Instant Pot Olive Garden Chicken Pasta—with just a handful of ingredients you can make a creamy and zesty pasta and chicken in your Instant Pot. An easy weeknight dump and go recipe!
Related: SLOW COOKER olive garden chicken pasta recipe
Instant Pot Olive Garden Chicken Pasta
I saw the slow cooker version of this recipe on facebook and knew that I needed to try it in the Instant Pot. I love making pasta in the Instant Pot. No more waiting for the water to boil and then worrying that it will boil over. Just add water/broth and pasta to your Instant Pot, put the lid on and walk away. It gives me warm, fuzzy feelings every time I think about it.
Have you tried the Olive Garden salad dressing that you can buy at your grocery store? We always have it on hand and eat it on salads most days of the week. Sometimes I use the lower fat option and sometimes the original dressing. Both are good (definitely the original is better though). This recipe uses the Olive Garden salad dressing for lots of zesty flavor.
My version of this Instant Pot olive garden chicken pasta uses way less dressing than the original recipe (I found the original amount to be way too overpowering). Plus I added in some sundried tomatoes and basil for extra color and flavor. They are totally optional though. Another choice would be to throw a can of diced tomatoes in with the pasta and chopped spinach. Those are two things I always have on hand at my house.
The chicken I used was boneless skinless chicken breasts that I cut into bite size pieces. The chicken was partially frozen when I cut it up. I find that cutting halfway frozen meats is so much easier than fresh/thawed meats. Another good option is to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs which always stay moist and tender in the Instant Pot. You can also use fresh chicken tenders with this recipe. Since they are so small and thin they will cook just fine in the 3 minute cooking time. Unfortunately throwing in whole frozen chicken breasts is not an option in this recipe since the pasta only needs about 3 minutes to cook and whole chicken breasts wouldn’t cook in that amount of time.
More Chicken and Pasta Recipes…
- Instant Pot Teriyaki Chicken Alfredo–Amanda said, “Oh my gosh thank you for this recipe; turned out wonderful even though I had to sub cornstarch for flour and only had green beans. It will still be a hit in my house!”
- Instant Pot Chicken Florentine Pasta–Hila said, “Made this last night and the family loved it!”
- Instant Pot Cheesy Chicken Pasta–Joyce said, ” It was delicious! This will definitely go in my rotation.”
- Instant Pot Garlic Chicken Alfredo Pasta–Devin said, “I’ve already made this 2x! I used linguine noodles instead, and it’s the best chicken Alfredo I’ve ever eaten!”
- Instant Pot White Chicken Lasagna–Ashley said, “First time Instant Pot user and I made this recipe. I have three boys (four if you count my husband, which I usually do because he is the biggest kid of them all..ha) ages: 1, 3, & 13 and they all loved this. Everyone went back for seconds. I will have to double the batch next time.”
Instant Pot Olive Garden Chicken Pasta
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 minutes (plus 5 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 18 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Description
With just a handful of ingredients you can make a creamy and zesty pasta and chicken in your Instant Pot. An easy weeknight dump and go recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 (16 oz) box penne pasta (uncooked)
- ¾ cup Olive Garden Signature Italian Salad Dressing
- 3 ½ cups chicken broth (or water + better than bouillon)
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese
- 1 (6.7 oz) jar sundried tomatoes, drained and chopped (optional)
- ½ cup chopped basil (optional)
- ½ cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch + 2 Tbsp water
Instructions
- Add chicken to bottom of Instant Pot in an even layer. Then layer with the pasta, dressing, broth, pepper and cream cheese. Don’t stir.
- Cover the pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 3 minutes. When time is up let the pot sit for 5 minutes and then move the valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Stir in the tomatoes, basil and parmesan cheese.
- If sauce is too runny then make a cornstarch slurry. Turn your Instant Pot to the saute setting. In a small bowl stir together 1 Tbsp of cornstarch with 1-2 Tbsp of water, until smooth.Then pour the mixture into the Instant Pot. The cornstarch mixture will thicken up contents of pot quickly. Turn off Instant Pot. Scoop into bowls and serve.
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Instant Pot
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Can I double this or would it be to much noodles for the pressure cooker?
Could you do this a dump and go freezer meal?
You could freeze the chicken, dressing together. Then day of serving add in pasta, broth and cream cheese. That’s how I would do it.
If I wanted to make this a veggie dish and leave out the chicken what does that do to the cooking time? Thanks
I would leave the cooking time the same. I would add in an extra 1/2 cup of liquid to replace the amount of water that comes off the chicken.
Great recipe! We love cheese so I threw a small amount more of parm! I also used sun-dried tomatoes that weren’t packed in oil. I didn’t need to use the cornstarch slurry. The only problem was the chicken was a bit rubbery and got lost in the taste of everything else. Would a longer natural pressure release work? But would that affect the cooking of the noodles? Will definitely make agin
★★★★
You could do a longer npr with good results I believe!
Hi Karen..love your blog..today I made the Olive Garden copy cat chicken in my IP..turned out perfect..had everything that I needed..I noticed you used the light dressing..mine was regular..I love this dish..quick and delicious..thanks for sharing!
★★★★★
So glad you liked it Judith! I used a bit of each actually lol…I like the full fat better.
I hate to look like an idiot here but you don’t specify cooked or uncooked chicken. Does it need to be cooked first?
I was wondering the same thing so I went back to read the full article (skipped over it cuz I’m impatient) and it appears it’s uncooked chicken. HTH
Yep uncooked!
I used uncooked bite size pieces of chicken
This looks like a yummy recipe. In the paragraph explanation of the recipe, you mention, “Another choice would be to throw a can of diced tomatoes in with the pasta and chopped spinach.” That sounds good, but I don’t see spinach on the list of ingredients.
I love your recipes and recommend them to everyone that has an Instant Pot. They never fail me.
Hi Bonnie, I meant that in the place of sundried tomatoes and basil you could add spinach and canned diced tomatoes instead. I would add a couple handful of spinach in after the pressure cooking time is up.
How about fettuccine noodles instead? Looks wonderful.
You could try it! Sometimes they stick together. But if you break them in half and then scatter them in a criss cross pattern it will probably work fine.
Would I be able to sub a cup of heavy cream or half and half instead of the cream cheese? I’m never a fan of cream cheese in pasta dishes. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Heck yes you could do that! 😊 I would not pressure cook it though. Add it in later.