This garlic Lemon Chicken Pasta is easy and packed with flavor! It’s the perfect fresh summer meal made in 20 minutes, with seasonal vegetables.
Looking for more 30 minute meals? Try our Creamy Pesto Tortellini or Baked Tacos!
We live off of easy dinners during the summer months and this Lemon Chicken Pasta if light and refreshing and the perfect way to use your fresh zucchini, yellow squash, and parsley.
How to make Lemon Chicken Pasta:
- Cook pasta according to package instructions.
- Prepare chicken by seasoning with salt, pepper, lemon zest, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and onion powder. Cook in skillet with oil for 3-5 minutes per side, until cooked through. Remove and keep warm.
- Sauté zucchini and squash in skillet. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Add garlic.
- Combine hot pasta to the pan with butter and lemon juice. Mix until butter has melted. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and toss to combine. Chop chicken and add to pasta.
- Serve, garnished with parsley and additional parmesan cheese.
Use Fresh Ingredients:
- Parmesan Cheese: The powdered stuff, and even packaged, pre-shredded parmesan cheese doesn’t have the same great flavor and texture as freshly shredded parmesan. Also, freshly shredded parmesan melts better, which works great when you sprinkle it over the warm pasta and on the chicken.
- Lemon Juice: Freshly squeezed lemon juice makes a big difference in flavor!
- Parsley: adds a great extra touch of flavor that you can’t get with dried parsley flakes.
Recipe Variations:
- Vegetables: Swap out the zucchini and squash for broccoli, asparagus, spinach or another favorite vegetable!
- Pasta: Use your favorite bite-size pasta.
More Zucchini Recipes:
- Zucchini Bread
- Zucchini Brownies
- Zucchini Muffins
- Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Lemon Zucchini Bread
- Carrot and Zucchini Bars with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Roasted Vegetables
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Recipe
Lemon Chicken Pasta
This garlic Lemon Chicken Pasta is easy and packed with flavor! It's the perfect Summer meal to use fresh vegetables from your garden and ready in 20 minutes!
Ingredients
- 16 ounces mini farfalle pasta (or your favorite bite-size pasta)
- 2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder , divided
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning , divided
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil , divided
- 1 zucchini chopped
- 1 yellow squash chopped
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 4 Tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley , chopped
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package instructions.
- While the pasta cooks, season chicken, on both sides, with salt and pepper. Season with lemon zest, and ½ tsp EACH of garlic powder, Italian seasoning and onion powder.
- Add olive oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add seasoned chicken and cook for 3-5 minutes on each side, flipping once, until cooked through. Remove chicken to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm while it rests.
- Add another tablespoon of oil to the skillet. Once hot, add the chopped zucchini and yellow squash. Season with salt and pepper, ½ tsp garlic powder and ½ tsp Italian seasoning. Cook,on medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Add minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
- Add hot cooked pasta to the pan, along with the butter and lemon juice. Toss everything to combine, until butter has melted. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and toss to combine.
- Chop the chicken and return to the pan. Serve, garnished with parsley and additional parmesan cheese, if desired.
Notes
Parmesan Cheese: The powdered stuff, and even packaged, pre-shredded parmesan cheese doesn’t have the same great flavor and texture as freshly shredded parmesan. Also, freshly shredded parmesan melts better, which works great when you sprinkle it over the warm pasta and on the chicken.
Lemon Juice: Freshly squeezed lemon juice makes a big difference in flavor!
Parsley: adds a great extra touch of flavor that you can’t get with dried parsley flakes.
Vegetables: Swap out the zucchini and squash for broccoli, asparagus, spinach or another favorite vegetable!
Pasta: Use your favorite bite-size pasta.
Nutrition
Serving: 5gCalories: 683kcalCarbohydrates: 74gProtein: 42gFat: 27gSaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 100mgSodium: 505mgPotassium: 814mgFiber: 1gSugar: 2gVitamin A: 897IUVitamin C: 25mgCalcium: 294mgIron: 5mg
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Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
I originally shared this recipe August 2017. Updated May 2021 with process photos.
