This bruschetta chicken pasta is a super easy weeknight dinner packed full of chicken, cherry tomatoes, and fresh flavor. You can serve this dish hot or as a cold bruschetta pasta salad.
Do you ever cook something purposefully, just knowing you will be just as excited about it the next day? Pasta dishes often can do double duty, and this delicious Bruschetta chicken pasta fits in perfectly. My kid and my husband both cleaned their plates at dinner time and leftovers make a great lunch.
This dish is light, tasty and easy to make, and pretty easy to adjust. Don’t be hesitant to add a few more tomatoes or a little more basil to this recipe.
If your family loves Italian style pasta, try my Pesto Pasta Salad which can be served hot or cold also and makes great leftovers. Or go for Classic Italian Pasta Salad which can be prepped the day before.
Ingredients For Bruschetta Chicken Pasta
- Pasta– A long thin pasta is delicious in this dish, but other shorter pasta like penne or corkscrews also work well in this dish. Cook the pasta until al dente.
- Tomatoes– Cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes tend to be a little sweeter. If tomatoes are ripe and in season, Roma tomatoes are another great choice
- Chicken Breast– Slice the chicken breast into two thinner chicken cutlets. This will help the chicken to stay juicy, but the thinner pieces cook up more quickly.
- Italian Spices– I’ve used a variety of dried Italian Spices in this dish, but if you have fresh on hand you can use them! 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh herbs equals about a teaspoon of dried herbs.
- Balsamic Vinegar– Balsamic bruschetta chicken are all flavors that marry quite nicely together without being overpowering. Red wine vinegar can in a pinch be substituted for balsamic, but add a 1/2 teaspoon for every tablespoon of vinegar to help balance the acid in the vinegar. Mix the two ingredients well together before adding it to the dish.
Garnish with parmesan cheese, basil or even a little balsamic glaze at the table. Balsamic glaze is a thicker and cooked down balsamic that has been sweetened a little. Try this easy balsamic glaze recipe or you can purchase it premade at some stores. (Trader Joe’s has a great balsamic glaze that I like to put on everything!)
How To Make Chicken Bruschetta Pasta
- Cook the Chicken, Then The Tomatoes– In a separate pot, boil the water and cook the pasta while you’re working with the chicken. Then add the oil and herbs to the pan to cook the chicken. You’ll remove the chicken and in the same pot, add the tomatoes.
- Drain The Cooked Spaghetti– Once the spaghetti is cooked, save 1/4 cup of the pasta water to the side and drain the pasta.
- Mix The Pasta Well- Add the pasta water and the spaghetti to the tomatoes and mix well. The pasta water will thicken the sauce just enough that the tomatoes mix and will bind better to the pasta as you mix. Delicious!
- Slice And Add The Chicken– Letting the chicken rest for a few minutes before slicing helps it to stay juicy.
How Do I Slice A Chicken Cutlet?
When slicing a chicken cutlet, you’re going to carefully slice the chicken breast in half to have to thinner wide pieces of chicken. This will help the chicken to cook much faster than if it was a thicker slice, but also help it to stay juicier. The goal is to slice the chicken as evenly as possible. You can see pictures of how to slice a chicken cutlet here.
If after cutting the chicken into two pieces, you find that the chicken is not about the same thickness, you may want to also pound the chicken breasts a little thinner.
Place the chicken between two pieces of parchment paper or saran wrap. Use a meat mallet, rolling pin, or heavy cast iron pan to gently pound the chicken until they are all about the same thickness, usually about 1/4 inch thick.
You can buy chicken already in cutlets, but the grocery store tends to charge extra for them. Slicing chicken breast into cutlets is much easier and less expensive.
CHICKEN TIP– I’ve tried slicing the chicken into thin strips before cooking the chicken with this dish. What can end up happening is the chicken dries out. This dish does not have a super heavy sauce so dry chicken will be really noticeable. Cooking the chicken in thin cutlets leaves the chicken much juicier and tastier!
Can I Grill The Chicken For This Dish?
