Slow Cooker Olive Garden Chicken Pasta
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I finally caved and tried the viral Crock Pot Olive Garden chicken pasta, and wow—it absolutely lived up to the hype! Slow-cooked chicken turns fork-tender and soaks up all the zesty Olive Garden dressing, while cream cheese melts into a rich, velvety sauce.
At first, I was skeptical, would bottled dressing really make a good pasta sauce? But after testing this, I get it. It’s one of the easiest slow cooker recipes I’ve ever made.
The first time I made this, I went all in with pasta, garlic bread, and a side salad, and it was almost too rich. The second time, I served it over spaghetti squash for a lighter version, and it worked just as well!
So whether you want a carb-heavy comfort meal or a lighter twist, this recipe delivers.
Ingredients for Olive Garden Crockpot Chicken
What You’ll Need:
- 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (thawed, excess fat trimmed)
- 2 cups Olive Garden Italian Dressing (adjust to taste)
- 1/4 cup freshly shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1 (8 oz) block cream cheese, cut into cubes
- Black pepper, to taste
- Pasta of choice (Rotini, Penne, or even Gnocchi)
Pro Tip: After making this multiple times, I’ve found that freshly shredded parmesan melts into the sauce better than pre-packaged grated parmesan, which can have anti-caking agents that make it clump.
How to Make Olive Garden Chicken Pasta
Step 1: Prep Your Crock Pot
I always spray my slow cooker with non-stick spray before cooking creamy dishes like this. It makes clean-up way easier and ensures nothing sticks! You can also use a slow cooker liner if you want zero mess.
Step 2: Add Ingredients
Place the chicken breasts in the slow cooker. I prefer using slightly thicker chicken breasts because they shred beautifully without drying out.
Pour Olive Garden dressing over the chicken. This dressing can have varying tastes to people. Some readers find it more vinegary and want additional cream cheese to tone it (that step is below). I personally found that it mellows out during cooking and blends with no issues. This is one of those things you have to adjust to taste.
Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and black pepper. Tear the cream cheese into chunks and place it on top. I don’t bother mixing at this point—the slow cooker does the work.
Step 3: Cook Low & Slow
- LOW for 5-6 hours
- HIGH for 4 hours
The key to the best texture is cooking it low and slow—high heat can make the chicken tough if overcooked.
Step 4: Shred & Mix
Once the chicken is fork-tender, shred it directly in the slow cooker. I’ve tried pulling it out to shred, but keeping it in the sauce keeps everything juicy. Just grab a couple forks and pull apart in the crock pot.
Stir everything well so the cream cheese blends into the dressing and forms a thick, cheesy sauce. If your sauce looks too thick, add a splash of heavy whipping cream or chicken broth to loosen it up.
Step 5: Add Pasta (Optional)
You have two options for serving:
- Stir cooked pasta directly into the slow cooker for a creamy, one-pot dish.
- Serve the shredded chicken over pasta instead of mixing it in, which allows you to control the sauce-to-pasta ratio.
Firsthand Insight: After testing both, I found that stirring pasta into the slow cooker makes it extra creamy but also super filling—it’s rich! If you want a lighter version, serving the chicken over pasta (instead of mixing it in) gives you more control over portions.
Best Pasta Options for This Dish
You do not have to use what we did. You can mix up how you serve this dish.
- Spiral Pasta – Spiral pasta (like Rotini Pasta) is the most commonly used
- Penne – I like penne for a thicker pasta that also grabs a lot of the dressing on the inside of the pasta, which makes it a more flavorful bite.
- Gnocchi – Gnocchi is really filling but is a delicious way to eat this slow cooker chicken.
- Spiralized spaghetti squash or zucchini – Pasta isn’t the only way to go! Serve over veggies too!
Tips for the Best Olive Garden Chicken Pasta
For a thicker sauce: Use full-fat cream cheese and freshly shredded parmesan.
For a thinner sauce: Add ½ cup chicken broth before cooking or stir in a little heavy whipping cream at the end.
My Mistake & How I Fixed It: The first time I made this, I used an entire 16 oz. bottle of dressing, and it was way too much—the flavor overpowered the dish. 2 cups is a much better balance and the recipe reflects that!
