Chicken and pasta is the most-cooked dinner in America for a reason: both finish in about the same time, both take whatever sauce you have, and one pound of chicken stretched across eight ounces of pasta feeds four people properly.

These twenty are grouped by what the sauce is doing. The fastest is 20 minutes, the longest is 35, and six of them cook the pasta in the same pot as everything else.

Twenty-Five Minutes or Less

Four that are faster than ordering. Two use noodles that cook in three minutes, and one starts with a rotisserie bird.

Chicken Cabbage Noodle Stir Fry

Fourteen ounces of boneless thighs with a pound of hokkien noodles and peanut oil. Ten ingredients and 20 minutes, the fastest thing on this page — thighs rather than breast is what keeps the meat tender at stir-fry heat. View the full recipe — 20 minutes, serves 4

Rotisserie Chicken Tortellini Alfredo

A proper butter-and-flour sauce rather than a jar, with tortellini and a rotisserie bird. Nine ingredients, and tortellini cooks in about four minutes, which is the whole trick. View the full recipe — 25 minutes, serves 4

Lemon Garlic Chicken Pasta (No Cream)

Flavorful 15-minute lemon garlic chicken pasta dish garnished with fresh herbs

Eight ounces of spaghetti with a pound of chicken breast, three tablespoons of olive oil, and no cream at all. Ten ingredients, and the sauce is lemon, garlic, and pasta water. View the full recipe — 25 minutes, serves 4

Thai Drunken Noodles with Chicken and Basil

Seven ounces of wide rice noodles with chicken, garlic, and basil — fourteen ingredients and sized for two. Rice noodles soak rather than boil, which is why this lands at 25 minutes. View the full recipe — 25 minutes, serves 2

Creamy Alfredo

Four versions of the same sauce. Three of them cook the pasta in the sauce itself, which means one pot and a thicker result because the starch stays in.

30 Minute Chicken Alfredo with Garlic Parmesan Cream

Eight ounces of fettuccine with a pound of chicken breast and a garlic Parmesan cream. Eleven ingredients, and it is the classic version made properly rather than quickly. View the full recipe — 30 minutes, serves 4

One Pot Chicken Alfredo Pasta

Only seven ounces of chicken breast, ten ingredients, and everything in one pan. The pasta releases its starch into the sauce rather than into a colander, so it thickens without extra cream. View the full recipe — 35 minutes, serves 4

One Pot Chicken Broccoli Alfredo with Fettuccine

Eight ingredients, the shortest list in this group, with the broccoli going in near the end. One pot, and the vegetable means no side dish. View the full recipe — 35 minutes, serves 4

Cream Cheese Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken

Four ounces of cream cheese with a cup of Parmesan instead of a cream-and-butter base. Eight ingredients, and cream cheese makes a sauce that will not split the way a cream one can. View the full recipe — 35 minutes, serves 4

Chicken Broccoli Fettuccine Alfredo

The broccoli goes into the pasta water for the last three minutes, so there is one pot instead of two. A cup each of heavy cream and Parmesan makes the sauce, with no flour and no roux to go lumpy. View the full recipe — 40 minutes, serves 4

Chicken Alfredo Tortellini Bake

Six ingredients and nothing on the stove at all. Twenty ounces of refrigerated tortellini, cooked chicken and Alfredo sauce go into a dish with half a cup of broth, covered for 25 minutes, then cheese on top. View the full recipe — 55 minutes, serves 6

Bright and Lemony

Three that cut the richness with acid. Lemon pasta goes wrong when the juice is cooked — all three add it at the end.

Weeknight Creamy Lemon Pasta with Chicken

Eight ounces of fettuccine with two chicken breasts, nine ingredients. Cream and lemon together is a balancing act, and this is the straightforward version of it. View the full recipe — 30 minutes, serves 4

Garlic Butter Chicken with Lemon Parmesan Pasta

Fifteen ingredients, the longest list here, with garlic butter chicken over lemon Parmesan pasta. The two components are cooked separately and brought together, which is why there are so many steps. View the full recipe — 30 minutes, serves 4

Lemon Chicken and Asparagus Pasta

A whole bunch of asparagus with a pound of chicken and fettuccine, ten ingredients. Asparagus needs about four minutes, so it goes in with the last of the pasta. View the full recipe — 35 minutes, serves 4

Creamy Lemon Chicken Linguine

A whole lemon, zest and juice, stirred into a cream and Parmesan sauce. The chicken is seared in two tablespoons of butter rather than oil, and that browned butter is where the depth in the sauce comes from. View the full recipe — 40 minutes, serves 4

Lemon Garlic Butter Chicken Bites with Parmesan Linguine

Chicken breast cut into bites and seared rather than a whole breast sliced afterward, which is the reason this comes in at thirty minutes. Lemon zest and three tablespoons of juice against four cloves of garlic, then half a cup of Parmesan and reserved pasta water to pull the sauce together on the linguine. View the full recipe — 30 minutes, serves 4

Bold and Spiced

Four where the seasoning is doing the heavy lifting rather than the dairy. Two are Cajun, two go east.

Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta

A pound of chicken breast with penne and a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes. Fourteen ingredients, and the fire roasted tomatoes add smoke that plain diced tomatoes will not. View the full recipe — 35 minutes, serves 4

Creamy Cajun Shrimp and Chicken Pasta

A full pound each of shrimp and chicken breast in one pan with rotini — fifteen ingredients. Two proteins makes it the biggest plate on this page. View the full recipe — 35 minutes, serves 4

Honey Teriyaki Chicken Noodles

A pound of chicken with eight ounces of spaghetti or udon and two cups of mixed vegetables. Eight ingredients, and using spaghetti keeps it to a pantry recipe. View the full recipe — 30 minutes, serves 4

Shredded Chicken Noodle Stir Fry with Chinese Broccoli

Five ounces of rice stick noodles with Chinese broccoli — eight ingredients and 25 minutes. The shortest ingredient list of anything in this group. View the full recipe — 25 minutes, serves 4

Cajun Chicken over Creamy Parmesan Linguine

Two tablespoons of Cajun seasoning plus smoked paprika on the chicken, then a cream sauce cut with half a cup of broth so it coats twelve ounces of linguine without turning heavy. View the full recipe — 35 minutes, serves 4

Tomato, Pesto, and Vegetables

Five where something other than cream carries the sauce. These are the ones that still taste good at room temperature the next day.

Bruschetta Chicken Pasta

Fourteen ingredients built on fresh tomato and basil rather than a cooked sauce. Eight ounces of pasta with a pound of chicken, and it eats as well warm as hot. View the full recipe — 30 minutes, serves 4

Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Pesto Pasta

Penne with pesto and sun dried tomatoes, twelve ingredients. Sun dried tomatoes carry more concentrated flavour per spoon than anything else you can put in a pasta. View the full recipe — 35 minutes, serves 4

Pesto Chicken Artichoke Pasta

Nine ingredients, which is barely more than the pesto, the chicken, the pasta, and the artichokes. Thirty-five minutes, and it is the least fussy recipe in this group. View the full recipe — 35 minutes, serves 4

Creamy Chicken Tuscan Pasta

Eight ounces of penne with a pound of chicken breast, twelve ingredients. Tuscan in this context means sun dried tomatoes and spinach, and both go in at the end. View the full recipe — 35 minutes, serves 4

Parmesan Chicken Broccoli Pasta

Two cups of broccoli florets with a pound of chicken, nine ingredients. The simplest plate on this page and the one most likely to get eaten without comment. View the full recipe — 30 minutes, serves 4

One Pot Chicken Broccoli Orzo

Genuinely one pot. A cup of orzo cooks in two cups of broth in the same pan as the chicken, then cream and Parmesan go in at the end. Nothing is boiled separately and nothing is drained. View the full recipe — 35 minutes, serves 4

Before You Choose Your Recipe

Save a cup of pasta water before you drain, every time. The starch in it is what turns oil and cheese into a sauce that clings instead of pooling at the bottom of the bowl, and it is the single difference between restaurant pasta and home pasta. The second rule is that cream sauces break when they boil — add the cream or cheese off the heat and keep the pan below a simmer afterwards. And if you are reheating leftovers, add a splash of milk or water to the pan rather than microwaving dry; pasta keeps absorbing sauce overnight and will be stodgy without it.

Chicken Pasta Questions

Should you cook the chicken and pasta in the same pot?

Six of the recipes above do, and it works for a reason: the pasta releases its starch into the sauce rather than into a colander, so the sauce thickens without extra cream. The trade-off is less control — you cannot taste and adjust the pasta separately, and the dish is saltier because the water does not get thrown away. Cook separately when the sauce is delicate; one-pot when you want it thick and want one pan to wash.

Why does my alfredo sauce break or go grainy?

Heat. Cream and cheese separate when they boil, so the sauce should come together off the heat or at a bare simmer. Pre-grated Parmesan is the other cause — it is coated in cellulose to stop it clumping in the bag, and that coating does not melt smoothly. Grate it yourself. The cream cheese version above is the most forgiving if this keeps happening.

What pasta shape works best with chicken?

Shapes with ridges or hollows hold sauce better than smooth ones, so penne, rotini, and rigatoni suit cream and tomato sauces. Long strands suit oil-based sauces like the lemon garlic one, because they can be tossed rather than stirred. Tortellini, gnocchi, and ravioli are the fastest, finishing in three to five minutes, which is why the quickest recipes here use them.

Can you use rotisserie chicken?

In any of these, yes, and it takes about ten minutes off the time. A standard bird yields three to four cups of shredded meat, roughly what two of these recipes need. Add it near the end just to warm through — cooked chicken simmered in a sauce for fifteen minutes goes stringy.

How much pasta per person?

Two ounces dry per serving is the standard, which is why almost every recipe here uses eight ounces for four people. If the dish is the whole dinner rather than a side, three ounces is more realistic. One pound of chicken across eight ounces of pasta is a good ratio for a plate that reads as a chicken dinner rather than a pasta dinner.

Why is my pasta dry the next day?

Because it kept absorbing the sauce overnight. This is normal and fixable: reheat in a pan with a splash of milk, cream, or pasta water rather than in the microwave dry. Cream sauces reheat better than oil-based ones, and the tomato and pesto recipes in the last group above are the best of the lot cold.