Pressure Cooker Chicken Bacon Penne Pasta in a Garlic Cream Sauce
This Pressure Cooker Chicken Bacon Penne Pasta is a quick, easy, one-pot meal that’s rich, creamy, and delicious! It’s pure comfort food that’s ready in less than 30 minutes. Your family’s going to love this one!
Sigrid, a long time reader of Pressure Cooking Today, recently sent me an email:
When I saw this Food Network article today I thought of you. I know you regularly convert traditional cooking recipes to pressure cooking recipes. Given that this traditional recipe is the most re-pinned pasta recipe on Pinterest (2.8 million re-pins) and has been shared 50,000 times on Facebook, I suspect it would be a very successful post on your blog if it’s converted to a pressure cooker recipe. Also sounds like a delicious dish!
One look at the recipe and I knew Sigrid was right, my readers and my family would love it too. Especially if I transformed it into a quick and easy one pot pressure cooker meal. .
The original recipe, Chicken and Bacon Pasta with Spinach and Tomatoes in Garlic Cream Sauce, is from Julie’s Album where she shares easy-to-make weeknight dinner recipes.
Making Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker Chicken Bacon Penne Pasta in a Garlic Cream Sauce
In addition to the chicken, bacon and pasta, you add spinach and tomatoes. The spinach and tomatoes add a great pop of color and good for you veggies to the pasta, so you can feel good about making it a one pot meal. If you wanted you could easily double the spinach and tomatoes.
The paprika in the recipe adds a pretty color to the creamy sauce and bumps up the smokiness of the bacon flavor in the dish.
The original recipes uses boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I prefer using chicken thighs in recipes when cooking them in the pressure cooker, so I used chicken thighs when I made this pasta. Chicken thighs are more moist and tender when cooked in the pressure cooker.
Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are widely available in most stores now. I generally buy a large package of thighs at Costco to keep in the freezer.
But if you prefer breasts, either breasts or thighs will work well in this recipe.
My family absolutely loved this recipe. It’s flavorful and hearty. It reheats well and you can even freeze leftovers. I like to freeze it in individual portions for quick lunches.
Pin this recipe because you’re definitely going to want to give this pressure cooker recipe a try! Thanks Sigrid for suggesting I give it a try.
Update: This recipe has quickly become a reader-favorite and is one of my most-shared recipes this summer. Some readers have emailed me questions about the recipe, so I’ve created a video to show you how easy it comes together. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Pressure Cooker Chicken Bacon Penne in a Garlic Cream Sauce
This Pressure Cooker Chicken Bacon Penne Pasta is a quick, easy, one-pot meal that's rich, creamy, and delicious! It's pure comfort food that's ready in about 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts or 1 lb. chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
- 6 slices bacon, diced
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 5 garlic cloves minced or pressed
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 can (14.5 fluid ounces) reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 1 package (1 pound) penne pasta
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup half and half
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded plus more for serving
- 1 cup baby spinach, roughly chopped
- 1 cup grape tomatoes diced
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, for seasoning
Instructions
- Add chicken, paprika and Italian seasoning to a Ziploc bag and toss to combine. Set aside.
- Select Sauté and add the bacon to the pressure cooking pot. Fry for about 5 minutes until crisp, stirring frequently. Transfer the bacon to a plate, leaving the bacon fat in the pot.
- Add the butter to the pressure cooking pot. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and sauté for 1 minute. Add the chicken to the pressure cooking pot and sauté for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in the chicken broth and deglaze the pot if necessary. Add the pasta and stir to combine. Add enough water to cover the pasta, about 3 cups. Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and 3 minutes cook time. When the cook time ends, turn off the pressure cooker. Use a quick pressure release, or if necessary, use an intermittent release to prevent liquid from coming out of the valve.