More Viral Recipes You’ll Love
If you love trying trendy recipes, check out these tested favorites:
- Parmesan Roasted Potatoes – Crispy, cheesy, and the perfect side dish!
- Copycat Panda Express Orange Chicken – keeping with the theme of favorite restaurants, this is a great one to take takeout to make-in.
- A favorite in our house that also features chickens, are these copycat Chick-Fil-A chicken minis and our viral McDonalds Chicken Nuggets recipe.
If you try it, let me know in the comments! Happy cooking!
Slow Cooker Olive Garden Chicken Pasta
Equipment
- Crock Pot
Ingredients
- 2 cups Olive Garden Italian Dressing
- 1/4 cup Freshly Shredded Parmesan Cheese
- 8 oz. Block of Cream Cheese
- 3-4 chicken breasts skinless, thawed boneless
- Rotini Pasta already cooked – as much as you need
- Black Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Spray the inside of the slow cooker with nonstick spray or use a slow cooker liner.
- Place 3-4 thawed boneless, skinless chicken breasts (trimmed of excess fat) in the bottom of the slow cooker.
- Pour 2 cups of Olive Garden Italian dressing over the chicken.
- Sprinkle ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese on top, then season with black pepper.
- Tear one block of cream cheese into pieces and place around or on top of the chicken.
- Cover with the lid and cook on low for 5-6 hours or high for 3-4 hours, until the chicken is fork-tender.
- Shred the chicken using two forks, then mix well to combine with the dressing and melted cream cheese.
- Serve over cooked pasta or stir the pasta directly into the slow cooker before serving (see article for tips).
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer: The nutritional data provided here is auto-calculated and intended for your convenience only. As it’s generated via automation, its accuracy may be compromised. For precise nutritional insight, please compute the values utilizing the actual ingredients in your recipe through your chosen nutrition calculator or application.
Did You Make This Recipe?
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Hi this slow cooker olive garden children recipe looks yummy and I’m planning on making it for supper tomorrow night, but I can’t seem to find how many cups of pasta to we use, can you please let me know thank you.
Hi Amanda! That’s because the recipe is the chicken and you can serve with pasta (or rice) optionally…simply make enough pasta for your family and serve the chicken and sauce over it. You can also just eat the olive garden chicken without the pasta. Typically I just make about half a box for my family.
Ok great thanks for letting me know.
Can I double the recipe ? and if so should I cook it longer ?
You can and you shouldnt have to cook it any longer – the chicken should still cook about the same rate.
How do you get rid of tartness
If its tart, thats the dressing itself and the flavors in the dressing. Its part of their signature. There really isnt a way to change the flavor of THAT dressing but if you do not like it, substitute with other brand. 🙂
Add 1 1/2 cups of dressing 1/2 cup of water . 1 1/2 blocks of cream cheese and 2 tablespoons of butter comes out perfectly!
Should you cook the pasta separately before adding it or are you able to add it dry and it cooks in the mixture, if so how long per how much?
This recipe is only for the chicken that you could then add to cooked pasta or rice. I would not add any dry pasta in and expect it to cook properly. It would be fine to cook and then add right before you serve.
This recipe tastes like straight Olive Garden Italian dressing. The chicken absorbed all of the vinegar in the dressing. I do not recommend nor would I make it again.
Hi Kim! If you do not like Olive Garden dressing it def would not be a recipe you would enjoy, but if you want to slow down some of the iconic tanginess, add more cream cheese and cut the dressing. Its a fairly straight forward recipe to alter.
Trisha
Wish I had read the reviews, agree overpowering tart and huge waste of expensive ingredients. Couldn’t eat one bite.
I’m confused on the serving size…it just says “1”. Is it 1 cup?
The way these auto calculate is you add how many serving sizes in (i said 6) and then how many each size accounts for in the nutrition, which is 1 serving sized based on 6 equal portions. We do not have any control how that displays…its not really done by cup but by sizes. So if I said 6 servings but 2 people eat 2 servings, it would calculate based on 2 out of the 6. I know, its kinda wierd.
