Creamy Tomato Chicken and Pasta
⏱ 5 min prep · 🍳 15 min · 🍽 4
Mushrooms, a yellow onion, and a chicken breast from the chiller cabinet make up the entire shopping list here, and all three sit in the same fridge aisle at any supermarket — no advance planning required. The sauce is built right in the pan the chicken was browned in: mushroom and garlic get blended smooth with tomato paste before the cream goes in, so cleanup is one pot and one skillet, nothing more.
Fresh tagliatelle boils while the sauce simmers gently on low, and you don't need a thermometer or a reduction timer to get it to thicken properly — just enough time for the pasta to hit al dente. The flavour lands mild and a little sweet from the tomato paste, without the sharp raw-garlic edge some tomato sauces carry.
It works best on a night you're stopping at the store anyway, since everything here is bought fresh the same day. Leftovers hold in the fridge for a couple of days, so there's a genuine backup dinner for tomorrow night too.
Ingredients
- 480.000 g Kyllingfilet
- 2.000 ss Olivenolje
- 1.000 stk Løk
- 2.000 fedd Hvitløk
- 6.000 stk Sjampinjong, store
- 4.000 ss tomatpuré
- 3.000 dl Fløte
- klype Salt
- klype Pepper
- 400.000 g Fersk tagliatelle
- Parmesan
- Persille eller basilikum
Instructions
Blend hvitløk og sjampinjong til det er finhakket.
Terning løk og myk den i olje i en panne.
Tilsett sopp-blandingen og la koke litt.
Rør inn tomatpuré, tilsett deretter fløten og la sausen småkoke.
Skjær kyllingfiletene i to på langs for å lage tynnere stykker.
Stek kyllingen i olje til gjennomstekte, og smak til med salt og pepper.
Overfør den stekte kyllingen til sausen.
Kok fersk tagliatelle etter anvisning på pakken.
Anrett pasta med kylling og saus, og pynt med revet parmesan og friske urter.
This is the dinner that bails you out when the fridge holds an open carton of cream, a couple of mushrooms on their last day, and no real plan otherwise. The sauce gets blended completely smooth, so onion and mushroom turn into texture and colour rather than visible bits on the plate — handy if anyone at your table has strong opinions about what they can see in their food. Four portions suit a typical family of four with barely any excess, and whatever's left doubles as a cold pasta salad for tomorrow's lunchbox without anyone needing a microwave at school or work. It's also forgiving on a rushed weeknight: the sauce simmers untended while you deal with homework or bath time, and it holds on low heat if dinner ends up ten minutes later than planned.
FAQ
Can I use chicken thighs instead of breast?
Yes, and thighs actually forgive a slightly overcooked pan better than breast because they carry more fat. Cut them into pieces about the same size as you would breast, and plan on a couple of extra minutes in the pan before they're cooked through. The flavour comes out a bit richer, so it's fine to scale back the tomato paste by a teaspoon if you want to keep the sauce mild.
My sauce split and went grainy — what happened?
That almost always means the cream hit the pan too hot, or it kept boiling hard after you added it. Drop the heat to low before pouring the cream in, and let it just simmer gently rather than roll at a full boil. If it's already split, a quick pass with an immersion blender will usually pull it back together.
Why blend the mushrooms instead of slicing them?
Blended mushroom melts into the sauce and adds umami and body without changing the texture of the finished pasta dish. Sliced mushroom makes a different meal entirely — closer to a classic mushroom sauce with visible pieces running through it. Blend if you want a smooth, rosy sauce; slice if you'd rather have mushroom as an ingredient you can actually see and bite into.
Can I make the sauce a day ahead and just reheat it?
The sauce on its own holds up well in the fridge overnight and reheats gently in a saucepan without any trouble. Cook the chicken and boil the pasta fresh right before serving, though, since both lose some texture if they sit overnight. That leaves you with just 10-12 minutes of cooking on the night you actually plan to eat.
How long do leftovers keep, and can I freeze them?
Refrigerated in a sealed container, the finished dish holds for 2-3 days. Fresh pasta doesn't freeze well — it turns mushy on thawing — so if you want to freeze anything, freeze the sauce alone and cook a fresh batch of pasta the day you pull it back out.
How much pasta do I need for four people?
Plan on roughly 350-400 grams of fresh tagliatelle for four standard portions, a bit more if anyone in the house eats a big plate of pasta. Fresh pasta cooks much faster than dried, so go by the time on the package rather than habits carried over from dried noodles — a couple of minutes is often all it takes.