- When the valve drops, carefully remove the lid. Stir the mixture and taste penne for doneness. If needed, select Simmer/Sauté and cook for a few minutes more, stirring often, until the pasta is tender. Stir in the half and half and Parmesan a little at a time until cheese melts. Stir in the bacon, spinach, and grape tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 352Total Fat: 21gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 132mgSodium: 695mgCarbohydrates: 9gFiber: 1gSugar: 2gProtein: 32g
More pressure cooker pasta recipes you might like:
Pressure Cooker Chicken Enchilada Pasta, Pressure Cooking Today
Pressure Cooker Bow Tie Pasta, Pressure Cooking Today
Pressure Cooker American Goulash, Pressure Cooking Today
Creamy Instant Pot Spaghetti, Wine and Glue
Instant Pot Chunky Pasta Sauce, Kalyn’s Kitchen
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This is a wonderful recipe! Flavors are delectable. I did not have any cream so I subbed sour cream instead and it worked out great. This makes a lot which is wonderful because we love leftovers–especially handy if you have a particularly busy week and/or if you have household members eating at different times. It reheats beautifully (put in microwave on mid power only so as to not overheat) and the flavors really intensify.
Can this recipe be doubled? I need to feed 8 hungry teen boys, and I think they would love this but want to be sure it’s enough!
Hi Anne – you can’t double it in a 6 quart pressure cooker, but you may be able to double it in an 8 quart, but I haven’t tried it. Never fill your pot more than half full with things that foam like pasta.
Can I make this using frozen chicken breasts by adding some cooking time, or do I need to thaw them first?
Hi Barbara – no, frozen chicken breasts would not work well in this recipe because the recipes uses bite-size chicken in order for the timing to be the same as the cook time for the pasta. What you can do is a tip from this post https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/how-to-pressure-cook-frozen-chicken-breasts/ – DEFROSTING CHICKEN IN YOUR PRESSURE COOKER
This is my very favorite way to quickly take chicken breasts from frozen to recipe-ready—I use this method at least once a week! If your recipe calls for diced, thawed chicken, but you didn’t defrost the chicken breasts in advance, there’s an easy fix! Pour 1 cup water into your pressure cooking pot and place a trivet in the bottom. Balance the frozen chicken breasts on the trivet, stacking crosswise if necessary. Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and 1 minute cook time.
Enjoy!
made this the other day as a meal prep for lunch and it was delicious! i mistakenly added a whole bulb of garlic but it was definitely a happy mistake. the bacon was a nice touch, and the tomatoes and spinach made this dish feel less sinful (but still satisfying). i will definitely make this again.
Thanks Michelle – glad you loved it! You can’t go wrong with extra garlic in my book.
What does one cup and a half mean,of what !
Hi Jo – you must not be from the United States. Half and half is an ingredient that is sold alongside cream and milk in the US. It is half cream and half milk. Known as half cream in the United Kingdom, it has about 10 to 12% fat.
I was just wondering the same – I’m in Australia.
Quick question, you seem to know a lot about these Instant Pots and I just received one for Christmas, I’ve been doing a little experimenting trying to get the hang of it.
My family LOVES have we have some kind of pasta dish at least twice a week, if not more.
But each time I’ve tried to cook the pasta in my instant pot, it ends up telling me my food is burning. I’ve tried adding more water and adding butter/olive oil to prevent sticking but it never fails, it still beeps and tells me my food is burning, what am i doing wrong??
Hi Rachel – I have a great post on cooking pasta in the pressure cooker https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/how-to-cook-pasta-in-the-instant-pot/ The Instant Pot is a great way to cook it, so let’s figure out the problem so you can love it as much as I do. What recipes are you following? Are you using ingredients that have thickeners in them? Are you layering ingredients? Are you getting a good seal – do you see steam coming out around the edges of the lid?
Just getting into pressure cooking now. Made this yesterday and thumbs up from everyone in the family. Question about the pressure release though. Other recipes I’ve tried have been more specific regarding how long to wait before doing an intermittent release. I didn’t wait long, only a minute or 2, and then did a short “Quick Release”, but lots of stuff came spraying out. I put the valve back to sealing position, and did an intermittent release over the course of a few minutes, but my noodles came out too mushy for my taste. What did I do wrong? I like my noodles al dente. Should I have set a shorter pressure cooking time, less than 3 minutes?
Hi Lisa – glad everyone enjoyed the meal! Different brands of pasta foam more or less, usually with 2 tablespoons of butter and the bacon grease, foaming isn’t too much of a problem in this recipe. Did you omit the bacon grease or butter? What brand of pasta did you use? If you replicate everything the same next time, yes use a shorter pressure cook time. Any time foam starts to come out immediately close the valve and open and close it in short bursts.