Can I make this in the oven
You could make it in the oven, I would just flatten chicken down or cut into smaller pieces and bake for about 45 min on 375 or until chicken is no longer pink. The thing is with oven cooking is it wont shred your chicken down to pull apart like this, so just bake it normal w/ the sauce.
Can you make this in the instapot??
I dont see why not but my biggest concern is cream cheese in the instant pot – I would assume the instant high heat could make it clump up. The truth is I dont know till it gets made how the recipe would react. It might be fine to make the chicken first, shred, then add rest of ingredients and warm. That would be how I did it if I was going to convert.
I made this for dinner after church and this has to be the most nasty tasting dish I ever made I would never recommend to ever tempt to make this dish again to overpowering
I added a few items. In a bowl add 1 can of sweet peas, sliced black olives, minced garlic. Combine it with the salad dressing. Then add the mixture to the chicken and then follow the steps of the recipe. When done garnish with fresh diced tomatoes and fresh parsley. With garlic bread it’s unbelievable.
I would not recommend this recipe at all. I personally love Olive Garden dressing. This dressing however is not meant to be cooked. It’s awful!!!! It tastes like rotten dressing and the smell is putrid! My sisters and sister in-law all tried this same recipe and had the same outcome. Don’t waste your ingredients on this!!
hi Danielle! Thanks for commenting. I fully understand when a recipe isn’t compatable with all taste buds but all the reviews on the recipe card and on under the pinterest pins, many people love it. Some people find the Italian dressing from Olive Garden quite tart and it may be that you should add more cream cheese to help balance that out. Or, if you do not like warm dressing (after all, we are used to it really cold), maybe add that at the end with less cooking time. The great thing about recipes is experimenting.
Trisha
This was absolutely delicious! I did add another 4oz of cream cheese to correct the tartness but under no circumstances did this taste like “rotten dressing”. Common sense would tell you that if you don’t like Olive Garden dressing you probably won’t like this recipe 🤷♀️🙄 I served over rice instead of pasta! Delish!
Agreed- it’s yummy!!
I use 1 cup dressing and 1 cup chicken bone broth with all of the other ingredients and add additional Italian seasoning . As my husband can’t tolerate much oil .
Turns out great!
That is great, so glad you and your spouse enjoyed!
Trisha
This dish is delicious , i only used half the bottle of dressing and about 1/2 cup of heavy cream to tone down the tartness . Also in last 30 min i added a bag of spinach . The whole family loves it .
I added a bag of baby spinach and a jar of drained sundried tomatoes after shredding the chicken. Both added color and flavor to the dish. I also used the Lite dressing to save a few calories. There was not any tang as mentioned in other reply’s. I under cooked the pasta and added it to the crockpot to finish cooking and absorb the flavors.
Wondering if you could use chicken thighs instead of breasts.
I dont see why not .The timing just might change with the thickness or needs of the chicken.
Did you make this with chicken thighs and if so how did the cook trimming work out to be?
Thank you,
Tricia
I made this tonight and was a little hesitant. My husband loved it, said the sauce was really good and asked if it was the first time I made it. He doesn’t like chicken and is kind of picky about food. I loved it, too. I added a little sour cream ( 2T) and chicken base (1 T). The sauce seemed to thicken once out of the slow cooker. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Made this today with egg noodles and it was delicious! So easy, too.
This was SO good! I could not believe my mouth when I tried it… it’s way too easy to be this good! It’s going in the dinner rotation- thank you SO much!!
I followed the recipe instructions to the letter. It was so salty even my salt loving husband couldn’t eat it. We threw it away. Zero stars.
Yes the dressing contains a high amount of salt. Unfortantly there is nothing I can change to alter that since its prepackaged.
It had more of a vinegar taste than anything. I added some water and some half and half to tone it down a bit…it made it more edible..otherwise I won’t be making this again..it was a big disappointment to me.
I love adding spinach after shredding the chicken. Gives it some color and an added vegetable.
The recipe looks great, but I think your nutrition facts are a bit misleading. I would expect the serving size to be for 1 serving, but it is for 1g. Who eats 1g of chicken pasta?
