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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 🙂
This tasted AMAZING! Everybody loved it and asked for the recipe. The only changes I made were 16oz. penne pasta instead of 12, 4 cups of chicken broth instead of 4 1/2, and a full block of cream cheese (8oz.) instead of 6. It turned out perfect! Thank you for an awesome recipe 🙂
Delicious! I used seaweed pasta (with durum wheat) and it turned out great. Didn’t have dry basil so I used 1/2 tsp oregano and 1/2 tsp of fennel pollen. Yummy!
Does this freeze well? I have too much just for me. Thanks!
This is a great recipe and a fan favorite! The sauce thickened up just right for me, both times I’ve made it.
Hi – am wondering if anyone has tried this with gluten free pasta? If so does it change the cooking time?
I have not made this specific recipe with gf pasta but when cooking pasta in the instant pot I find you have to do half the recommended cooking time or you end up with mushy noodles
Hi – just ate the pasta – sooooo good. I did use GF penne (Ronzoni) and kept the cooking time the same. I might drop off a minute but it was really good! Thanks!
Hi Lauren!!
I really love your recipes!! I am going to make this for a ladies lunch tomorrow. I have an 8 Quart Pot. I was hoping to double the recipe. If I double the recipe, do I need to double the cook time.
Thank you so much!!
Morgan
Thanks Morgan! I hope everyone loves it. No cook time would be the same, it will just take longer to come to pressure.
Turned out great using advice from reviewers. Gave 4 stars only because I’m reviewing with suggested modifications to the original recipe that made it look exactly like the video & pictures.
I did 16oz of a hidden veggie penne, 4c of chicken broth, & coarsely chopped the spinach (my preference). I’m glad I measured the spinach since 4oz is a lot more than one would think. I also used 4 chicken breasts because they were thawed & needed to be used. Next time, I’ll put the sundried tomatoes in for the cook time because I thought they were a tad too chewy (suggested by several reviewers too). The pasta & sauce were an excellent consistency & there was plenty even after doubling the chicken – the doubling didn’t seem to impact the outcome at all. The 5 min cook time worked perfect & after the tent resting, the breasts remained super moist for cutting up.
Family loved this, 100% kid approved, and from a very picky eater. I made changes based on what we had on hand, writing them here for posterity. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs, pimentos instead of sun dried tomatoes, and 1/3 box of frozen spinach. Sautéed the pimentos and spinach with the onions and butter. Used a 16oz box of elbow noodles, 4c of broth and 1c of 2% milk. Used 4oz of cream cheese and 2oz of shallot Boursin. A winner and so easy!
Wasted all of my ingredients maybe save for the chicken 🙁 SO MUCH LIQUID. Followed recipe exactly.
I am broke. Can’t afford to really just go buy all of that again. It’s edible. But it’s pasta soup.
I was so excited to try this but. I’ll try a different recipe.
I’m sorry Caitlin–did you add the correct amount of cheese at the end, and let it cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. It should have thickened after both of those things.
This was freaking amazing. I tried to lighten it up with low fat cream cheese and skim milk. I also used a full box of penne pasta (16 oz.) Because of that I increased the time to 6 minutes and the pasta was perfectly cooked. This was the most delicious Instant Pot recipe yet!
Tried it tonight. All 3 of my boys loved it! I think k that artichoke hearts might be good I it also.