Oh. My. I just tried this recipe from Becky Higgins and OH MY. It is seriously the most flavorful, most AMAZING tasting pasta I have EVER had!!! Beats ANYTHING I’ve ever had at Olive Garden HANDS DOWN. And it was soooooooo super amazingly easy, you MUST try this. ASAP. I was simply stunned at how *flavorful* it was!!! And how all the flavors were just went together perfectly!! I’ve had this recipe for several weeks now and I cannot BELIEVE I didn’t make it sooner!! I am kicking myself!!! I will be making this *all the time*. Next person to come over to my house will get this. Becky Higgins’ must be a culinary *genius*!!!! ;)
Okay, enough with the teasing, and onto the recipe!!!! I’m posting the recipe exactly like she has it on her webpage, but read afterwards for my slight adjustments. But trust me this thing does NOT need to be adjusted much!! :)
16 oz. Farfalle pasta
1 c. heavy whipping cream
3-4 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
2 to 3 cloves garlic, crushed OR garlic salt (I do a spoonful of crushed garlic)
1 Tbsp. pepper*
1/2 c. butter
1 lb. bacon, crumpled**
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese
1 (12 oz) Lawry’s mesquite marinade with lime juice*Seems like a lot of pepper, but it has a wonderful flavor when everything mixes together. If you’re apprehensive, do less pepper. You can always add more.
**We like to cook our bacon in the oven (400 degrees, convection). Way less messy. And it’s crispy every time. Time varies, so you just have to watch it. I think it’s usually around 30 minutes. Allow to cool and then crumple (I totally wear disposable gloves for this part – surprise, surprise).
[ directions ]
Crock pot chicken and bottle of marinade on low for 6 hours. Pull marinated chicken out of the juices, allow to cool a little bit, and shred (I pull it apart). Set this aside. About a half-hour before serving, boil the pasta. In a small saucepan, melt butter, add garlic, whipping cream, pepper, parmesan cheese, and crumpled bacon. Whisk together on low heat for 3-4 minutes. In a large bowl, pour over cooked, drained pasta, add chicken and stir through. Sprinkle a little bit more shredded parmesan cheese on top.
Okay, my adjustments…
- If this were my recipe, I’d call it Spicy Chicken Farfalle. :D Or something like that. All the flavors of this pasta are simply amazing. Have I said that yet?
- My crockpot died on me, so I google’d it, and the oven temperature equivalent of a crock pot is 200 degrees. So I cooked my chicken (since it was just me and Kevin, I only used 2 chicken breasts) in the oven for 6 hours at 200 degrees and it was juuuuuuuust perfect. I also made it 2 days in advance and just refrigerated it until I was ready to make the pasta. I heated the chicken up in the microwave for 1 min before mixing it in with the pasta. It turned out just fine, it was not dry at all.
- 16 oz of pasta makes a tooooooooooooooooooon!!! Definitely enough to feed *at least* 4 adults. Next time, if it’s just me and Kevin, I’m definitely cutting the pasta down to 8 oz but leaving everything else the same. Except for the rest of my adjustments below. :D Oh and boil your pasta with ONE TABLESPOON of salt. Yes I said it! 1 whole tbsp!! It’s one of those hidden secrets that no one ever tells you that can really add that “secret ingredient effect” to your dish. But I am telling you now so try it. Trust me. ;)
- Okay, she warns you about the pepper, and I really do like pepper but MAN! She ain’t lyin’!!! lol. I used the whole tbsp like she said, and it wasn’t so peppery it was ruined, but it might’ve been for those who don’t like pepper. I DO like pepper and next time I’m cutting the pepper back to a half tbsp, and then taste testing it right before I mix everything together to see if I want to add more.
