This Creamy One Pot Pasta is ready to serve in only 25 minutes. It's a kid-friendly easy and wholesome dinner made with chicken, ravioli, tomato, and a fantastically simple creamy white sauce.
why you'll love this creamy one pot pasta
- It's quick! Only 25 minutes from start to finish!
- You'll only have 1 pot and 1 strainer to clean after!
- It's incredibly easy
- It uses minimal pantry-staple ingredients
- Kids love it!
- Adults love it!
- It's quite inexpensive, costing only about $2 per bowl!
- You can customize it with any vegetables you'd like
This creamy one pot pasta is a fantastic quick and easy dinner for a busy weeknight or when you just don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. We love pasta and are always looking for new pasta dinners to change up our weekly pasta meal.
While we make our creamy one pot pasta with ravioli, you can use any pasta you have in the pantry. And who doesn't always have at least one box of pasta?! You can also make it vegetarian by leaving out the chicken and adding vegetables in addition to the tomatoes.
So as long as you have a box of pasta and milk, flour, garlic, and Parmesan for the sauce, you can make this creamy one pot pasta. Since these are pantry (and fridge) staples, this meal is great for when you're running low on groceries or don't want to run to the store for a specialty ingredient.
If you're ready to make this creamy one pot pasta, read on!
ingredients in creamy one pot pasta
For this creamy one pot pasta you need:
- frozen ravioli
- chicken breasts
- cherry tomatoes
- garlic
- milk
- flour
- butter
- salt + pepper
- Parmesan cheese
Ravioli. My favorite ravioli for this creamy one pot pasta are cheese-filled ravioli. You can use spinach ravioli, or any other ravioli variety you prefer. While our favorite way to make this is with a cheese-filled pasta like ravioli or tortellini, you can use any pasta. Bow ties and wagon wheels are great for kids!
Chicken. I use thick-cut boneless skinless chicken breasts and chop them into bite sized pieces. This recipe works great with a rotisserie chicken, too. Just skip the step then you boil the chicken and add it to the sauce during the last step.
Tomatoes. I use cherry tomatoes and cut them into quarters so they aren't too big for the kids. You can keep them whole, though, or use diced garden tomatoes. Any variety will do!
The creamy white sauce follows this white cream sauce recipe. It's made with the milk, flour, butter, salt, pepper, and Parmesan. You can replace the milk with heavy cream if that's what you have on hand. Both are delicious, but the milk is lower in calories and fat.
To keep this creamy one pot pasta as kid-friendly as possible, I do not add vegetables (especially green ones!) to the meal before serving. I never know when my kids will decide they suddenly no longer like broccoli or peas or anything green! For my husband and I, I add canned peas or green beans to our bowls and then sprinkle the dish with parsley.
If you are making this kid-free or are a lucky parent who has kids that will eat their veggies without protesting, you can add your vegetable of choice when you toss everything together. Canned vegetables are great because they hot sauce will warm them quickly so there is no extra cooking. This way you can keep this creamy one pot pasta a true 25 minute dinner.
directions
This creamy one pot pasta is incredibly easy to make. It's ready in only 25 minutes and requires only one pot! Yay for quick and easy clean up!
Here are the steps:
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the diced chicken. Simmer for 6 minutes and then add the frozen ravioli. Cook for another 6 minutes and drain. Set aside chicken and ravioli.
- Now make the sauce in the same pot. Melt the butter over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and cook for 1 minute. Then add the flour and whisk constantly for 30 seconds until a paste forms. Add the milk slowly, about ½ cup at a time, whisking until it begins to bubble gently and thickens. This takes about 2 minutes.
- Next add the salt and pepper. Then add the Parmesan ¼ cup at a time, whisking until the cheese fully incorporates.
- Remove from the heat and add tomatoes, chicken, and ravioli. Toss and serve sprinkled with parsley or other herbs if desired. If you are adding cooked vegetables, now is the time to do it!
Serve and enjoy! I like pairing this creamy one pot pasta with a simple romaine lettuce side salad with Italian dressing.
Cooking Hints and Tips to make it even quicker and easier!
Cover water as it comes to a boil. Doing this significantly reduces the amount of time it takes for the water to boil, thus saving you lots of time!
Prevent the ravioli and chicken from sticking as it's resting. Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil to it and toss gently.
Use rotisserie chicken. Instead of dicing and cooking the chicken, buy a rotisserie chicken and add 2 cups of the shredded chicken to pasta and sauce. Shred the chicken while the ravioli cooks to save time.
Gather and prepare all ingredients while the pasta/chicken cooks. Instead of prepping the ingredients for the sauce in the beginning, prep them while you're waiting for the boil to water and the ravioli to cook.
Creamy One Pot Pasta with Chicken
Materials
- 2 chicken breasts, diced
- 16 oz frozen ravioli
- 2 tablespoon butter
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoon flour
- 2 cups milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ¾ cup Parmesan cheese
- 15 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the diced chicken and simmer for 6 minutes. (hint: cover water to bring to a boil quicker)
- Add the frozen ravioli to the boiling water and cook for 6 more minutes.
- Drain and set aside chicken and ravioli.
- In the same pot, melt the butter. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the flour and whisk constantly until a paste forms, about 30 seconds. Add the milk slowly and whisk for 3 minutes, until sauce begins to thicken. Add the salt, pepper, and Parmesan ¼ cup at a time. Whisk until cheese incorporates fully, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Add the tomatoes, chicken, and ravioli. Toss and serve warm. Top with parsley or add spinach/peas/green beans if desired.
Nutrition
kid-friendly creamy one pot pasta
To keep this creamy one pot pasta kid-friendly, add any veggies to individual serving bowls. You may also want to not sprinkle with herbs, like parsley or Italian seasoning, until you've served the kids in case they are as picky as mine on some days. When they can spot a tiny piece of unwanted seasoning on their pasta from 5 feet away!
Creamy one pot pasta on its own is very kid-friendly! Just make sure to dice the chicken and tomatoes into pieces that are small enough for little kids to chew. The smaller the pieces, the less likely they will be to think the texture is "funny".
That's all you need to know about this easy creamy one pot pasta dinner! If you've made it, let me know what you thought in the comments below.
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