I just found your website and so excited, for so many wonderful recipes! I’m more in the beginner stages, so I copied off many of your recipes. But, last night I made such a delicious IP of your Chicken Bacon Penne in a Garlic Cream Sauce. It all turned out so good, that my husband and I had 2nds. The only difference I would make next time, is to cook the pasta for 2 minutes instead of 3, as it came out a little softer than we like. Otherwise, the tastes came together beautifully!
I can hardly wait to make more of your recipes.
Thanks Janet! That’s so nice to hear. Glad it was a big hit with you and your husband. Have fun!
Great! I can’t wait to get it ready! Thank you very much
Is there any cheese substitute, as I don’t have Parmesan on hand? Thanks!
Hi Jeanine – not, there’s not really a good substitute for Parmesan in this recipe. I would just omit it and wait for the pasta to absorb the sauce if it needs thickening.
Everybody loved it. I only had 3/4c Parmesan on hand, so I added 1/4c Cream Cheese. Also, we don’t like grape tomatoes, but diced regular-size tomato worked just fine.
Great! I’m a big believer in changing up a recipe to use what you have/like. Thanks Mike!
I don’t have half and half but I have heavy cream. Do I just use less or can I use half milk and half cream?
Hi Stephanie – yes, you can use half milk and half cream.
Great taste. I didn’t have Penne so I use Orecchiette pasta instead; I did have to add 2 minutes to the cook time after the first 3 minutes. My only problem was there was way to much liquid left at the end of cooking. I just put it on saute and cooked it down a few minutes. I also added my spinach at this point because my husband likes them cooked a little. I wound up using a corn starch slurry to thicken it up. Even my son who hates tomatoes and spinach ate it.
Hi Carol – glad it was a big hit and that you thought to thicken it with a cornstarch slurry. Different pastas absorb different amounts of liquid, so I think that was probably the difference. Also, pasta will soak up the liquid as it sits.
What is your go-to way to freeze the individual portions?
Hi Stephanie – I like to freeze 1 1/2 cup servings in a Quart size freezer bag.
my pressure cooker doesn’t have a saute setting – just pressure with a valve. is there a traditional way to cook this recipe? it sounds so good i’d like to make it even on the stovetop if necessary.
Hi Barbara – on pressure cookers without a saute setting, you just us the pressure setting without the lid.
Great recipe again! Hubby and I loved it. Added a minute to the pasta and sautéed some mushrooms and threw that in instead of the grape tomatoes. Creamy and delicious! Thank you 😊
Sounds like a delicious way to change it up – thanks for sharing Jan!
This is my new favorite IP meal – it is beyond delicious. My only change was I added one minute to the cook time as I like my pasta “done” and not so firm. It was perfect, leftovers even better. Thanks for another keeper!
That’s awesome – thanks Brenda!
Sounds delicious but I’m not sure of the advantages of doing this on a pressure cooker vs. a normal pot. Since you have to first bring the pot up to pressure, pasta doesn’t really cook significantly faster in a pressure cooker. Nor does the chicken, after it’s been browned. In fact, since I like the tomatoes and spinach a little bit cooked, it’s easier to do in a normal pot since I can add ingredients at any time (whereas in a pressure cooker, you can’t o anything while it’s under pressure).
Hi Brianna – Some of the advantages of cooking pasta in the pressure cooker are one pot clean up, uses less water, and no draining hot noodles. If you like your veggies cook a bit, just pressure cook less time and saute the dish at the end using the saute function. Either way you cook it, it is definitely delicious 🙂
I haven’t been able to eat wheat pasta for 30 years (systemic wheat allergy). I use Andrean Dream Quinoa pasta. Fusilli. (Corn free, vegan, non-gmo, gluten free organic). Tastes great! (Not like sawdust as so many do.) Cook time is normally 14-16 min. I don’t mind experimenting on time for pasta doneness but I do have two questions. (1). Is three minutes the smallest time to ensure thorough cooking of the chicken quantity/particle size. (2). Any recommendation on time with this pasta? I love your blog. Your site is the reason I bought my 8 qt instant pot.
Thanks Renee – so nice to hear you love Pressure Cooking Today and I could inspire you to buy your Instant Pot. A good guide for pasta is 1/3 of the cook time on the package minus one minute. So 14 divide by 3 is 4ish minus 1 minute – so a 3 minute cook time should be good for your quinoa pasta and the chicken. You can use a shorter cook time for the diced chicken if needed, just cut the chicken a bit smaller. Enjoy!
