Chicken Tortellini Alfredo

Chicken Tortellini Alfredo is an Italian tongue-twistingly titled creamy pasta dish with succulent chicken breast strips.

Prep Time5

Cook Time20

Total Time25

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: chicken tortellini alfredo

Servings: people

Cut the chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces, then season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Heat a large pan with 1 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of oil oil and cook the chicken until done over medium heat for approximately 5 minutes. Remove from the pan to a separate plate.
Set the water boiling in a large pot. Once it comes to a boil, add a pinch of salt and the tortellini. Cook according to package instructions.
To the same pan where you cooked chicken add the butter, cream and Parmesan cheese and heat it slowly over low heat until the cheese is melted into the sauce. Taste and season with salt if needed, then add a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg.
Drain the tortellini while reserving ½ cup of pasta water, and add to the Alfredo sauce, then bring the chicken back to the pan. Toss gently to coat the pasta, add a bit of the pasta water is the dish is too dry. Make sure to taste and add more salt to taste. Serve with additional grated Parmesan.

To get slender, bite-sized chicken strips I use chicken breast. If you have any leftover roast chicken or chicken breasts, this is when to use them up.

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese is infinitely better than the pre-grated kind. Pre-grated lacks intensity of flavour, is dry and claggy.

Alfredo sauce needs a low and consistent heat. You mustn’t boil the cream or it will split, and you want the cheese to incorporate smoothly.

A pinch of nutmeg dramatically transforms the dish. The edge of spice and warmth balances out the richness of the sauce, lifting it aromatically. I grate my own but the ground kind will do just fine.

Feel free to use any filled pasta, like ravioli or cappelletti. What they’re filled with is up to you too.

Cook the filled pasta according to the package instructions. But better to be underdone than overdone as they will continue to soften in the sauce. Overcooked tortellini will split open and the filling will slide sadly away, lost to the cooking water.

And reserve some pasta water! Splashing some starchy water into (any) sauce helps it to maintain its fluidity.

Finally, adding more salt to the pasta and sauce will really bring out the flavours. A grind of black pepper wouldn’t go amiss either!