The BEST Lightened-Up Blackened Chicken Alfredo
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I’m not sure if it’s the creamy Alfredo sauce or the blackened chicken that makes this pasta dish stand out but I do know you’re going to love it. Made with a blend of cheeses, garlic, butter, and milk, this homemade lightened-up alfredo sauce is the last one you’ll ever need.
As for this magical chicken, it’s all about the seasoning. The blackened seasoning is a bold spice blend that is flavorful but not overpowering. Â The result is a slightly spicy blackened chicken that compliments the homemade alfredo sauce perfectly.Â
If you love blackened flavors, you’ll love Air Fryer Blackened Salmon and Blackened Chicken Tacos with Pineapple Salsa.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Lightened-up chicken alfredo with peppery blackened seasoned chicken.
- Pantry staples + minimal ingredients + easy = a winner!
- No Italian restaurant is needed, this is a delicious comfort food from home.
Ingredients and Substitutions:
These are the main ingredients and substitutions. See the recipe card below for the full ingredients list and instructions for this Blackened Chicken Alfredo recipe.
- Chicken: you can use boneless skinless chicken breasts, chicken thighs, steak, shrimp, sausage, or any other protein you would like.Â
- Fettuccine Noodles: swap with your favorite style like Penne pasta or linguine and your favorite brand of noodles. You can use higher protein brands, Gluten Free, etc.Â
- Butter: I used unsalted butter. You can substitute butter with oil although butter does add great flavor.Â
- Laughing Cow Cheese: this recipe uses the “light” Swiss laughing cow cheese. Regular and even flavored would be fine. Â
- Whole Milk: this recipe is meant to thicken using whole milk. If you substitute you may need to add some thickening powder like flour, arrowroot, or cornstarch.Â
- Cream Cheese: regular and light will both work here.
- Parmesan Cheese: I like to use fresh parmesan cheese and grate it myself. Regular and lower fat options work but I do find lower fat does not melt as well as full.Â
- Blackened Seasoning: you can use your favorite store-bought blackened seasoning if you do not want to make your own like Zatarain but do note that most grocery store-bought seasonings have sugar added and this one does not.Â
Variations
- Use chicken thighs for more flavor or sliced beef.
- Add any vegetables you have in the fridge.
- Add zoodles or cauliflower rice for more volume.
- Use the sauce on any other pasta dishes.
Dietary Modifications
- This is a heavy dairy recipe. I would not suggest trying to make this dairy-free as it won’t turn out the same.
- For gluten-free use your favorite gluten-free noodles.
How to make blackened chicken Alfredo (a step-by-step visual guide):
Step 1: mix seasonings
Mix blackening seasonings in a deep mixing bowl and set aside (image 1).
Step 2: prep chicken and coat in seasoning
Slice the boneless skinless chicken breasts into strips. Add chicken to bowl of seasonings and mix together to evenly coat.
Step 3: cook your chicken
Spray a large skillet with nonstick cooking spray and add the chicken to the pan. Cook for 4-5 minutes until cooked through and no longer pink (image 2). For more cooking options see the FAQ section at the bottom of this post.
Step 4: Cook the noodles
Cook the noodles according to the package directions. You can add some reserved pasta water to the dish if needed to loosen up the sauce.
Step 5: Make the homemade Alfredo sauce
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add fresh garlic and laughing cow cheese to the melted butter (image 3). Lower heat to medium-low. Using the back of a spoon, mash the laughing cow cheese until it starts to melt.
Add milk and cream cheese (image 4). Mash cream cheese cubes the same way you did the laughing cow until it has melted into the mixture.
Add parmesan and pepper and stir together (image 5).
Simmer until the mixture thickens into a creamy consistency (image 6). This does not take long.
Step 6: Mix sauce, noodles and chicken
Once the sauce has formed, add the pasta and mix to combine (image 7).
