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Marry me chicken pasta — yes, the name is a little much, I know. But you’re going to make this once and understand it completely. Tender chicken and pasta baked together in a creamy sun-dried tomato Parmesan sauce, all in one dish, with only five main ingredients. It’s the kind of weeknight dinner that looks like you planned something special, even when you absolutely did not.
Why You’ll Love It
- One baking dish, no boiling water — the dry pasta cooks right in the sauce, which means less cleanup and one less pot to watch
- Only 5 main ingredients — jarred Alfredo, sun-dried tomatoes, Parmesan, chicken, and pasta; most of it is pantry staples
- The sauce gets into everything — the pasta absorbs all that creamy, tomato-y goodness as it bakes, almost like a risotto in spots
- About 10 minutes of actual hands-on work — mix the sauce, pour it over, cover with foil, and the oven does the rest
- Looks impressive, isn’t — the sun-dried tomatoes make it feel more deliberate than it is; people always ask for the recipe
Ingredient Notes
Alfredo sauce from a jar — don’t flinch, it works. I’ve tried making my own for this and it’s not worth it; the jarred stuff holds up better during the long bake and doesn’t separate. I usually grab whatever’s on sale. The fancier ones are fine, the store brand is fine, honestly I’m not sure I can tell the difference once it’s baked with everything else.
Sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil. Not the dry-packed kind — those turn sort of leathery in here and I find them a little grim. Drain them and give them a rough chop. I probably use more than the recipe calls for, if I’m being honest. I eyeball it.
Parmesan — please grate your own if you can. The stuff in the green can works in a pinch and I have used it in a pinch, but the texture is just not the same. Real Parmesan gets kind of crispy and golden on top and the pre-grated stuff doesn’t quite do that.
The water in the sauce mixture sounds strange. It isn’t. The pasta needs liquid to cook through inside the oven, and this is how you give it that without the sauce becoming wallpaper paste. Trust the process on this one.
Ingredients
- 12 oz uncooked short pasta — penne or rigatoni, rotini works too (I’ve also used cavatappi when that’s what was in the pantry)
- About 1½ lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
- One 16 oz jar Alfredo sauce — the whole thing
- ½ cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped (maybe a little more than ½ cup, I never measure)
- 1½ cups grated Parmesan, divided — save about half a cup for the top
- 1½ cups water
- Salt and pepper if you feel it needs it — taste the sauce first, the Parmesan and Alfredo can already be pretty salty
- A little olive oil or nonstick spray to grease the dish
How to Make It
Preheat your oven to 375°F. Grease a deep baking dish — I use a 3-quart oval, it’s a good size for this. Don’t skip greasing it, the pasta will stick to the corners and you’ll be scraping at it with a spoon while it’s still hot, which is unpleasant.
Spread the dry pasta into the dish in an even layer. This still feels a little wild to me, even after making it a dozen times. Just dry pasta, sitting there. But it works.
Scatter the raw chicken pieces over the top. Try to spread them out in a single layer — if they’re piled on top of each other, some of them will be underdone in the middle and you’ll have to bake longer. I cut mine fairly small, maybe an inch and a half or so.
Now the sauce. In a bowl, whisk together the Alfredo, sun-dried tomatoes, one cup of the Parmesan, and all the water. It’ll look thin, maybe thinner than feels right, but that’s what you want. Give it a taste here — if it needs salt and pepper, add a little. I usually add just a pinch of black pepper and skip the extra salt.
Pour it all over the pasta and chicken. Take a wooden spoon and poke around a little to make sure everything is coated and there aren’t dry patches of pasta hiding underneath. Smooth the top down.
Cover tightly with foil — really tuck it around the edges. This is important. The steam is what cooks the pasta, and if it escapes you’ll end up with the pasta on the edges cooked and the stuff in the middle still crunchy and tough. Ask me how I know.
Bake for 35 minutes. When you pull it out, be careful taking off the foil — there’s a lot of trapped steam and it’ll rush out right at your face if you peel it back too fast. I have done this enough times that you’d think I’d have learned.
Stir everything well at this point, really scraping from the corners. The pasta should be almost done. Sprinkle the rest of the Parmesan over the top and put it back in the oven, uncovered, for another 10–15 minutes. You want the top to be lightly golden in spots and the sauce bubbling around the edges, and the chicken absolutely needs to be cooked through — use a thermometer if you have any doubt, 165°F in the thickest piece.
If you want a more impressive-looking top, run it under the broiler for a minute or two at the end. Watch it. That Parmesan goes from perfect to burnt very quickly and there’s no recovering from it.
Let it rest for at least five minutes before you dig in. The sauce thickens as it sits, which is part of what makes it so good. When you serve it, make sure you’re scooping from the bottom of the dish — that’s where all the creamiest sauce settles.
Variations I’ve Tried
Red pepper flakes stirred into the sauce — maybe a quarter teaspoon — work really well here and cut through the richness a little.
Chicken thighs instead of breasts, if that’s what you have. They stay a little more tender and moist. I slightly prefer them, actually, though I don’t always have them.
I tried folding in spinach once, right after the first bake before adding the Parmesan, and it was fine. Not my favorite version, but if you want some greens in there it doesn’t hurt anything. The spinach kind of disappears into the sauce.
Leftovers
It reheats beautifully. Add a splash of water or a little extra Alfredo sauce when you warm it up — the pasta absorbs liquid overnight in the fridge and it’ll be thick. I usually just do a bowl in the microwave with a damp paper towel over it, two or three minutes, stir halfway through. It makes great leftovers — I always think there won’t be enough and then there is, somehow.
Don’t leave it out longer than a couple of hours. Raw chicken was involved and I don’t take chances with that. Refrigerate within two hours, reheat until it’s steaming hot all the way through.
I feel like I should say something about the name again. Marry Me Chicken Pasta. I still think it’s a little silly. But every time I make it, the dish is empty before I’ve even had a chance to sit down properly, and that’s really all you need to know.
Make it once and it’ll be on your regular rotation. That’s just how it goes.
Oven Baked 5-Ingredient Marry Me Chicken Pasta
Ingredients
- 12 oz short pasta penne, rigatoni, rotini, or cavatappi; uncooked
- 1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into bite-size pieces
- 16 oz Alfredo sauce one jar
- 1/2 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes drained and roughly chopped
- 1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese divided
- 1 1/2 cups water
- salt and black pepper to taste
- olive oil or nonstick spray for greasing
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F and grease a deep 3-quart baking dish.
- Spread the dry pasta evenly in the bottom of the prepared dish.
- Scatter the bite-size chicken pieces evenly over the pasta in a single layer.
- In a bowl, whisk together the Alfredo sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, 1 cup Parmesan cheese, and water.
- Taste the sauce and season lightly with salt and black pepper if needed.
- Pour the sauce mixture evenly over the pasta and chicken.
- Use a spoon to gently press and stir so the pasta is coated and no dry patches remain.
- Cover the dish tightly with foil, sealing the edges well.
- Bake covered for 35 minutes.
- Carefully remove the foil and stir well, scraping from the corners.
- Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese over the top.
- Return to the oven, uncovered, and bake for 10–15 minutes, until the pasta is tender, the sauce is bubbling, and the chicken reaches 165°F.
- Optional: Broil for 1–2 minutes for a more golden top, watching carefully.
- Let the pasta rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.