High-Protein Marry Me Chicken Pasta (58g of protein)
A creamy sun-dried tomato chicken pasta is everything good in this world. Yummy juicy chicken, a homemade cream sauce (without any cream) that’s to die for and pasta shells to hold in all the flavor in every bite. Is it worthy of a marriage proposal? Who knows. With high-protein dishes this good, who cares?
To make this a nice high-protein dish we’re ditching the heavy cream and using cottage cheese instead. The cottage cheese makes the sauce rich and creamy without overloading it with calories and fat. This silky smooth sauce has tons of flavor from sun-dried tomatoes and pairs perfectly with seasoned chicken and pasta shells.
Are you new to adding cottage cheese to everything? Try it in cottage cheese lasagna, my favorite chilled cottage cheese queso and definitely in a tropical cottage cheese smoothie.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- 58 grams of protein per serving.
- Made with only simple ingredients.
- High-protein and gluten-free.
Ingredients and Substitutes:
These are the main ingredients and substitutions. See the recipe card below for the full ingredients list and instructions for this creamy chicken pasta.
- Chickpea Noodles: I used chickpea shells to make this gluten-free. I prefer a shell or short pasta, like rotini or penne pasta.
- Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts: this could be swapped for ground chicken or for a richer flavor, use boneless skinless chicken thighs.
- Sun-Dried Tomatoes and the Oil: there’s no olive oil in this recipe. Instead, we are using the flavorful oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes that usually gets discarded.
- Low-Fat Cottage Cheese: puts the creamy to our creamy sauce. Cottage cheese gives the sauce a beautiful texture and adds protein and richness. You can use full-fat to make this an even more creamy pasta dish, but it really doesn’t need it.
- Chicken Broth: I always use low sodium so I can decide the amount of salt. You can use chicken stock or bone broth instead.
Variations
- For a richer meal, make this with tortellini or gnocchi.
- Spice up the night by adding red pepper flakes.
Dietary Modifications
- This delicious pasta is gluten-free.
- To make this dairy-free you can use 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup full fat canned coconut milk and arrowroot or cornstarch to thicken it as needed. It won’t be the same but it’ll still get some creaminess.
Let’s make marry me chicken pasta (a step-by-step guide):
Step 1: cook the pasta and chicken
Cook the pasta according to the package instructions. If using chickpea pasta, I like to undercook it by a minute so it doesn’t get mushy.
Add the chicken, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to a large mixing bowl (image 1). Mix to evenly coat the chicken (image 2). In a large skillet over medium heat, add the oil from the sundried tomatoes. Once hot, add the seasoned chicken and cook on each side (image 3), untouched, for 3-4 minutes or until cooked through and no longer pink (image 4).
Step 2: blend your creamy sun-dried tomato sauce
While the chicken cooks, add the cottage cheese, chicken broth, garlic powder and oil from the sundried tomatoes in a high speed blender (image 5) and blend until smooth and the cottage cheese is no longer chunky or chalky, approximately 4-5 minutes (image 6).
Step 3: add pasta and sauce to cooked chicken
Add the cooked and drained pasta to the pan with the cooked chicken along with the blended cottage cheese sauce (image 7). Add the parmesan cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt, and black pepper (image 8). Stir to melt the cheese and heat the sauce. This will only take a couple of minutes. Add the spinach (image 9) and stir to wilt (image 10).
Expert Tip!
Al dente pasta is slightly undercooked pasta. It’s recommended for this recipe because the pasta will continue to cook once added to your cream sauce.
Recipe FAQs
There’s no right answer to this. Use whatever pasta noodle you love. I like short pasta noodles for this, but you can use the longer varieties too. I used chickpea noodles to keep this gluten-free and I promise you can’t tell they’re make with chickpeas.
