Marry Me Chicken Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Marry me chicken pasta takes the original skillet dish and gives the sauce something to cling to. Chicken is seared and set aside, sun-dried tomatoes and garlic go into the same pan, and cream, stock and parmesan are reduced in the fond the chicken left behind. The pasta finishes in that sauce rather than being drowned in it afterwards, which is the difference between a coated noodle and a soupy one. The whole thing runs on one pan and one pot of pasta water, and it is on the table in half an hour. Four portions, no special equipment, nothing that needs to be made ahead.

Prep Time	10	Cook Time	20
Servings	4	Calories	720 kcal

Ingredients

• 400 g (14 oz) penne or fettuccine
• 600 g (1 lb 5 oz) chicken breasts, 2 large, halved horizontally
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) oil from the sun-dried tomato jar, or olive oil
• 15 g (1 tablespoon) unsalted butter
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 100 g (3.5 oz) sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and sliced
• 240 ml (1 cup) chicken stock
• 250 ml (1 cup) double cream or heavy cream
• 60 g (2 oz) parmesan, finely grated, plus more to serve
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 0.5 teaspoon chilli flakes
• 1 teaspoon fine salt, plus more for the pasta water
• 0.5 teaspoon black pepper
• 10 g (a large handful) fresh basil, torn
• 150 ml (2/3 cup) reserved pasta cooking water

Buy sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil rather than the dry leathery sort. They are already soft, they slice cleanly, and the oil in the jar is worth more than the tomatoes: it is infused with tomato and herbs, and using a spoonful of it to sear the chicken puts that flavour into the pan from the first minute.

Grate the parmesan from a block. The pre-grated bags are coated in cellulose or potato starch to stop them clumping, and that coating is the single most common reason a cream sauce turns grainy instead of glossy. Everything else here is standard, but the cream should be double or heavy — anything lighter will not hold together once the cheese and the acidity of the tomatoes hit it.

Essential Kitchen Tools

Large deep frying pan (28 cm)	Searing the chicken, then holding the sauce and all the pasta
Large pasta pot	Boiling the penne and giving you starchy water
Wooden spoon	Scraping the fond off the base when the stock goes in
Fine grater or microplane	Parmesan that melts instead of clumping
Tongs	Turning the cutlets and tossing the pasta through the sauce

The pan matters more than the rest. A shallow skillet forces you to toss the pasta in a bowl afterwards, which never coats it as evenly as finishing it in the sauce does.

Why This Recipe Works

Everything happens in the pan the chicken was seared in. Those browned bits stuck to the base are concentrated meat flavour, and the stock dissolves them back into the sauce. Cook the chicken in a separate pan, or boil it, and the sauce loses the layer that makes it taste like more than cream and cheese.

The sun-dried tomatoes do a job beyond flavour. A cream and parmesan sauce is heavy on its own and palls after a few forkfuls; the tomatoes are concentrated and acidic, and they cut through the fat every time you hit one. That contrast is what keeps the bowl interesting to the bottom.

Finishing the pasta in the sauce is the technical part. Pasta drained and sauced in a bowl sits in its sauce; pasta given its last two minutes in the pan absorbs it, and the starch it sheds thickens the cream into something that clings. The reserved cooking water is the tool for that — it is full of dissolved starch and it emulsifies fat and liquid into one smooth coating.

Pro Tips for Better Results

Dry the chicken before it goes near the pan. Surface moisture has to evaporate before browning can start, and while it does, the meat is steaming. Kitchen paper and ten seconds buy you a much better crust.

Halve the breasts horizontally. A whole breast needs twelve minutes and the outside is dry long before the centre is safe. Two thin cutlets cook in six and stay tender.

Keep a mug of pasta water on the counter. Not the sink — the mug. It is the only thing that will loosen a sauce that has gone too thick without watering down the flavour.

Add the parmesan off the heat. Above about 80 °C the proteins in hard cheese tighten and squeeze out fat, which is the grainy, oily sauce nobody wants.

Rest the chicken while the sauce reduces. Five minutes on the board is enough for the juices to redistribute, and it costs you nothing because you are busy with the pan anyway.

Season at the end, not during. Parmesan, stock and the tomato oil all carry salt. Taste once the cheese is in, then decide.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)

Calories	Protein	Carbs	Fat	Fiber
720 kcal	48g	62g	32g	4g

Based on one of four servings with penne and no extra parmesan at the table. Swapping the double cream for evaporated milk brings it to around 590 kcal; wholewheat pasta adds roughly 5 g of fibre per serving without changing the calories much.