Marry Me Chicken Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes: Step-by-Step Instructions

Instructions

1. Put a large pan of water on to boil and salt it properly — about a tablespoon for four litres. The pasta is seasoned here or not at all, because the sauce is too short to season it later.
2. Halve each chicken breast horizontally to make four thin cutlets, then pat them completely dry and season both sides with the salt, pepper, oregano and smoked paprika. Thin cutlets cook through in six minutes, which is why the breast stays juicy instead of overcooking on the outside while the middle catches up.
3. Heat the oil and butter in a large deep frying pan over medium-high heat and sear the cutlets for 3 to 4 minutes a side, until deep golden. Do them in two batches if the pan is crowded: chicken that steams releases no fond, and the fond is the base of the sauce. Transfer to a board.
4. Start the pasta now, cooking it two minutes short of the time on the packet. It will finish in the sauce, and those two minutes are when it absorbs the cream rather than water.
5. Turn the heat down to medium, add the garlic and sun-dried tomatoes to the pan and cook for one minute, stirring, until the garlic smells sweet. Do not let it colour — burnt garlic is bitter and there is nothing in this sauce strong enough to hide it.
6. Pour in the chicken stock and scrape the base of the pan with a wooden spoon until the brown crust lifts. Let it bubble for two minutes to reduce slightly, which concentrates the flavour before the cream goes in and dilutes everything.
7. Lower the heat, stir in the cream and the chilli flakes, and simmer gently for 3 to 4 minutes until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Keep it below a rolling boil: cream splits when it is pushed too hard.
8. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the grated parmesan a handful at a time until it melts smoothly. Adding it off the heat stops the cheese seizing into strings.
9. Drain the pasta, saving a mugful of the water, and tip it straight into the sauce with 100 ml of that water. Toss over low heat for a minute until every piece is coated, adding more water a splash at a time if it tightens.
10. Slice the rested chicken across the grain, lay it over the pasta, scatter the torn basil and extra parmesan on top and serve immediately. The sauce thickens quickly as it cools, so this is not a dish to leave sitting.

Recipe Variations

With spinach. Stir two large handfuls of baby spinach into the sauce just before the pasta goes in. It wilts in under a minute and makes the dish feel less rich without changing the method.

Prawn version. Replace the chicken with 400 g of raw king prawns, seared for 90 seconds a side and returned at the very end. They overcook faster than anything else in the pan, so keep them out of the sauce until serving.

Tomato-forward. Add two tablespoons of tomato purée with the garlic and cook it out for a minute. The sauce turns a deeper orange and gains a sweeter, rounder backbone.

Vegetarian. Drop the chicken, use vegetable stock, and fold in 250 g of chestnut mushrooms browned hard in the butter first. The mushrooms supply the savoury depth the chicken fond would have given.

Baked. Toss everything together, tip it into a dish, top with mozzarella and grill for five minutes. Useful if you are feeding people who arrive at different times.

Serving Ideas

This needs something green and sharp beside it rather than another rich side. A rocket salad with lemon juice and olive oil takes two minutes and does exactly the job the sun-dried tomatoes are doing inside the sauce.

Garlic bread is the obvious partner and it earns its place here, because there is always sauce left in the bowl. A plain ciabatta torn into pieces works just as well and takes no preparation.

Roasted tenderstem broccoli or green beans with a squeeze of lemon turn it into a fuller meal without adding another creamy element. For a dinner for two with leftovers, serve it straight from the pan in the middle of the table with the extra parmesan and a pepper grinder, which saves plating and keeps it hot.

Keeping It Fresh

Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days. The pasta will drink most of the sauce overnight, so expect it to look dry when you take it out — that is normal and fixable.

Reheat in a pan over low heat with two or three tablespoons of milk or stock, stirring until the sauce comes back together. The microwave works at half power in short bursts with a splash of liquid, but it tends to make the chicken rubbery, so take the chicken out and reheat it separately if you can be bothered.

Freezing is not worth it. Cream sauces split on thawing and cooked pasta turns soft, so if you want to get ahead instead, sear and slice the chicken a day early and keep it in the fridge. The sauce and pasta then take fifteen minutes from a cold start.

Reader Questions Answered

Why is it called marry me chicken?

The name comes from the claim that the original skillet version is good enough to prompt a proposal. There is no traditional recipe behind it — it is a modern creamy sun-dried tomato chicken, and the pasta version simply stretches the sauce to feed more people.

Can I use chicken thighs instead of breasts?

Yes, and they are more forgiving. Use 600 g of boneless skinless thighs and sear them for 5 to 6 minutes a side. They hold more fat, so they stay moist even if you lose track of the time.

Can I make it without cream?

Use full-fat evaporated milk in the same quantity, or 200 g of mascarpone loosened with extra stock. Single cream and milk both split or stay thin, so avoid them unless you stabilise the sauce with a teaspoon of cornflour.

My sauce went grainy. What happened?

Almost always the parmesan went in while the pan was still on the heat, or it was pre-grated with anti-caking starch. Grate it yourself from a block and stir it in off the heat. A splash of pasta water and hard whisking will usually bring a grainy sauce back.

What pasta shape works best?

Penne holds the sauce in its tubes and is the easiest choice. Fettuccine works if you toss it well, since the flat ribbons carry a cream sauce nicely. Avoid small shapes like macaroni, which disappear under the sauce and make the dish feel heavy.

Wrapping Up

Sear, deglaze, reduce, finish the pasta in the pan. Four moves, one pan, thirty minutes, and the only thing that can really go wrong is parmesan added too hot.

It is the kind of recipe worth knowing by heart, because once the method is in your hands the ingredients become negotiable: prawns instead of chicken, mushrooms instead of either, spinach when the fridge demands it. The sauce stays the same and so does the timing.

Related recipes: Creamy Orange Gelatin Squares You Can Eat With Your Hands, Dubai Chocolate Bars with Pistachio Filling, Baked Oats with Banana and Blueberries, Cheeseburger Casserole with Pickles and Cheddar, Marry Me Chicken in a Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce.

Learn more: Tomatoes on Wikipedia · food storage & safety (FoodSafety.gov).