- The bacon adds this *amazing* taste to the pasta like you would NOT believe, so don’t skimp on the bacon and don’t use bacon bits!! lol. They just won’t do! ;) The trick to frying bacon in a pan is to cut your bacon in half and cook on loooooooow to medium low heat (on my electric stove which ranges from 1 – 9, I put it on like 4) and just watch it. It takes a loong time but when one side starts to get brown, flip it over and do the other side. Just keep on checking it. lol. Make layers of bacon and paper towels on a plate until you’re all done. I fry up a lb at a time on the weekends and freeze it and use it whenever I need it. I pulled out about 16 slices to make this pasta and heated them up in the microwave for 1 min. They weren’t too crispy, so I couldn’t “crumble” them, but I sliced them up with a big knife and they did just perfect. :)
- I love cheese so I used more like 1 cup of cheese in the sauce. :D And remember, it calls for *shredded* Parmesan cheese, which is not the same thing as grated Parmesan cheese that comes in a cylinder like you put on spaghetti. Shredded Parmesan cheese comes in a bag like next to the shredded cheddar cheese. Publix didn’t have the shredded Parmesan cheese, so I got one of those 6 cheese Italian mixes (finely shredded) and it was wonderful. I ate a couple handfuls just plain. Oops, did I say that outloud.
Whew, that went on longer than I thought. And here’s a pic of my new FAVORITE meal ever!!!!! :)
Make for: Dinner / Main Dish
Tags: bacon, chicken, pasta
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47 Comments
i have a similar receipe to this that i cook at home all.the.time!! soooo yummy.
I got your update email. And oh my does this look yummy!
Has anyone taken you up on the offer yet? We will be over tomorrow around 5:30 pm. HA!!
This sounds sooo yummy! Thanks so much for sharing! Love your site! :)
You have the best, most informative, scrapbooky little website. Love the dogs, love the cute notes, love the food. Cool, very cool
MMM this does sound delish! Wish we could get that marinade over here in the UK so I could give it a try!
I just giggle to myself every time I visit your site cause my sister is called Amanda too and her hubby is called Kevin LOL!
Your site is so addicting! I just simply wanted to get a couple ideas on how to rearrange my craft room and found myself checking out your whole entire site! Wow! I am inspired…by so much here. You guys are awesome! What a great husband-Valentines day was really cute! I love that he was peeling potatoes in the living room! Your photos are unbelievable too! I want to hire your dad to make me the paper shelves!! I am hungry now and it’s midnight. I am bookmarking your site. Thanks for all the GREAT tips and ideas. Your style and organizing is very soothing to me and I need to revamp badly now that I see your stuff is so much neater. I love the paper scraps in those drawers-that is a must have for me! Keep up the great work!! Jenn
This looks great. I’ve enjoyed your website. Bumped into it because of the fonts, but I’m liking your receipes. Have printed 3 so far and am off to the store!
This sounded so good that I made it for my husband and two kids (ages 9 and 5). Everyone liked it, but it made a ton!! There’s no way we could’ve eaten it all in one sitting. I ended up freezing the leftovers in a few small freezer bags. A couple of days later, I warmed one up in the microwave and it was just as good (maybe better!).
Tried this one last night! YUM YUM!! I’m sure we will tackle all the leftovers this weekend! You were right….we are really pasta people….but that was way too much pasta. I know you said so, but I have to try it the wrong way 1st!!! Next time I will use half or 2/3 of the box. It was still delicious. I just think it would be better if you didn’t have to share that good sauce with the over abundance of pasta.
Amanda, I have ALWAYS loved your site and am a frequent visitor! I am crock-potting the chicken for this right now!!! I can’t wait to try it. Oh and I LOVE LOVE LOVE all your fonts and will have to show you my scrappy pages someday! <3 You rock!
I tried this just tonight. My hubby and I were soo stuffed – very yummy indeed!! Thanks so much for sharing!!! :)
I’m very excited to try this! We’re going to have it for Easter dinner!
love the recipe, thanks! It was delicious!!