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Really good and reheats well
I found it to be to dry. The flavor was good but needed more sauce. Thank you
I made this for our family of four and used carrots and asparagus as the veggies. Added some chicken broth and butter to have extra sauce for the pasta, and rather than stir the pasta “in”, Served with a lemon ricotta ravioli.
Win for everyone.
This meal was easy and so delicious!!! Great way to add some veggies, so good
How well does this do if you don’t eat it for a day? Any idea if its good cold or is it better heated up? Thinking about bringing it camping. Thanks!
I enjoy it cold! I think it makes yummy leftovers.
Absolutely delish! I did use more lemon zest and lemon juice than called for. I also deglazed the pan after cooking the chicken with a splash of white wine to get those yummy bits of flavoring.
Another total hit! I’ve made at least 10 of your recipes and every one is in our dinner rotation now. This was no exception! Excellent!!
Super easy recipe. I also added roasted miniature tomatoes. BIG HIT!
Delicious! Great flavors, quick & easy to make. My kiddo loved it and asked to take some for her lunch tomorrow at school.
First off, this is my family’s new go to favorite dinner meal! So delicious, quick, full of flavor, and healthy. Picky 6 year old even loves it! BUT, My only change has been instead of chicken breast, I use ground chicken! Quicker to cook, fits in with all the veggies and pasta better, and was just plain simpler to do with the time I had 🤷♀️ Another thing I added was asparagus! Just toss it in with the squash with a little extra oil. Great stuff!!!
This recipe has good flavor but needs more moisture, it is on the dry side. If I made it again I would add a little broth or half n half.
This is a new family favorite! For leftovers the next day we reheat in a skillet with a little soy sauce and sesame oil for an Asian twist and it is fantastic!!
This was delicious! Thank you for also adding in recipe we can use any pasta and veggies
I made this dish, and it is so tasty! I love how simple yet delicious it is! Also, I am a big fan of the lemon!
A new favorite. So light and fresh but flavorful and satisfying. Added mushrooms and asparagus. Will try with spinach and chili pepper flakes.
My husband LOVED it! Used peppers and spinach instead and added chicken broth to the lemon juice. So much flavor, will be a new favorite!
Easy to make, healthy, and delicious.
So yummy! I added chicken broth and milk with cornstarch for extra sauce
Aloha Lauren – I found this recipe quite delicious. All of my family quite enjoyed it so it will be a repeat. I added mushrooms to it & it came out great. I was tempted to also add sun dried tomatoes but I think I’ll add it another time. Mahalo for sharing & I look forward to checking out the rest of your recipes.
This was absolutely delicious! The bright acidity from the lemon combined with the nutty flavor of the cheese. It was wonderful! I had left over baby bella mushrooms in the fridge so I sauteed those along with the squash. This is now a family favorite!
This was incredible! My boyfriend said it was the best pasta I’ve ever made (and I make pasta walkout once a week). Easy to make and delicious – nothing better! This definitely be a go to.
I can’t get my kids to eat squash, but all but the youngest did so gladly with this recipe. It was funny, because after every bite, somebody would say, “this is SO good!” The flavor combinations work really well together and it was a nice light meal.
Perfect light dinner, very tasty and filling. Delicious
This pasta is so tasty! It has become one of our favorite dinners to make. Thanks!
This was delicious!! I did not have squash so I substituted with cherry tomatoes, spinach and fresh basil!
Super easy and filling but light!
Thank you
Hi Melissa,
Parmesan is all I toss the pasta with initially. Then it gets added with the veggies and I like to put a little lemon juice and more parm! Feel free to modify it any way you like :)!
You have lemon zest in the ingredients but not the instructions!
The lemon zest is added in step 2, with the seasonings added to the chicken.