I chose not to make this a one pot dish (I know, I know, one-pot meals are the best) because I want you to be able to use your favorite pasta noodle. I used chickpea noodles to keep this gluten-free and that doesn’t cook the same as a regular noodle.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days. You can reheat in the microwave or stove top. Add a splash of broth or water if needed to loosen it up.
Use half the noodles and use zoodles or a low-carb noodle option for the other half. Or skip the noodles altogether (although this add 55g of protein to the full dish) and serve the chicken and sauce over zoodles, cauliflower rice or mash or your favorite low carb option.
Check out our other easy chicken recipes!
If you make this recipe, please leave a rating and/or comment! Tag me on Instagram @ohsnapmacros, I love hearing from you!
Marry Me Chicken Pasta
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Ingredients
- 10 oz. Banza chickpea pasta shells
- 1 1/2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
- 1/2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp. salt
- fresh cracked pepper
- 1 Tbsp. oil from sun-dried tomatoes
- 2 cups low-fat cottage cheese
- 3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 Tbsp. oil from sun-dried tomatoes
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded 56g
- 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes 85g
- 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- fresh cracked pepper
- 1 1/2 cups spinach, packed
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the pasta shells, cook according to the package instructions. If using chickpea pasta, I like to undercook it by a minute so it doesn’t get mushy.
- Add the chicken, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to a large mixing bowl. Mix to evenly coat the chicken.
- In a large pan over medium heat, add the oil from the sundried tomatoes. Once hot, add the chicken and cook on each side untouched for 3-4 minutes or until cooked through and no longer pink.
- While the chicken cooks, add the cottage cheese, broth, garlic powder and oil from the sundried tomatoes in a high speed blender and blend until smooth and the cottage cheese is no longer chunky or chalky, approximately 4-5 minutes.
- Add the cooked and drained pasta to the pan with the chicken, the blended cottage cheese sauce, parmesan cheese, sundried tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Stir to melt the cheese and heat the sauce over medium to medium low heat to avoid clumping.
- Add the spinach and stir to wilt. Serve topped with freshly chopped basil, parmesan cheese and adjust with salt and pepper, as needed.
Notes
- Cook your pasta (especially if using chickpea pasta) until al dente to ensure the noodles don’t get mushy.
- Use your favorite type of noodles in place of chickpea shells.
- Nutritional information is an estimate and will vary with substitutions.
Loved this recipe, it has so much flavor! My husband loved it too, definitely will make again!
So happy to hear that! Thank you!
This was SO good, and easy to make! I did sub ground chicken in place of chicken breast like you mentioned as an option to swap, and used regular pasta shells instead of chickpea pasta because my family prefers it, but this was seriously YUMMY!!!!! My husband asked, “What all is in the cream sauce?” And he couldn’t believe it when I told him there was NO cream haha!
Hahahah love that!! Thank you!
Delicious! The whole family loved it. My 4 year couldn’t stop telling me how good it was, glad to add this to our rotation! Yum!
4 year old approved 🙌🏻🥳! Thank you!
The entire family loved this meal!!
That’s a win!!
One of my new favorites! The flavor in this is amazing, and the fact that it’s made with cottage cheese but tastes like heavy cream is unbelievable. Highly recommend!
Yes! So glad you loved it!
Easy and delish! Just a caution to any first timer, if you warm it too long at the end, the liquid separates. Ours was a bit “watery”, but still yummy. I think I’ll try full fat cottage cheese and see if that helps (that wasn’t in the selection at the store I shopped at this time).
I use low fat without it separating so I’d just try removing it from the heat and melting in your cheese and spinach next time to see if that helps. Might just have your heat too high overall.
This recipe was out of this world delicious, creamy and so so easy to make! I made this tonight for dinner and had plenty left over for a few days of meal prep. I will be making again! ☺️
Amazing!!! Thank you so much!
This recipe was delicious and so easy to make!! My family and I loved it. We had a chilly, rainy day and it was the perfect comfort food for our dinner.
Soo happy to hear you loved it, thank you so much Karen!