I agree with how much it makes and I also think that it has too much cream. The whipping cream is just really heavy and I might change that part of the recipe to lower the fat & cal. I know that is why it is sooo good but it would still be good with less fatting things. Just an idea…. but very tasty! Now I’m off to workout~
thanks!
Made this for dinner tonight and it was a hit! (Hard to compete with the Grilled Chicken Pasta in Tomato Cream Sauce, but it was close) I heeded your warning about the pepper and only used a little over a teaspoon – could have used a bit more. Definitely don’t forget the shredded Parmesan on top! It really adds to the flavor.
made this today! yep that makes 4 of your recipes in the last week…all of them delicious!
We substituted Lawry’s Buffalo BBQ marinade and cut the pepper back a bit because the marinade has quite a bit of cayenne pepper in it. Delicious! The original is also fabulous, but I thought we’d try out a new twist!
This was so good!! I keep trying new recipes out on my family and most of them dont impress, but this one everyone loved. My mum cant stop talking about it! Thanks so much!!
This a so good! We had a veggie and rolls with it so we cut it in half and still had leftover.
Ooooh LOVED this recipe!!! I definately impressed my dinner guests with this one!
Love your website. I plan to make your pulled pork recipe this weekend. The garlic chicken pasta sounds yummy, too. I might try that as well. Thanks :)
Do you any vegetarian recipes…yeah, yeah I know but a good friend is a veggie and I like to include something for her.
Hi! I’ve tried some of your recipes and i love all of them! i want to try this one too, but we dont have Lawry’s mesquite marinade here in the Philippines.. what can i substitute for that? thanks a lot!!!
You haven’t steered me wrong yet, so I am adding this to the dinner menu for next week. By the way, how do you eat like this and stay thin? I am trying some of your dieting tips and it is going pretty well, but there are days… :)
I have made two recipes from your website. The Becky Higgins Garlic Chicken Pasta and the Slow Cooked Pulled Pork. Both meals turned out amazing! My husband has been bragging to everyone about the fabulous food! Thank you!
oh my goodness i made this the other day and it is amazing! we even had it the next day for leftovers and it was just as delicious. thanks for sharing :)
I made this recipe last night – SO good!! With my lack of sheer love for cooking (and time), I finally got a “wow! this is good!” from my husband :) And it was so easy to make. So, thanks for the great recipe. And I learned the new trick of cooking bacon in the oven; no mess – my new favorite thing!
They were out of the mesquite marinade at my supermarket so I tried substituting in a garlic&herb marinade! I love love love garlic and this came out SOO tasty! A nice little twist on this absolutely delicious dish! Love your site! I think I have cooked almost everything on here :)
Just finished eating this for dinner. DELISH!! Loved it…will certainly make again!
Okay, so it’s one thing to rave about a recipe, but to see all the positive responses from those who made your recipe was the clincher. I am SO making this within the next few days!
well i had to make this for a class project and everybody loved it! it was so good i was happy i made that and not anything else!
I am making this for the third time tonight…having seen it on Pinterest. The overwhelmingly positive comments and description made me laugh! This is AMAZING! I double the sauce and add spinach. It makes SO much and we eat it all (we’re huge leftover people). This is, hands-down, our favorite home meal!!
Wow. This dish is sooo good, and it is super easy to make. The sauce is amazing, and please don’t skimp on the bacon. It adds so much flavor. I probably could do without the chicken and just eat the pasta and sauce. I didn’t put the whole amount of pepper, and it turned out fine. I might add a little more next time. I also didn’t have real butter so I had to use margarine, and it still turned out amazing. This does make a ton of food, but it is soooo good!
This has become a favorite at our house :D I also shared it on my blog, with credit to you! Thanks!
This is THE most amazing recipe that I discovered through pinterest. I all but just glance at the photo and start to drool; it’s been made almost routinely once a month since I discovered it! I add spinach to add in a little bit of nutrients, double the sauce (same amount of bacon, but double the cheese, butter, and cream) and cook 1 lb. of pasta. SO SO delicious – thank you!!