Olive Garden Chicken Scampi Pasta is made with a creamy garlic white wine sauce with lemon, bell peppers, and chicken. Olive Garden dishes are some of my favorites to prepare at home because they’re all so delicious but I have to feed a family of four, so it can get expensive. With homemade recipes, I can get the same full flavors at a lower price. Plus, now we can make our own breadsticks and salad just like Olive Garden, so who needs to leave the house anyway?
This creamy, garlicky sauce is made with white wine, Parmesan cheese, and just the right amount of lemon juice for the flavors to work perfectly together. It’s a versatile sauce too, so it can be used with other recipes that call for pork or shrimp. But since chicken is the favored meat in our family, Chicken Scampi it is!
If you have leftover sauce, be sure to store it separately from the pasta so that the noodles don’t soak up all the sauce. When it’s time to re-heat, just add a splash of milk or water to the sauce and stir to make it a bit thinner. Pour it over your pasta, and you’re good to go.
Olive Garden Chicken Scampi Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
- 1/2 red bell pepper sliced thinly
- 1/2 yellow bell pepper sliced thinly
- 1/2 green bell pepper sliced thinly
- 1/2 red onion sliced thinly
- 2 tbsp garlic minced
- 4 tbsp flour divided
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp dried basil
- 1 cup white wine
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 lb angel hair pasta
- 1 lb chicken breast tenderloins
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp coarse ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup warm heavy cream
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- 1 cup parmesan cheese shaved and divided
Instructions
- First, add 2 tablespoons of butter to a cast-iron skillet on medium-high heat and cook the bell peppers and onions until slightly softened-, about 2 or 3 minutes.
- Remove the vegetables and add in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Once melted, add in two tablespoons of flour and garlic. Whisk well until the flour has had a chance to "cook" for about 20 seconds. Then add in the red pepper flakes, oregano, basil, wine, and chicken broth. Reduce the heat to medium and let the mixture simmer for 18-20 minutes.
- While the sauce is simmering, cook the pasta one minute less than the instructions say, and do not rinse.
- In a second pan, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and heat to medium-high. Coat the chicken tenderloins in the salt and pepper before tossing in the remaining flour. Drop the chicken into the pan and cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken from the heat.
- When the sauce is reduced by half, add in the heavy cream and whisk well until you have a nice thick sauce. Add in the lemon juice and half of the parmesan cheese and whisk.
- Spoon the pasta into a serving bowl, add the creamy sauce, and add a spoonful of the bell peppers. Top it with the chicken and serve hot.
Notes
- Be sure to whist the sauce every couple of minutes while it's cooking to keep the consistency balanced and to make sure there's no clumping or burning.
For another classic pasta dish, check out this Olive Garden Alfredo recipe!