Add the cooked blackened chicken and mix until well-coated (image 8) or serve the chicken on top of the pasta. Serve with fresh chopped parsley and enjoy!
Expert Tip!
Air fry your chicken for extra crispy!
Recipe FAQs
If you want to add a serving of vegetables to this dish you can either add broccoli directly into your pasta, roast some and serve it with your chicken alfredo or make a Creamy Broccoli Crunch Salad to go with it. This is delicious served with fresh garlic bread too.
Air Fried Blackened Chicken – preheat the air fryer to 380 degrees Fahrenheit. Once preheated, lay the chicken in the air fryer basket without any pieces overlapping. Cook at 380 for 8 minutes.
Bake – either cut into strips or leave in whole breasts and bake at 375 for approx. 20-25 minutes until cooked through and no longer pink.
BBQ – pound the chicken fillets to approximately 1/2 inch thick. Top with the seasonings and coat well on all sides. BBQ on both sides until cooked through, approximately 4-5 minutes on each sid
Pan Sear– cut into strips and sear in a large cast iron skillet until cooked through.
If the idea of prepping and seasoning this chicken seems daunting let me help you out. Meal prep your chicken beforehand! I like to prep my chicken earlier in the week and get my seasonings together and put them in a tight-fitting jar. That way, when I’m ready, all I have to do is make the noodles, and sauce, and cook the already cut and prepared chicken. OR make air fryer blackened chicken to toss in here when you’re ready to enjoy it later in the week.
A great way to add volume with minimal calories is to add zucchini noodles mixed in with the fettuccine like I do in Cajun Chicken And Broccoli Alfredo. It adds a ton of volume (not to mention fresh veggies) and is super filling. You get all the satisfaction from the wonderful flavors but not the heaviness of too much pasta.
If you are tracking! This is one of those dishes I suggest you weigh your final pasta and divide by the servings for the weight per serving. Then top with the noted cooked protein (2 or 3 oz.) for the most accurate tracking.
4 servings – 1/4 of pasta + 3 oz. cooked chicken: 545 Calories: 52 P / 52 C / 18 F
5 servings – 1/5 of pasta + 2.4 oz. cooked chicken: 436 calories: 41 P / 42 C / 15 F
6 servings – 1/6 of pasta + 2 oz. cooked chicken: 364 calories: 35 P / 35 C / 12 FÂ
Check out our other easy recipes!
If you make this recipe, please leave a rating and/or comment! Tag me on Instagram @ohsnapmacros, I love hearing from you!
Blackened Chicken Alfredo
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Ingredients
- 1 lbs. chicken breast, raw
- 8 oz. fettuccine noodles – using De Cecco (UNCOOKED)
- 2 Tbsp. Butter
- 1/2 Tbsp. minced garlic
- 2 laughing cow cheese wedges (light)
- 1 1/3 cup Whole Milk
- 2 oz. cream cheese, cubed (room temp works best)
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese 56g
- Fresh cracked black pepper to taste
Blackened Seasoning
- 1 Tbsp. Â smoked paprika
- 1 Tbsp. garlic powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. black pepper
- 1/4 to 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Mix blackening seasonings in a deep mixing bowl and set aside.
- Slice chicken breast into strips. Add chicken to bowl of seasonings and mix together well to evenly coat.
Cook the chicken – options
- Pan Seared – spray a large skillet with nonstick cooking spray and add the chicken to the pan. Cook for 4-5 minutes until cooked through and no longer pink. Bake – either cut into strips or leave in whole breasts and bake at 375 for approx. 20-25 minutes until cooked through and no longer pink. BBQ – pound the chicken fillets to approximately 1/2 inch thick. Top with the seasonings and coat well on all sides. BBQ on both sides until cooked through, approximately 4-5 minutes each side. Air Fryer – preheat the air fryer to 380 degrees Fahrenheit. Once preheated, lay the chicken in the air fryer basket without any pieces overlapping. Cook at 380 for 8 minutes.
- Cook the pasta according to the package directions.
