Chicken Alfredo

Good chicken Alfredo recipes never go out of style. Fettuccine slicked with a gorgeous cheesy cream sauce is classic comfort food. Our easy chicken Alfredo starts with the building blocks of any Alfredo sauce—butter and Parmesan cheese—but we add heavy cream and egg yolks for an extra-luscious texture. Quickly seared and sliced chicken breasts add protein, making this easy chicken Alfredo recipe a one-bowl meal. Add a crisp green salad and some garlic bread, and dinner is ready.

What is Alfredo sauce?

The most classic and simplified Alfredo sauce starts with Parmesan cheese and butter tossed into hot pasta until it becomes creamy. Of course, Italians have been eating some form of buttery noodles since the 15th century, but in the early 1900s, Alfredo Di Lelio made a name for himself when he served his version of the buttery, cheesy dish at his eponymous restaurant in Rome.

Americans caught the Alfredo bug sometime after the dish made its way stateside in the 1920s, after actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks tasted the dish in Italy. As the story goes, when they returned to Hollywood, they asked their favorite restaurant chef to whip up the dish, and it caught on. By the 1940s, newspapers published recipes, the dish appeared on menus and the recipe started to morph into the ultra-creamy pasta sauce we know today.

The Americanized Alfredo sauce is often confused with carbonara, another deliciously decadent pasta sauce. As with our easy chicken Alfredo recipe, carbonara uses eggs for a creamier texture, along with heavy cream, butter and Parmesan cheese. However, carbonara includes pancetta or guanciale, aka cured pork jowl, for salty fattiness. Each sauce often pairs with a specific pasta shape: fettuccine with Alfredo and linguine with carbonara.

Chicken Alfredo Ingredients

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• Chicken breasts: For this easy chicken Alfredo recipe, choose boneless, skinless chicken breasts. They cook quickly and slice easily. If pressed for time, instead pick up a precooked rotisserie chicken at the store.
• Seasonings: You need only salt and pepper to season the chicken and the sauce.
• Olive oil: This is the go-to cooking oil for just about any Italian recipe. The best olive oil should be rich and fragrant but not overpowering. Save the good stuff for drizzling over salads.
• Fettuccine: While cheese and chicken taste good on any noodle, the best pasta for Alfredo is the long flat fettuccine. It creates the perfect pasta-to-sauce ratio (and bucatini Alfredo just doesn’t sound right!).
• Butter: Butter holds all the cheese and cream together. This is not the place for margarine; look for full-fat and fancy butter for this dish. Of the many types of butter, unsalted ensures the dish doesn’t get overly salty.
• Heavy whipping cream: Again, don’t attempt to make milk do a job meant for cream. You need the texture and fat of heavy whipping cream to create the sauce’s velvety smoothness. If choosing between heavy cream and whipping cream, go with the heavy.
• Parmesan cheese: This Italian classic is a hard cow’s milk cheese aged to perfection. If you can, avoid the canned stuff and grate your own for the best flavor. If you see it, take one step further and reach for the Parmigiano Reggiano, a higher-quality Parm.
• Romano cheese: A cousin to Parmesan, Romano is a sheep’s milk cheese with a slightly earthier flavor.
• Ground nutmeg: A touch of warming spice makes all the other flavors blossom. Preground is fine, but grating your nutmeg with a microplane or zester is traditional for cream sauces.
• Egg yolks: Adding egg yolks to the sauce is a purely American take on Alfredo, but we won’t tell your nonna. The yolks increase the depth and richness of the sauce. Use room-temperature eggs yolks when introduced to the pan. We don’t want scrambled eggs in the sauce! (Save those egg whites for a post-dinner cocktail like a whiskey sour.)
• Fresh parsley: Minced fresh parsley breaks up the white color palette, making the dish more visually appealing and adding a spark of garden flavor that enhances the whole dish.

Directions

Step 1: Cook the chicken and boil the pasta

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Sprinkle both sides of the chicken with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.

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In a large skillet, cook the chicken in olive oil over medium heat until a thermometer reads 165° F, turning once; it should take 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the breasts from the heat and let stand for at least five minutes. Meanwhile, cook the fettuccine according to the package directions for al dente.

Editor’s Tip: An air fryer is also a great way to cook chicken breasts that are tender and juicy every time. Just pop them in the air fryer with salt, pepper and olive oil, and bake at 375° for six to seven minutes on each side.

Step 2: Make the sauce

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In the same skillet, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Stir in the cream, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, Romano cheese, nutmeg, and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.

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In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks; stir a small amount of hot cream mixture into the egg yolks.

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Return all to the pan, stirring constantly. Cook and stir over medium-low heat until the sauce has thickened slightly and a thermometer reads 160°.

Step 3: Serve and enjoy

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Drain the fettuccine and serve it with the Alfredo sauce, sliced chicken and remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Garnish with minced fresh parsley.

Editor’s Tip: Save a little pasta water and add it to the sauce. The starch in the water will help the sauce thicken and adhere to the pasta, giving it a glossy finish. You can also toss the pasta directly in the pan to coat it with the sauce.

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Recipe Variations

• Skip the eggs: Traditionalists make homemade Alfredo sauce without eggs. (Italians don’t use the cream, either.)
• Try different proteins: Just because you don’t have chicken doesn’t mean you can’t make fettuccine Alfredo. Try other proteins like shrimp and scallops in seafood Alfredo or spicy pork loin Alfredo.
• Add some color: Make pumpkin Alfredo with chicken, canned pumpkin and broccoli florets. Or, just add broccoli, spinach, asparagus or peas for a pop of green (and extra nutrition) in your easy chicken Alfredo recipe.

How to Store Chicken Alfredo

To store this chicken Alfredo recipe, let the leftovers cool and store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. If you know you’ll have extra, consider storing the sauce and noodles separately. It will make reheating them easier.

How long does chicken Alfredo last?

This easy chicken Alfredo recipe will last up to four days in the refrigerator.

How do you reheat chicken Alfredo?

There is no wrong way to reheat chicken Alfredo recipes, but using a skillet on the stove is quick and easy. Add olive oil and toss your noodles and sauce over medium heat. Also, try reheating pasta by baking it in the oven or heating it in the microwave.

Chicken Alfredo Tips

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How can you thicken Alfredo sauce?

If your Alfredo sauce seems watery, add a slurry to thicken it. Mix 1 teaspoon cornstarch with 1 teaspoon water and add it to the sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil to activate the starch, and the sauce should thicken nicely. However, this recipe for chicken Alfredo already has egg yolks and heavy cream, both well-known thickeners, so it’s unlikely you will need the cornstarch.

Keep in mind, while it might seem counterintuitive, adding a little pasta water to the sauce will also thicken it, and tossing your noodles in the pan with the sauce will absorb some extra moisture.

Can you use precooked chicken for chicken Alfredo recipes?

Absolutely. An excellent way to make this dish even faster is to cook your chicken beforehand or try some precooked chicken slices from the freezer section. Likewise, a freshly cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store can be helpful when you are short on time.

What can you serve with chicken Alfredo recipes?

This easy chicken Alfredo recipe is great with garlic bread and a side salad filled with fresh veggies to balance out the cheesy pasta. But don’t forget to finish off the meal with some tiramisu!