This post contains affiliate links.
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 🙂 .
CHECK OUT MY OTHER INSTANT POT RECIPES! POPULAR ONES INCLUDE:
FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST for more great recipes!
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.
Text me new recipe ideas!
Simple, tasty ideas sent once a week. No spam.
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 🙂
This was my first attempt at an Instant Pot pasta dish, and it was really good! We
Don’t use dairy, so I added a tsp of flour to almond milk. I also used just 4 C of broth. It thickens when cooling as described. Thank you!
It tastes great, even though it was a little thin. The biggest hurdle for me is finding the right ingredients here in Europe that match up and of course ounces & cups when used to grams & litres ;@)
It would have been nice to know that this wouldn’t fit in a 6 quart instapot. I am new to the whole thing. I did transfer to my cast iron pot to finish it out and it was good. Glad my pressure cooker didn’t explode tho. It did make a mess.
Hi Tina, I’m confused. This recipe was developed and tested in my personal 6 quart insta-pot.
Did you double it? It’s made for a 6 quart.
Can this recipe be used as a pasta salad and served cold?
I don’t see why not, if you want to let it cool and refrigerate it. Although it will probably be thicker than a regular “creamy” pasta salad.
This dish was delicious! I made it just as the recipe called and it was “soupy” but after letting it sit, it thickened up! Everyone in my family really enjoyed this dish including my two picky eaters! It tasted just like something you would order from Olive Garden! We will definitely be making this again. Tonight we are having your jambalaya IP dish. I’m sure it will turn out just as fantastic. Your recipes have made me fall in love with my IP, thank you!
A friend recommended this recipe to me. I made it exactly as written and the whole family loved it, even my five year old boys who don’t usually eat spinach. There are four of us and there was plenty left over.
Wow! This was a spectacular recipe, and I’m so grateful for you posting it — plus all the wonderful suggestions in the comments — kudos to everyone. I’m not a skilled cook by any means, and my buddies were worried I was trying to cook, but your recipe nailed it. I watched the great video several times so I got the hang of preparation in advance, and that really helped me. Here are a few insights from my cooking experience. First off, this dish was a MAJOR crowd pleaser — it was AMAZING. I served 5 hungry buddies, to a person thought is was really good, and I had leftovers enough to easily serve another 5 meals. I added 1 T of ranch salad dressing powder mix packet, 3 t of crushed red pepper. I upped the recipe a bit too without changing any of the timing/preparation steps (worked perfectly with no changes). I used 2 lbs of chicken total which was 4 breasts total, 16.5 oz of penne pasta (up from 12 oz since my box was 16.5), 8oz of softened cream cheese (up from 6oz since the packet was an 8oz packet), 1 C of half and half instead of milk (I didn’t have milk, and I figured the creamier half/half would be good, and it was), and I reserved about 1/4 C of the chicken broth (didn’t want it to be soupy, and I didn’t need to use it after all since it was perfect without it).
I have had much success with pasta Instapot recipes by just making sure the pasta is just covered by the liquid, and cooking 6 minutes, high pressure. In no way is this 5 cups of liquid! The pressure creates steam, which cooks the pasta, the pasta absorbs the liquid and lets off starch, creating a creamy, thick sauce.
I used your recipe as a base but instead of measuring 5 cups of liquid, I only added enough liquid to Just Cover the dry pasta.
I added the cheese at the end (parmesan- left out the cream cheese). It was delicious!
I am not a cook. I have never saute’ed anything in my life. I have lived a life off of frozen dinners and take out. I just received my Instant Pot Ultra yesterday. I searched the web for easy recipes, and this looked actually doable for a beginner. This was the very first recipe that I tried. I was trying to learn how to navigate the Instant Pot, learn what things needed to be prepped, and re-reading the instructions over and over. It took me a little over 30 minutes to make this, but that is a beginners learning curve. For me, Everything worked fine. It really tasted good. I was super pumped because this was the first success for me in cooking in many years. This is the best thing I have ever made my self. So, now I dont regret the purchase of the Instant Pot, and I am now excited and want to try other meals. This was a great first start. Thank you so much for sharing.
I’ve made this three times now and my whole family absolute LOVES it. I did take the liquid content down a bit. (2 cups broth and one cup milk), added more spinach and kept everything else the same. My three year old loves this and I simply can’t get enough. Two thumbs up!!