You can totally grill the chicken to add to the pasta, delicious. You may want to add a little oil to your chicken, and make sure you cook it to an internal temperature of 165. There should be no pink in the center.
Marinating the chicken before grilling can also make it extra juicy. Use 1/4 cup of oil (olive oil or avocado oil), a tablespoon of Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon for a super fast marinade.
If you like grilled chicken, try my fajita grilled chicken kabobs for a Mexican flavor twist.
Can I Swap The Pasta Type in This Bruschetta Pasta?
You can swap the pasta type in this recipe.
I recommend thin spaghetti as it balances with the rest of the ingredients well, like spaghetti or angel hair pasta.
Short but shaped pastas also work well for this recipe. There are tons of choices, but bowties (also called farfalle), penne, or twisted fusilli are favorites at our house,
Swapping in tortellini would also be a fun way to switch up this dish.
A thicker noodle, like linguini for example, usually works a little better for a thicker sauce like alfredo sauce. I usually save thicker noodles for other dishes as they can be a bit heavy in this dish.
Bruschetta Chicken Pasta
Equipment
- Larger pot or dutch oven
- Tongs
- Colander
- Sharp knife
- Cutting board
- Measuring cups and spoons
Ingredients
For The Pasta
- 1 pound Spaghetti Choose a thinner spaghetti-style noodle for this dish
- Salt
For The Chicken
- 1 pound Chicken breast About 2 individual breasts
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1/4 teaspoon Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Oregano dried
- 1 teaspoon Basil dried
- 1/2 teaspoon Garlic powder or granulated garlic
- 2 tablespoons Olive oil
For The Tomatoes
- 1 ½ pints Cherry tomatoes sliced in half
- ¼ cup Olive oil
- 2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
- ½ teaspoon Garlic powder or granulated garlic
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- Pepper
Love Family Recipes?Follow @OnMyKidsPlate On Pinterest For MoreInstructions
- Cook the pasta in salted boiling water according to the package directions until al dente. (Usually about 8-9 minutes.) Remove 1/4 cup of pasta water from the pot and place to the side for the sauce. Strain and set aside the pasta in a collander.
- Slice the chicken breast longways so that you have two wide thin chicken cutlets from each chicken breast.
- Mix together the salt, pepper, oregano, basil and garlic powder. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a large skillet or dutch oven. Heat the oil over medium heat for about a minute. Add the chicken pieces and season with half of the herb mixture. Flip after 3-4 minutes and season the other side of the chicken cutlets with the rest of the herb mixture. Cook the chicken pieces until golden brown on each side and no longer pink in the middle, about 8-10 minutes. Set chicken out of the pan to the side to rest for a few minutes to help maintain juiciness.
- Turn the heat down to medium low. Add ¼ cup of olive oil to the pan and all of the sliced cherry tomatoes. Next add the vinegar, ½ teaspoon of garlic powder, ½ teaspoon salt and a pinch of pepper. Cook over medium low heat for about a minute.
- Add the pasta and 1/4 cup of pasta water to the tomatoes and mix well until combined.
- Slice the chicken in thin strips, and add on top of the pasta. Top generously with parmesan cheese. Fresh chopped basil or parsley is also delicious on top. Enjoy!
Notes
- This recipe is delicious hot but is also equally delicious cold as a pasta salad.
- I’ve tried slicing the chicken into thin strips before cooking the chicken with this dish. What can end up happening is the chicken dries out. This dish does not have a super heavy sauce so dry chicken will be really noticeable. Cooking the chicken in thin cutlets leaves the chicken much juicier and tastier!
- When available, use fresh herbs in this pasta. If you are replacing the basil or oregano a teaspoon of dried herb equals about a tablespoon of fresh. For the garlic, a teaspoon of dried garlic is equal to about a clove of fresh garlic. A little extra basil or oregano in this recipe is just fine.
- The number of tomatoes in this recipe can be variable depending on what you have available. I’ve used as little as a pint and as much as 2 pints and the dish is still delicious.
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