick pasta recipe with a delicious and easy to make blush sauce, loaded with bacon and chicken. It’s a meaty, cheesy, and incredibly delicious sauce. Fabulous for a quick weeknight dinner meal, or even a special occasion.
Chicken With Blush Sauce Pasta
- 10 min prep time
- Simple, Short Ingredient List
- Takes 30 Minutes
- Delicious Comfort Food
I for one, love pasta dishes. My husband not so much, but that never stops me from making my favorite dishes, especially since they are so easy to make and because you can just throw together whatever you have in your fridge and make one delicious meal.
Ingredient Notes
- Pasta: You can work with any kind of pasta but Rigatoni and Penne work best with this type of sauce and combo.
- Bacon: what more can I say, bacon makes everything better. I do prefer a thick cut bacon here, but use your favorite.
- Chicken: I used boneless skinless chicken breast, but you can also use boneless skinless chicken thighs as well.
- Onion and Garlic: Essential flavor enhancers to any pasta sauce.
- Tomatoes: I use one whole can of diced tomatoes for this recipe for a chunkier sauce, you can also use crushed tomatoes for a smoother sauce.
- Sour cream: This is the ingredient that turns our tomato sauce into a blush sauce. You can also use heavy cream instead or Greek yogurt.
- Hot sauce: For the hot sauce you can work with any brand you like to use and it can either be mild or spicy, whichever you prefer most. You can also replace it with red pepper flakes, or completely omit this ingredient if you can’t handle any spice level.
- Cheese: I used both freshly grated mozzarella cheese that is added to the sauce to make it cheesy and freshly grated Parmesan cheese as garnish.
How To Make Chicken With Blush Sauce Pasta
- Cook Pasta: Cook the pasta in a large salted pot of boiling water according to package instructions, until al-dente. Reserve ½ cup of pasta water. Drain, rinse with cold water and set aside.
- Make the sauce:Â In a large skillet, add the bacon and cook it until it starts rendering some fat. Add the chicken, onion, garlic and cook until chicken is no longer pink and is cooked through. Stir in diced tomatoes, reserved pasta water, basil, hot sauce, and cook for 10 minutes. Add sour cream and stir. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper as needed.
- Finish the dish:Â Stir in the pasta, add the mozzarella cheese and toss it all together to make sure all pasta is covered in the cheese and sauce.
- Garnish with Parmesan and serve:Â Garnish with fresh Parmesan cheese and serve warm.
FAQ’s and Expert Tips
FAQ’s
The Blush Sauce or pink sauce is usually a delicious tomato based sauce with some sort of cream added to it. In this case, the sour cream is added to the tomato sauce, turning it into a blush sauce.
For authentic “al dente” pasta, boil uncovered, stirring occasionally for 12 minutes. For more tender pasta, boil an additional 1 minute. Remove from heat. However, it’s always best to follow the package instructions since different pastas shapes or sizes require different cooking times.
No, you don’t. The hot sauce is just added to add a bit of kick to the pasta, but feel free to skip it if you cannot handle any heat to your food.
Besides chicken breast, you can also use boneless skinless chicken thighs.
Expert Tips
- Before draining the pasta, scoop out ½ cup of the pasta water. Use this instead of plain water to add to your sauce. The starch in the water will help thicken the sauce.
- Always aim for freshly grated Parmesan and Mozzarella cheese versus the store bought. This way not only will you get extra melty cheese in your pasta, but there will be no added preservatives in your cheese.
- Rigatoni was my pasta of choice here, but really use whatever you want, I just love rigatoni with this kind of sauce. I encourage you to use a shaped pasta as it will provide enough shapes and ridges for the sauce and stick to.
Leftovers
Fridge
You can store this blush sauce pasta in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 – 4 days. Just be sure to allow it to fully cool before placing it in the fridge.
Freezer
This recipe is best enjoyed fresh, but you can absolutely freeze it for future dinners. It will last up to 6 months stored in an airtight container. Keep in mind after cooked pasta freezes and thaws, it will become a bit softer in texture.
Let the pasta thaw overnight in the fridge to make reheating easier and reduce the risk of breaking the pasta. If you find the sauce has separated a bit after thawing, the reheating and stirring will bring it back together.
More Delicious Recipes To Try
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Chicken With Blush Sauce Pasta
Ingredients
- ½ pound pasta such as rigatoni, penne, bow tie, etc., cooked according to package instructions
- 6 slices bacon cut into small ¼ inch pieces.
- 1 medium chicken breast boneless, skinless, cut into small pieces
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 14 ounce diced tomatoes (1 whole can)
- 2 tablespoon fresh basil chopped
- 2 tablespoon hot sauce or ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese grated
Instructions
- Cook Pasta: Cook the pasta in a large salted pot of boiling water according to package instructions, until al-dente. Reserve ½ cup of pasta water. Drain, rinse with cold water and set aside.
- Make the sauce: In a large skillet, add the bacon and cook it until it starts rendering some fat. Add the chicken, onion, garlic and cook until chicken is no longer pink and is cooked through. Add diced tomatoes, pasta water, basil, hot sauce, and cook for 10 minutes. Add sour cream and stir. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper as needed.
- Finish the dish: Stir in the pasta, add the mozzarella cheese and toss it all together to make sure all pasta is covered in the cheese and sauce.
- Garnish with Parmesan and serve: Garnish with fresh Parmesan cheese and serve warm.
Video
Recipe Notes
- Before draining the pasta, scoop out about a cup of the pasta water. Use this instead of plain water to add to your sauce if the sauce is too thick. The starch in the water will help thicken the sauce.
- Always aim for freshly grated Parmesan and Mozzarella cheese versus the store bought. This way not only will you get extra melty cheese in your pasta, but there will be no added preservatives in your cheese.
- Rigatoni was my pasta of choice here, but really use whatever you want, I just love rigatoni with this kind of sauce. I encourage you to use a shaped pasta as it will provide enough shapes and ridges for the sauce and stick to.
- You can store this blush sauce pasta in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 – 4 days. Just be sure to allow it to fully cool before placing it in the fridge.
- This recipe is best enjoyed fresh, but you can absolutely freeze it for future dinners. It will last up to 6 months stored in an airtight container. Keep in mind after cooked pasta freezes and thaws, it will become a bit softer in texture. Let the pasta thaw overnight in the fridge to make reheating easier and reduce the risk of breaking the pasta. If you find the sauce has separated a bit after thawing, the reheating and stirring will bring it back together.
- Originally shared September 2012.
Delicious pasta change from our regular ground beef with red sauce. I made the recipe just as written, but added more dried basil and granulated garlic in addition to the fresh. We had enough for 6 servings with a salad and bread to go with it. Great meal!
Loved recipe! Very delicious and easy to make
This was absolutely delicious. Very easy to assemble with no fuss. I would highly recommend it if you love pasta and chicken.
I finally tried this tonight! It was so good 🙂 My husband told me that I can cook now! haha thank you for the great recipe!
Made this today and so delicious!! Only thing I changed was I used crushed tomayoes as hubby doesn’t like chunks of tomato in dishes and I only put a heaping tablespoon of hot sauce. I think 2 tablespoons would have been too spicy. Will definitely make again!
Hello, How much basil should be used? How many leaves or teaspoons?
I would use 2 tsp dried or 6 leaves fresh, chopped.
The recipe says one can two cups of tomatoes. Do you mean one can or two cups or one can plus two cups?
Hi Lynn! Fixed it, 1 can which is roughly 2 cups.
Thanks. Hosted Friendsgiving for 20-somethings. Making Mom food tomorrow. This is Mom Food.