Instant Pot Olive Garden Chicken Pasta

Instant Pot Olive Garden chicken pasta can be made mild or with a cajun flare! Easy one pot pressure cooker cheap dinner with meat and noodles. You and your kids are going to love the creamy sauce in this one.

Ninja Foodi Olive Garden Chicken Pasta

As with all of our other pressure cooker recipes you can make this in a Crockpot Express, Mealthy and/or as a Ninja Foodi recipe as well. I have all of them and they work the same, some just have a few different buttons.

The best part about this dish besides the fact that is it so delicious, is it’s truly a dump and go meal. If you have never cooked a side dish WITH your meat yet you are really in for a treat here. A bit like our Instant Pot crack chicken pasta but with a bit of heat, it’s sure to become a family favorite.

Instant Pot Cajun Chicken Pasta

You can make it a bit (or a lot) spicy, or just leave the cajun seasonings out all together. Either way it is delicious. If you want to try both you could make plain and then sprinkle the heat on at the very end with half of what’s left in the pot. Penne was used but small shells would work just as well if that is what you have on hand.

Tiktok Olive Garden Chicken Pasta Instant Pot

If you have seen this made online it is easier than you might think. You just need an electric pressure cooker of any brand to get started. The shape of noodles doesn’t really matter, they should just be of medium size. Gluten free noodles won’t take as long so you’d want to decrease the timing a bit for those.

Can you put uncooked pasta in Instant Pot?

Most definitely. All of our Instant Pot pasta recipes do just that. You have to have enough liquid in the pot to be absorbed but in as few as 2 minutes it will come out tender and delicious. I wouldn’t cook longer than 5 if you are combining meat with it as well, 3 is usually my go to.

You could use diced thighs as well if you preferred. A few years ago I started doing this regularly when they were much cheaper in the store. I found the dark meat became more tender and gave the dish more flavor as well.

So it just depends what is on sale as to what I use that day. The cook time doesn’t differ. You can buy ready made cajun mix or follow this recipe below;

Homemade Cajun Seasoning

• 2 tsp onion powder, garlic powder, oregano and paprika
• 1 tsp salt and pepper

Other items you’ll need to make this one pot dinner would be:

1. Cubed chicken
2. Penne pasta or other small noodles
   1. if you want to use rice, follow our cheesy Instant Pot chicken and rice recipe
3. Chicken broth
4. Olive oil for sauteeing
5. Diced onion
6. Heavy cream
7. You could add a bit of minced garlic if you wanted to
8. Bell pepper sliced or diced

Salt and pepper to taste and/or any other seasonings you would normally add to a sort of chicken pasta bake dish such as this.

Instant Pot Italian Chicken Pasta

Remember that any time you saute meat before pressure cooking you will want to deglaze your pressure cooker. If you don’t know what that means you can click on the link above and read about it’s importance.

Once you understand why it is necessary you can carry it over to any other dishes you’ll make in the future. It will surely save you some frustrated moments and success of your meals too.

1. Set pot to saute and add a bit of olive oil. Add diced onions and chicken and cook just until the outside of meat pieces are no longer pink.
2. Then turn pot off. Use a little bit of your broth to scrape off stuck on meat off bottom of pot (deglazing).
3. Sprinkle in all seasonings, add bell peppers (the smaller the pieces the softer they will get), stir everything together.
4. Pour in remaining chicken broth, then sprinkle in uncooked small noodles and do not stir. Just gently use the back of the spoon to submerge into the liquid below it.

Close lid and steam valve and set to high pressure for 5 minutes. Do a quick release of steam once done.
Remove lid, stir, then add heavy cream and parsley, stir together. Allow to sit for 5 minutes to thicken sauce a bit more. Then serve! NO need to cook the pasta ahead of time which will save you a good 20ish minutes.

Dairy Free Instant Pot Chicken and Pasta

Alternatives to the heavy cream; you could leave it out entirely (but it won’t be creamy then), or instead add 1/2 a block of cream cheese (regular or lactose free). If you choose to do the latter leave it out to reach room temperature beforehand. Whisk it in so it gets everything creamy and smooth. Coconut milk works too but won’t be as thick.

Tip: do not use whole breasts or thighs and expect to be able to shred the chicken at the end. 5 minutes won’t be long enough for it to cook all the way through. If you set to 12 so the meat is done, the noodles will be so soft and ewwwwy. Just follow the instructions below for a successful meal.

Olive Garden Dressing Chicken Instant Pot

We have done a sort of slow cooker Olive Garden chicken pasta version here but honestly I think this way turns out much better. Pasta under pressure is a much better texture than slow cooking it.

Ninja Foodi Chicken Pasta

You can serve this alone, with a salad with Olive Garden Italian dressing, or alongside some air fryer broccoli. You can jump to recipe and get to cooking and print recipe as well if you want to keep it on hand for later too. Of course we love “seeing” y’all so feel free to just come back!