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.
Terry says
April 28, 2019 at 11:18 amAwesome recipe! Made it last night and we couldn’t get enough!
Laurie says
January 3, 2019 at 3:00 pmThe best chicken scampi recipe ever! Spot on 🙂
Kristina Bills says
October 21, 2018 at 8:24 pmThis is AMAZING!!! Made it and I couldn’t get enough! Seriously so delicious!!!
Karrie says
October 22, 2018 at 4:26 pmThank you!!!
Lynette says
June 26, 2018 at 4:10 pmThis was amazing! I stirred in some fresh spinach for a bit of color and boom! Adding this to my list of “always make” 🙂
Hennessy Harris says
April 25, 2018 at 5:06 pmI love this recipe! It tastes just like the dish from Olive Garden which is my favorite thing there! The entire family loved it!
Ty Richardson says
April 3, 2018 at 3:03 pmThis dish was delicious! My husband loved it! I can’t wait to try your other recipes.
Angelia says
February 27, 2018 at 1:42 pmI have made this several times. It turns out perfect every time. I have even made it without the peppers when I had none, and it still tasted great.
Leeandra says
January 17, 2018 at 10:14 pmI LOVE this dish! I made it for my boyfriends daughter’s birthday diner! Her and her sisters and my daughters loved it! They even asked to take some home! My boyfriend called dibs on anyone who couldn’t finish! He says it’s one of his favorite meals I make! Makes me feel so good that everyone likes it so much, so thanks to you for sharing this recipe with us!
Gina says
January 2, 2018 at 3:44 pmSo delicious!
I used red and yellow peppers and zuchinni too. Next time I think I need to double the vegetbles. But this was very good. Thank you for the recipe.
Andrea says
September 19, 2017 at 9:08 amThis recipe is so great! Tastes just like the chicken scampi at Olive Garden (which is the only thing I get there). It’s a little time consuming to make with a newborn so I was wondering if youve ever tried freezing it (Either just the sauce alone or the whole pasta dish). Would love to make a big batch of this ahead for multiple dinners and could just cook the chicken and add. Thanks!
Shadowflower says
June 25, 2017 at 10:03 amThis was wonderful! My husband had bought an enormous bag of very bland chicken nuggets at Costco and I have been trying to find ways to use them up. I substituted them into this recipe and it was great! I sprinkled just a bit of fresh lemon juice over the nuggets before adding them in and the dish came out really good! I had tried a few other recipes to use up these wretched things, but your recipe is the first one that (almost) made me wish I had more of them! Thank you so much for sharing it.
Christine says
May 21, 2017 at 5:40 pmI made this tonight and it was amazing . We all LOVED it . I will definitely be making again ! Yum !