Would Zoodles work instead of pasta in this recipe?
Hi Cheryl – if I would making it with zoodles, I would reduce the cook time to 1 minute. Let me know if you try it.
You simply can’t go wrong with pasta, bacon, garlic and cream – in my books. 🙂 Pinning.
Will the pasta really cook in 3 minutes? All the pasta recipes I’ve used have cooked pasta a good bit longer. Thanks – can’t wait to try this and don’t want to mess it up.
Hi Pat – yes, as long as you’re using a traditional penne pasta, 3 minutes should be the perfect time. Enjoy!
If I freeze the leftovers what is the best way to reheat them? I hate halving a recipe and would rather make it as it says. Please let me know ASAP so I can try this recipe which looks and sounds delicious!
Thanks Yvonne – I like to freeze leftovers in individual sizes in Ziploc bags and microwave them for a few minutes. Or another great alternative is to freeze it in the dish you’ll be reheating it in in the pressure cooker. Then use a trivet and some water underneath to thaw and reheat it in the pressure cooker.
This is delicious. our makes a lot and freezes well. I have visitor coming this next week and it is in the menu!
Great – thanks for sharing that tip Genene!
Tried this on my family tonight. OMG!! It’s a keeper. I was asked to make it for hunting camp this fall. Flavors were wonderful. Mine was a tad soupy too, but I just let it simmer until a lot of the liquid evaporated before I added the cheese and half and half. So good.!
Great! Thanks for sharing Cherre 🙂
Made it this past week. Wow! Nice intense complexity of flavors. Definitely keeper.
Great – Thanks John!
I have no idea where I went wrong as we followed all the directions closely but we ended up with so much liquid in the pot at the end. The pasta was cooked and it was like a soup. It ended well though we just drained it off and added cream and cornstarch until it thickened. It’s driving me crazy though that I don’t know where we went wrong. The 3 cups of water and chicken broth seemed like a bit much… any ideas?
What type of pasta did you use? Was it whole wheat pasta? How long did it take for you to release the pressure? As pasta sits it will absorb more water and release starches that thicken the water.
Barbara, the flavor and color interest of this recipe are absolutely wonderful. I have a question about the consistency of the final sauce at serving time. How thick should the sauce be?
I’m using DeCecco penne rigate and used the suggested 3 cups of water, which did just barely cover the pasta. The 1- to 1 1/2-inch cubes of chicken thighs were perfectly cooked and the DeCecco penne were perfectly al dente but I suspect that the pasta didn’t throw off enough starch to thicken the sauce to a nappe consisency. It was almost brothy.
I’m thinking of reducing the water a bit the next time to see if I can get a creamier sauce. Might you have some other suggestions?
Thanks Rita – glad you enjoyed the pasta. Rather than reduce the water, I would recommend a cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce. I’d try 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of cold water.
Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe! i love it
Made this recipe yesterday and it was wonderful – thanks Barbara for adapting the original to a pressure cooker. It makes enough for a small army so unless you’re feeding a large family or want lots of leftovers, you might consider halving the recipe.
I do have one “quibble” however. Barbara suggests prep time of 10 minutes. She must be a real speed demon when it comes to doing prep. If I lived in Utah, I’d stop by for a lesson :-).
To make this dish I had to do the following:
* Cut the chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces – there were 4 thighs in my one pound package.
* Dice the bacon but because I used really thick bacon, I only diced 3 strips instead of 6.
* Mince 5 cloves of garlic.
* Grate fresh Parmesan in a mini processor to get 1 cup. Now granted if I used that awful stuff in the green can it would have saved time but I never use that stuff. I also usually don’t buy already grated Parmesan as it has stuff added to keep it from clumping.
* Roughly chop the spinach.
* Quarter each grape tomato. Yes, I could have put the tomatoes in a food processor for a rough chop but they wouldn’t have looked as nice. I also could have roughly chopped the tomatoes on my cutting board with a knife but that wouldn’t have saved much time.
* Measure the following: paprika, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, water, half and half. Okay, these things don’t take long but they do take a bit of time even if I estimated quantities and didn’t try to measure accurately.
