This Spicy Chicken Pasta recipe is packed with flavour and the best pasta ready in 30 minutes! Need a fast and delicious family meal recipe? Try this easy Chicken Pasta made with simple cupboard-friendly ingredients. Anyone can simply make it at home.
If you love easy pasta and noodles recipes, you will also like our Chicken and Rice Noodles Stir Fry, Prawn and Chorizo Pasta and Easy Beef Chow Mein Recipes.
This easy pasta dish is a perfect recipe to make for busy weeknights, light lunch or a quick dinner. This recipe is a simple classic tomato pasta with a kick of chilli flavour. You'll love the tender chicken strips and spaghetti noodles coated with delicious tomato sauce.
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Ingredients you need
Protein: I use chicken breast in this recipe. Feel free to swap with chicken thigh, prawns, or meatballs. Simply season the chicken with salt and fresh ground black pepper and saute for a few minutes.
Pasta: Use any of your favourite pasta noodles dried or fresh. Cook pasta by the packet instructions but make sure not to overcook it, as you need to toss it with tomato sauce.
Italian herbs seasonings: Italian herbs seasoning mix usually consist of dried rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano, marjoram, and sage.
Tomato passata: is a strained, uncooked raw tomatoes in puree texture. Widely available in supermarkets and grocery stores. If you cannot get tomato passata in your area, you can use finely chopped tinned tomatoes, or skinned deseeded fresh tomatoes.
Cheese: Add classic pasta cheese, Parmesan (Parmigiano-Reggiano) or your choice of cheese, freshly grated.
Dried chilli flakes: Add a teaspoon of crushed chillies for a kick of heat.
How to make Spicy Chicken Pasta
- Cook pasta: boil pasta in salted water according to packet instructions. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water for later use. Drain the water and set it aside. Meanwhile the pasta is cooking you can prepare the chicken and tomato sauce.
- Stir fry chicken: Heat the pan into medium heat, drizzle olive oil and stir fry the chicken strips for 2-3 minutes until slightly brown. Remove from pan and set it aside.
- Make tomato sauce: In the remaining pan, drizzle a bit more olive oil, saute the chopped garlic for few seconds. Follow with the onions and cook until the onions are soft and tender. Then add the chilli flakes and stir for few seconds.
- Next add the tomato passata, Italian herbs mix, salt, black pepper and chicken stock cube. Pour the reserved pasta water in, stir well and bring it to simmer.
- Place the pasta, along with cooked chicken strips. Combine chicken and pasta with tomato sauce.
- Sprinkle grated cheese and finely chopped parsley and stir it well. Turn off the heat and transfer to serving plate.
- To serve: Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese and finely chopped parsley.
Ingredients variations
- I used spaghetti noodles in this recipe, feel free to swap it with penne, fusilli, linguine, or tagliatelle. Most pasta works well with this recipe.
- If you prefer less sauce, you can add sun-dried tomatoes instead of tomato passata.
- Instead of dried chilli flakes, you can add cajun seasoning mix which has a bold spicy flavour made with cayanne pepper, paprika, garlic, onion and herbs.
- To make it a mild or kid-friendly version, you can omit dried chilli flakes.
- If you don't have Italian herbs seasoning mix, you can simply add dried oregano, basil and thyme.
Cooking Tips
- Don't forget to add salt in the pasta boiling water. Adding salt creates the pasta seasoned itself.
- Reserve one cup of starchy pasta boiling water and later add in the tomato sauce. It helps to thicken the sauce and also helps to stick the pasta and sauce together.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can add extra vegetables like mushroom, bell pepper, zucchini, onions, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, carrot, etc.
Add 4 tablespoons (about 70ml) of double/heavy cream and make it a creamy spicy pasta.
This dish is medium spicy. Control the heat by reducing the crushed chilli or add more dried and fresh chilli peppers or paprika powder according to your taste.
Simply serve it with garlic bread, cheesy garlic bread, breadsticks, roasted carrots, or any of your favouite salads.
If you have any leftover, you can keep it in an air-tight container in the fridge and reheat it in the microwave or stovetop until piping hot. Add a splash of water and toss well with pasta before reheating, as pasta dried out easily.
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📖 Recipe
Spicy Chicken Pasta
Ingredients
- 300 g Chicken breast About 10.5oz, Boneless skinless chicken thigh/breast cut into thin strips
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp Black pepper
Pasta & Tomato Sauce
- 150 g Spaghetti Any dried/fresh pasta, penne, fusilli, or linguine ( about 5.5 oz)
- 3-4 cloves Garlic Finely chopped/minced
- ½ Brown onion Finely chopped
- 1 tsp Crushed chillies Dried red chilli flakes
- 350 g Tomato passata About 12oz
- 1 tbsp Italian herbs Dried Italian herbs mix or oregano
- 2-3 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 Chicken stock cube Or vegetable stock cube ( see details in note )
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
- 20 g Parmigiano-Reggiano about 0.7oz, Freshly grated
- 1-2 tbsp Parsley Finely chopped
Instructions
- Season the water with 1-2 teaspoon of salt. Cook the spaghetti/pasta in the boiling water according to the package instructions. Save 1 cup of pasta boiling water for later use. Meanwhile the pasta is cooking you can prepare the chicken and tomato sauce.
- Heat the pan in medium heat, drizzle 2 tablespoon of olive oil and stir fry the chicken strips for 2-3 minutes until slightly brown. Remove from pan and set it aside.
- In the same pan, drizzle more oil and saute the garlic for a few seconds until fragrant. Follow with the onions and cook until the onions are soft and translucent. Add dried chilli flakes and stir for a few seconds.
- Next add the tomato passata, ½ cup pasta water, Italian herbs, salt, pepper and chicken stock cube. Stir well and bring it to simmer.
- Now place the cooked pasta and chicken strips and combine well with the tomato sauce. Sprinkle grated cheese and chopped parsley and stir it well.
- Turn off the heat and transfer to serving plate. Garnish with grated cheese and chopped parsley.
Video
Notes
- Italian herbs mix: consists of dried basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, etc. If you don't have it in hand, you can add dried oregano.
- Chicken stock cube: Add chicken or vegetable stock cubes to bring more rich umami flavour. If you don't like the stock cube, swap it with stockpots or a tablespoon of sugar to balance out the sauce. Or add chicken broth/stock instead of pasta water in the sauce.
- Dried chilli flakes: Add dried red chillies for a hint of heat, or you can substitute it with cajun seasoning.
- How to reheat? Simply reheat it in the microwave or stovetop until piping hot. If the pasta is too dry, add a splash of water and toss well before reheating.
Davy says
Excellent and easy.
Khin says
Thanks Davy, so glad that you enjoyed it.
Jay Jay says
Really tasty.....As good as any restaurant....
Khin says
So happy that you enjoyed this recipe, Jay Jay! Thanks for sharing feedback.
Shamima says
I love your idea of using crushed chilli to make the spicy chicken pasta. I normally add chilli powder to spice up the dish. I will try your version of pasta recipe. Thank you so much.
Khin says
Thank you so much for trying my recipe and let me know how it turns out.