Chicken Caprese Pasta
Published 5/30/2023
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Chicken caprese pasta is the ultimate garden pasta recipe made with chicken breast, fresh tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella!
Caprese Chicken Pasta is an irresistible garden summer pasta that comes together quickly and with ingredients straight from your garden!
Favorite Caprese Pasta with Chicken
We’re huge fans of Caprese here at Fit Foodie Finds. We love Caprese stuffed chicken, Caprese quinoa salad, and Caprese breakfast bake.
It’s something about using up ingredients from your very own garden that makes us happy. This chicken caprese pasta is a fun way to add caprese to your dinner while packing in the protein from chicken breast.
This meal is easily customizable with other veggies, plus it’s a foolproof dinner that anyone can make.
What You Need
This Caprese pasta recipe calls for simple, yet fresh ingredients. Here’s what you need.
- Pasta: any kind of pasta works. We’re using penne.
- Garlic: we recommend fresh garlic, but jarred works too.
- Salt and pepper: always to taste.
- Tomatoes: while we’re using cherry tomatoes, you can use any kind of tomato you want!
- Fresh basil: make sure to use fresh basil and not dried.
- Mozzarella: feel free to use mini mozzarella balls or cut up your own.
- Balsamic vinegar: balsamic is a classic caprese ingredient.
- White wine: white wine elevates the sauce.
- Butter: butter adds that finishing touch of flavor.
Great Jones
The Dutchess
This is hands-down our favorite Dutch oven. It’s a 6.75 quart enameled cast iron Dutch oven that’s super high-quality and gorgeous.
Quick Tips for Perfect Caprese Pasta
While we’re sharing the full recipe below, here are some top tips to get perfectly cooked, delicious chicken caprese pasta!
Don’t Overcook the Chicken
In order to not overcook the chicken, you’ll need to work quickly. Only partially cook the chicken pieces at the beginning because they will simmer in the sauce later on.
Reduce the Sauce
The delicious balsamic sauce is made primarily from balsamic vinegar and white wine. Make sure to let that sauce simmer so that it reduces by half. This will increase the flavors and thicken things quite nicely.
Serve with fresh mozz and basil
It’s important os serve its chicken caprese pasta recipe with FRESH basil and mozzarella. Dried basil is not the way to go.
Customization Ideas!
- Pick your pasta: love regular pasta, pappardelle, or angel hair? Use your favorite pasta!
- Add more veggies: pack in your garden veggies and add your favorite. We recommend summer squash, zucchini, or onion.
- Skip the chicken: make this pasta vegetarian by skipping the chicken all together.
- Use chicken thighs: a dark meat kind of person? Use chicken thighs instead.
Storage
This pasta will keep for up to 5 days when stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
Chicken Caprese Pasta
Ingredients
- 8 oz. penne pasta
- 2.5 tablespoons olive oil
- 1.5 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, chopped into 1-1.5 inch chunks
- 4 cloves garlic , smashed and minced
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, separated
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper , separated
- 12 oz. cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1.5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 8 oz. mozzarella balls, halved
- 1 cup fresh basil chopped
Instructions
- First, fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil over high heat. Add penne pasta and cook until the pasta is al dente. Strain the pasta and set it aside until later.
- Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium/high heat.
- When olive oil is fragrant, add the chicken, garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper to the pot and cook for 4-5 minutes.
- Next, when the chicken is partially cooked, add cherry tomatoes to the pot and cook the tomatoes, chicken, and garlic together until the tomatoes begin to stew (about 5 minutes).
- Add the balsamic vinegar, white wine, butter, and the rest of the salt and pepper to the pot, mix well, and let the liquid reduce by half (about 10 minutes).
- Remove the sauce from the heat and toss the noodles and mozzarella balls with the sauce.
- Add basil to the pasta right before serving, toss, and enjoy.
Tips & Notes
- Boneless, skinless chicken thighs can be substituted instead of chicken breasts.
- This recipe was slightly updated on May 30, 2023.
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Photography: photos taken in this post are by Ashley McGlaughlin from The Edible Perspective.
I loved it! Really easy ingredients and comes out delicious!
So yummy!
Oh my goodness this was good and so quick and easy! (I also reduced the oil to 1 tbsp to cut out 60 calories per serving and the recipe worked just fine…) Please do more 30 minute meals like this!!
Glad you loved this!!
Begged my wife to make me this meal, using your recipe… It took me a while, but once she did it, it was all worth it 🙂 Thank you!
It’s SO GOOD!!
Very fresh, light pasta! I added spinach with about 2-3 minutes left of the sauce to simmer, skipped basil because it’s not my favorite. Delicious pasta, will definitely make again soon! Also 2 year old approved.