I think I’m pretty good at mise en place and pretty skilled with a knife, but there’s no way I could have done all the prepping in 10 minutes – and still have all 10 of my fingers :-).
lol – thanks for sharing. My husband is generally in the kitchen with me and he is my slicer dicer. It took him about 10 minutes to dice the chicken and the bacon. I use a garlic press so that doesn’t take much time at all. I use the pre-shredded Parm from Costco never the green can stuff. The spinach and tomatoes you can easily chop while the pasta is cooking, so I didn’t include that in the prep time.
So glad you thought the end result was wonderful! It does make enough for an army (well it fed my sister who was visiting, my son, my husband and myself for dinner with leftovers for lunch the next day. The second time I made it, we had it for dinner and then froze it in individual portions and it reheated really well.
Okay, is Mr. Slicer Dicer available for prep work elsewhere? It does help to have additional assistance in the kitchen.
Glad to know it reheats well as I have some in the freezer.
Sorry for being a bit thick, what is “half and half” is it just low fat cream?
Thanks
Graeme
Hi Graeme – it’s half milk and half cream. Here’s a good explanation http://www.myrecipes.com/how-to/whats-the-difference-between-half-and-half-light-cream-whipping-cream-heavy-cream. But in this recipe low fat cream or even regular cream would be good as well.
This recipe has me drooling. I’m ready to cook pasta for the 2nd time in my IP! I can almost smell the aromas coming from the kitchen. Your posting caught my eye & I’ll make it at the end of the week.
Probably not too much of a coincidence…on Prime Day I purchased ‘The Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook’ and was just flipping thru it slowly. Then I saw the email beckoning to me…the right recipe at the right time!
Thanks for helping over the hump of intimidation about pasta in my Instant Pot. I like your recipes. A lot.
Great – enjoy Nancy! Have fun with the new cookbook.
Well it would have been fabulous if I had followed the directions better!
I forgot to add the chicken broth, so I just added the 3 C water. Then I saw it was not enough water to cover, so I added more water…then I saw the can of broth there….oh my! I added maybe 1/2 can.
It was a bit watery, but the overall flavor was really good.
Will definitely try it again making sure I do it correctly!!
It happens to us all. Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks Jan!
Barbara, love it when you post a fast & easy, delicious recipe, just when I’m trying to figure out what to cook for dinner! Problem solved. I just made this & it was delicious! I improvised just a bit & also halved the recipe for my Instant Pot 3 qt mini. I used what I had on hand- frozen spinach & half & half. I didn’t mix in the bacon, but sprinkled on top after serving to keep it crunchy. OMGosh, Soooooo yummy!? Thanks so much for converting @ Kaylan’s suggestion & sharing with us! Another great one to add to rotation!
Thanks so much Jan! Great to know half the recipe works well in the Mini and with frozen spinach. Glad it was a hit!
Thank you for this wonderful recipe. I am going to try it. I have my pressure cooker, but recipes I have just do not come out as I would like them. I am going to follow you as I think you will be my answer to adapting recipes I already have also.
Again, thank you so very much!
Great – enjoy!
You’ve found the best here – her recipes are always fabulous and never fail!
That looks like something we’d love-AND a way to get some spinach into Bob. Our grape and cherry tomatoes are coming in from the garden so the timing for this dish is perfect!
Thanks Carol! Definitely a delicious way to use those great garden tomatoes.
I have an 8 qt IP. What adjustments to this recipe do I need to make to accommodate my 8 we IP? Thank you, Holly
Hi Holly – this recipe has plenty of liquid and makes a big batch, so I would not make any changes when making it in an 8 quart pressure cooker. Generally if a recipe has at least 1 1/2 to 2 cups of liquid, you should be able to make it in the 8 quart without changes. Enjoy!
PLEASE state the recommended size of pressure cooker required for the recipe as it is written, for all your posted recipes.
Thanks – Linda
Hi Linda – all my recipes are tested using a 6 quart pressure cooker. Enjoy!
Linda, not only are Barbara’s recipes for a 6 qt. pressure cooker, 6 qt. is the default size for most pressure cooker recipes everywhere – stovetop pcs, electric pcs, recipes in books and recipes online. Calling for other than a 6 qt pc would be the exception rather than the rule.
Oh wow, that does look delicious! Thanks for the shout-out for my pasta sauce!