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I've had so much fun recipe testing instant pot recipes, and I'm sooooooo excited to share this Instant Pot Tuscan Chicken Pasta with you all today. A delicious pasta dish with creamy garlic sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and chicken. My family quickly fell in love with this yummy, EASY pressure cooker meal.
I've found myself using my Instant Pot more than ever in the past few weeks.
I especially love it for meals where you can throw all of the raw ingredients together, push one button, and BAM, it's ready in 15 minutes–Like these chicken taco bowls, or instant pot spaghetti.
The key is to cook everything well, without ending up with undercooked or overcooked noodles, or chicken.
One thing I really love about this tuscan chicken pasta dinner is how flavorful it is. The chicken is seasoned, and browned before you add everything else, and the onions are sauteed also, to give everything more depth of flavor.
Instead of water, we're cooking the pasta with chicken broth, and I've added milk and spices to make it creamier and extra flavorful. I hope you all love the end result as much as I do!
How to make Instant Pot Tuscan Chicken Pasta:
Start by seasoning your chicken with salt and pepper and paprika.
Turn your Instant Pot to saute, and brown the chicken on both sides. Remove it to a plate.
Add butter and chopped onion to the pot to saute.
Add the chicken broth, seasonings, milk, pasta and chicken to the pan. Cook on high pressure for 5 minutes.
When the timer beeps, quick release the pressure and open the lid.
Remove the chicken to a plate, tent it with foil and allow it to rest.
Add the cream cheese to the instant pot and gently stir it in until melted and smooth.
Stir in the fresh parmesan cheese, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. Chop the chicken and add it as well.
Give everything a little stir. Can you already smell the goodness? YUM! Perfect creaminess, and tons of flavor. And now you're ready to enjoy! Add a little extra garnish of parmesan cheese, cracked pepper and a some crushed red pepper flakes, if you're into that kinda thing 🙂 .
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Instant Pot Tuscan Chicken Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, (about 2 breasts)
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoons paprika, , smoked or regular
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 1 cup yellow onion, , chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 4 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup milk
- 12 ounces penne pasta, (or farfalle)
- 6 ounces cream cheese, , softened and cut into small pieces
- 1 1/2 cups freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 8 ounces sun-dried tomatoes, , drained and chopped
- 4 ounces baby spinach leaves
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Turn Instant pot to saute.
- Season chicken breasts on both sides with paprika, salt and pepper.
- Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to the hot instant pot.
- Add chicken breasts and cook for 2 minutes on each side, until browned, but not cooked through. Remove to a plate.
- Add butter and onion to the pot and sauté for 2 minutes.
- Add chicken broth, (scraping the bottom of the pot to deglaze it), seasonings, milk, pasta, and chicken breasts back to pot.
- Close IP lid and turn release valve to sealed. Cook on manual (high pressure) for 5 minutes.
- When the timer beeps, do a controlled quick release, to release the pressure. (Turn the valve but if any liquid sprays close it again and try again in a few seconds.)
- Carefully open lid. Remove chicken to a plate and tent with foil. (Don’t skip this step. The chicken will continue to cook under the foil).
- Stir in cream cheese, stirring gently until it’s melted and the sauce is smooth.
- Stir in parmesan cheese, sun dried tomatoes and spinach. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Chop chicken and return to pot.
- Sauce will thicken as it cools. Serve warm, garnished with extra parmesan cheese, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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This was easily 10/10. We had no leftovers and it fed two hungry men, me, and both of our children. I didn’t change anything about this recipe except we had to leave for a bit after it was done so I put it all back in the instant pot (it was a little watery) and just left on keep warm for about an hour while I was out. It was super easy and it’s been bookmarked for our favorites list now 🙂
So frustrating! I read the comments about it being too much liquid, but choose to follow the directions to a tee and just as several comments said, I ended up with soup.
Good and easy! I sautéed the chicken and onion (and garlic!) together to cut down on cooking time. I reduced the broth to about 2 c, and added the sun dried tomatoes. I did not add the milk yet. No issues with QR🤷🏻♀️ Then after QR, I added cream cheese, and maybe 1/2 c of half and half (plus park and spinach). The chicken was cooked
Perfectly and it had good flavor! Easy and everyone liked it.
Great recipe. I agree the noodles come out a little overdone, but it wasn’t awful. The sauce came out perfect for me with 16oz of pasta. For seasoning the chicken I added onion powder and garlic powder as well.
I added a 1/2 tsp salt + 1/2 tsp pepper to the spice mix. Used heavy whipping cream instead of milk, added mushrooms, and cooked some pancetta in with the onions (added about 6 cloves garlic with the onion).
Only cooked for 3 mins in IP.
I realize I changed the recipe quite a bit, but the basis was the same and it’s a very solid, delicious pasta dish!
Has anyone done this in a crockpot by chance? I don’t have an instant pot! 🙈 But it sounds delish
This is one of my FAVORITE recipes. My husband, who insists on hating anything that comes out of a pressure cooker, LOVED it! As far as being too much liquid…absolutely NOT! I did use a full (16 oz) box of pasta which might have helped, but it was absolutely PERFECT! As the sauce cools, it thickens…just as the recipe states. Thank you for sharing this. Absolutely awesome! Reminds me of my favorite dish as Macaroni Grill!
My husband and teenage son loved this! They said it was like eating in a restaurant and asked me to put it into our meal rotation! Great recipe.
I kept the milk the same, reduced the chicken broth to 3 cups, and added the sun-dried tomatoes at the beginning of the cook, and used a full box (16oz) of pasta instead of 12 oz. I julienned 1 bell pepper and layered it between the pasta and chicken pre-cook. Chop up some crispy bacon and throw it on top at the end as well. Great flavor, and a perfect creamy consistency once the cheese was all added.
This meal was pretty easy to put together and my 3 year old ate it up without hesitation. So for that alone I’ll give it 3 stars. This is a quick weekday dinner. With all that being said, I found it a bit lacking in flavor and 5 min cook time made the penne too soft. Which may or may not be a bad thing depending on how one enjoys the consistency of their pasta. I’ve made this twice, the first time following the recipe to a T. There was way too much liquid! The second time, I reduced the chicken broth to 3 cups, much better! Again, my toddler ate it all up so for that I’ll be making this a repeat dinner.
I have made this twice and it has come out perfectly. I have shared this with others and it came out great for them too! For those who say it is a lot of liquid, if you let it sit for a bit it does thicken up quite a bit. As for it spraying liquid, if you do a controlled release, that should not happen. I find the rude comments posted very unnecessary- but that is just my two cents. Have a great day!
Flavor was good. Based on other reviews I cut the liquid way down. About a cup of broth, a cup of milk, and used frozen chicken breast, and it was still a little too thin even after adding a tbsp of corn starch. I cooked the pasta separate since I was using frozen chicken and needed to cook it longer. Still though- good flavored sauce, just doesn’t need nearly the amount of liquid, especially if you end up cooking pasta separate like I did.
I need to cook the pasta separately because I can’t have pasta. What time did you use on the frozen chicken. Thanks