- While the pasta cooks, heat a pan over medium, add butter and melt. Once melted add garlic and laughing cow cheese. Lower heat to medium low. Using the back of a spoon mash the laughing cow cheese until it starts to melt.Add milk and cream cheese. Mash cream cheese cubes the same way you did the laughing cow until it has melted into the mixture.
- Add parmesan and pepper and stir together. Simmer until the mixture thickens into a nice sauce. This does not take long. Once sauce has formed add noodles and chicken and mix until coated well.Tip – cut your noodles in half for easier serving when weighing.
Notes
- Nutritional information is an estimate and will vary with substitutions
- If you are tracking! This is one of those dishes I suggest you weigh your final pasta and divide by the servings for the weight per serving. Then top with the noted cooked protein (2 or 3 oz.) for the most accurate tracking.
- When reheating, add a tbsp or two of water to help the sauce separate as needed.
- Add zoodles to create a higher volume serving.Â
- Make this low-carb by using just zoodles or healthy noodles in place of fettuccini.Â
- 4 servings – 1/4 of pasta + 3 oz. cooked chicken: 545 Calories: 52 P / 52 C / 18 F
- 6 servings 1/6 of pasta + 2 oz. cooked chicken: 364 caloires: 35 P / 35 C / 12 FÂ
Nutrition
Photos by Marie-Catherine Dube
This was SO yummy! Thank you for sharing.
This is probably silly but it says dry fettuccine but you do cook before adding it to the Alfredo
Mixture? Thanks for the recipe! Looking forward to making it!
Yes, you’re just weighing it dry.
Truly one of my favorite OSM recipes. So delicious. Definitely my favorite recipe with blackened chicken. Also used the Alfredo sauce recipe without the blackened chicken several times now. It’s my new favorite.
Hi! This might be a dumb question, but when you list the macros for 4, 5 and 6 servings…..are those numbers per serving? Or is that the total for the whole number of servings? So if I am looking at the 4 servings numbers, is that the macros for 1 of the 4 servings? Thanks!
Yes, nutrition is for one serving. I just added the option to make it 4, 5 or 6 with the breakdown for your convenience.
Hands down my FAV!!
Woohoo!! Thank you!
Hi! Question, is it 8oz dry fettuccine or 8oz cooked?
Always dry if you’re cooking it.
What brand of of grated parm & cream cheese were used? Low fat? Etc.. slight variations in these will change the Macros. Can you please provide those?
Regular and regular.
You used regular cream cheese and laughing cow, and not the 1/3 fat cream cheese or light laughing cow? Just clarifying what to buy
My husband took one bite of this and said, “I’d eat this again” so I’d call that a win! Swapped blackened chicken for regular chicken since I can’t handle spicy foods. This one is definitely going into our weekly rotation. You wouldn’t even know it’s macro friendly based on the taste!
Is there a brand of blackened chicken you’d recommend?
I recommend making mine but you can also use Tyson frozen strips.
This was great, and easy to make.
Made this the past 2 Mondays and it was a huge hit – my 3 picky (10, 12 and 15 yr old) eaters loved it!!!
This was really good! I’m not sure why the 3 star ratings when asking a question, maybe because that’s the default?
I blended the milk, laughing cow and cream cheese in my smoothie blender and it blended nicely, poured into the pan then added the Parmesan. Wasn’t too spicy. Added a pinch of red pepper flakes. Yum!!!
Can you create a video on how to enter this recipe into my fitness pal? I weighed all my raw ingredients & entered them & then changed the serving size to grams after it was cooked but it is not coming out right
I figured it out, for some reason it didn’t like when I weighed my milk in grams
Since I have to be dairy free do you think we can alter the recipe and still be within the macros? This looks amazing!
Just create a recipe in MFP to whatever you alter with.
The holy grail of alfredo! Added a little crushed red pepper to give a kick….literal perfection!
YESSSS!!! Thank you!