This chicken scampi recipe is to die for. Angel hair pasta covered in a creamy garlic sauce with caramelized onions and bell peppers, then topped with pan-fried chicken tenderloins.
After trying chicken scampi for the first time at the Olive Garden I just knew I needed to recreate it and make it even better. Some of my other favorite Olive Garden copycat recipes I’ve recreated are Olive Garden Italian dressing and Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana soup.
I am so excited to share one of my families most favorite pasta dishes with you today! It’s my Chicken Scampi recipe and it is so good that me and my husband always fight over the leftovers the next day!
Have you tried the Chicken Scampi from Olive Garden? This is where I first fell in love with this dish. Angel hair pasta covered in a creamy garlic sauce mixed with caramelized red onions and bell peppers. Then topped with pan-fried chicken tenderloins. Oh my!
Although I love Olive Gardens chicken scampi, I honestly prefer my own recipe. Does it taste better you ask? I will let you be the judge. But the answer is yes. 100% yes.
HOW DO YOU MAKE CHICKEN SCAMPI?
The recipe starts by creating a creamy and delicious scampi sauce. Then boiling your angel hair pasta until al dente. Pan-frying your lightly coated chicken tenderloins until crispy and cooked through. Then carmelizing your peppers and onions, mixing it all together and serving on a big nice platter topped with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.
HOW DO YOU MAKE SCAMPI SAUCE?
It is super easy to make scampi sauce. Basically, all you need to do is saute some garlic and onion, add in chicken broth and some seasonings and simmer for 15 minutes. Then after the flavors have come developed together you add in some heavy cream and simmer on low for 10 minutes more. Such a delicious and creamy sauce.
MORE CHICKEN RECIPES
- Honey Sesame Chicken
- Creamy Hazelnut Chicken Penne
- Chicken Enchilada Casserole
- Chicken Burrito Bowls
- Chicken Picatta Freezer Meal
- Make Ahead Orange Chicken
Chicken Scampi
Ingredients
- 3 tbs butter
- 2 tbs minced onions dried or fresh
- 1 tsp heaping minced garlic
- 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tbs dried parsley
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 16 oz angel hair pasta
- 1 lb chicken tenderloins about 9-12 pieces
- salt and pepper
- 1 cup flour
- 4 tbs olive oil
- 2 red bell peppers
- 1 red onions
- freshly grated Parmesan cheese for garnish
Instructions
- In a medium sized sauce pan add butter, minced onion, minced garlic and saute over medium heat for a 1-2 minutes. Don't let the garlic burn! Add in chicken broth, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and the dried parsley. Simmer for 15 minutes on med-low heat.
- After 15 minutes is up add heavy whipping cream and simmer on low, without boiling for 10 minutes.
- In a separate pot, boil the angel hair pasta according to the directions on the box.
- To prepare your chicken tenders, sprinkle with salt and pepper and dip in flour. Fry in a skillet over medium heat with a couple tablespoons of olive oil 3-5 minutes on each side until golden brown and cooked all the way through. Set aside.
- Take your onions and bell peppers and cut in julienne strips, making sure to remove all seeds and the white membrane on the inside. In the same skillet that the chicken was cooked in, add another tablespoon or so of olive oil and saute the onions and bell peppers. I cook on high for 3-5 minutes until they get soft and caramelized.
- Take the creamy garlic sauce and add half of it to the pasta. Stir to incorporate sauce.
- Add all the onions and bell peppers and mix into the pasta. Dish up pasta, adding the chicken on top. Drizzle more sauce over pasta and chicken. Garnish with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
Nutrition
This dish is perfect in so many ways. I hope you love it as much as I do.
This was delicious! Thank you for sharing!
This is sooo good and pretty dang close to Olive Garden! My husband and I made it for Valentine’s day and are making it again tonight. It does make for a lot of dishes afterward, but for this, totally worth it!
I got my OG chicken scampi without going out! I found that shallots were better than red onions. To each their own. Yummy!
I’m happy about it.
One of the best meals I’ve ever made!! Soooo dang good. Restaurant quality!
Awesome recipe! Definitely a keeper!
Made for dinner for my daughter and I. Knock it out of the park. Will be making again but with extra sauce.
Awesome flavor!!! The only issue I had was the sauce was too thin, I thickened it up with a little corn starch and it was perfect. The red pepper flakes make it a little too spicy for some, I thought it was delightful.
Thank you! I love this recipe! I’ve made this twice now, it’s definitely a keeper 🙂
Turned out beautifully with the recipe as is!!! My friends like it! Will make again. Thank you so much!
I just knew I needed to recreate it and make it even better.
This was delicious and just like Olive Garden’s. I would definitely make it again!
One of my favorite meals to make!! So good!!
My family loves this recipe I literally have to triple the recipe and we still have no left overs !
I just tried this recipe and I’m sure it would have come out great. But, I’m lactose intolerant so I switched the butter for ghee (which during the cooking process smelled amazing!) and the heavy cream with Greek yogurt. This was my first time doing something like this and only had low fat Greek yogurt on hand. It curdled pretty much right after adding it to the chicken stock sauce. Can you tell me what mistake I made? did I fail to use the propper full fat yogurt or did I cook it at too high of a heat? I had it on medium low as suggested and turned it down after incorporating the yogurt.
Hi, I think if you cooled down the chicken stock sauce for about 5 minutes, and then added the greek yogurt, it wouldn’t have curdled I’m pretty sure. Things like sour cream and greek yogurt you have to be careful adding to hot sauces or they curdle!
I made it and it came out delicious, we enjoyed it so much, none is left over .. LOLOL
Can this be made into a freezer meal?
No, sadly the cream and ingredients wouldn’t work out too well.
This was outstanding! My husband literally licked his plate! ?
Very simple to make and flavorful. Thank you