Dale- for some reason the new update on the recipe card software we use, started adding in “gram” behind the 1 serving. That was something that happened recently. It was actually set up to say how many servings is in each dish and then it would divide that by the amount in there and show you. For example, if it was 6 servings, it would show what 1/6th was. As noted below the recipe card, I dont have control how it displays and to use a separate nutritional card. I would just remove the nutrition if I could because its just wrong so much of the time. Now that its added that gram next to all the 1 portion serving, its been throwing people off all day. Im gonna see how I can fix it.
Trisha
I’ve marinated chicken in Italian dressing as a marinade for years with great results. As the major ingredient in this sauce, it was just too much vinegary tang for me. If I made again I’d do a more traditional alfredo sauce and marinate the chicken in Italian dressing before sautéing or grilling it.
Wow. What a great recipe. Not only is it easy to make it tastes amazing. Thank you!!!
The flavor is outstanding BUT the richness and the greasiness were not appealing. I had 3 large breasts so I doubled the dressing, cream cheese and parm. When it was done I lifted the lid and there was a 1/4 inch of oil floating on top. I removed the breasts (that had been trimmed of any fat) and tried to use a whisk to incorporate but the oil kept coming back to the top. I used paper towels to sop all the oil and proceeded. Again, the flavor was amazing…….LOVED it but don’t think I can eat this again. It was SO rich and greasy tasting. No one else has commented on this so I guess it’s just me. Too bad. I LOVED the tart flavor of this recipe. Any suggestions??
Hmm, maybe it was the dressing bottle you had? Why not try to add a little heavy cream to it to thin it out. 🙂
This was an awesome recipe. I used chicken tenderloins instead of chicken breasts. When they were done , I took low carb tortillas and loaded them with the chicken , onions, cheese and lettuce. What a great chicken roll up! Delious! I’ll be making that again!
This recipe was awful. The salad dressing has too much oil and vinegar and left a nasty tang and aftertaste! Because there was oil in the salad dressing it separated from the cheese and did not blend well. This recipe would have been much better with cream of chicken soup. Yuck. I threw it out after dinner.
A crockpot full of salty, vinegary slop. Will not make again.
Its definitely a controversial recipe. Its a love it or hate it type of thing.
I can’t get recipes to print.
Hi Bonnie, Occasionally, a recipe wont go to PRINT RECIPE if someone has a pop up blocker. This is because the print page opens a new second page to print the document from. You will have to turn that off before you can print.
Only omitted one star because I made changes based on other reviews—I used 1.5 lbs tenderloins, 1 cup dressing & 1 cup chicken broth. Cooked faster because the meat was smaller. Also added in a bag of mixed spinach & arugula in the last 30 min. Tossed with a half pound of pasta. Delicious! Super easy meal that will definitely be on repeat.
Mary, thanks for sharing your additions!
It was not as good as I expected
It was just OK
I’ll probably throw the rest away
This wasn’t bad for someone who doesn’t care for Italian dressing, it like the last comment it was alittle greasy and I did add heavy cream. I also had 3 chicken breasts and maybe less dressing next time, if there is a next time. 1st time tryer.
This recipe is delicious with both pasta and mashed potatoes. The interesting part is that it’s also good cold with tortilla chips! Next time I make it, we will use it as a dip, hot or cold! Yum!
I enjoyed making this recipe. The bite from the the salad dressing was unexpected, but very tasty.
I may add in some real bacon bits next time.
Overall, it was very delicious!
It’s a good base but definitely needs more. The pasta with it is a good idea, or rice goes as well. I added a bag of frozen peas at the end, and next time I’ll add more vegetables. I see people don’t like the tartness of it but I used the Aldi version of the Olive Garden dressing and it turned out with good flavor. As I said, great start, but definitely needs more to it.
Add a can of cream of chicken soup and half can of water . Takes away the zing and makes more creamy delicious sauce!
Thats a great idea!!
I followed this recipe using penne pasta and added fresh spinach and mushrooms. I definitely recommend it.
After hearing about Olive Garden chicken from my sister, I decided to give it a go. Since I do a lot of cooking, we don’t make many of these “quick” meals, but family was not disappointed! We’ll be making this one again, thanks!
Loved this the first time I made this. Making again because the family will be looking forward to dinner time.
Tasted like a fork full of sauerkraut- added paprika, red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning and some mozzarella cheese to hopefully not have to throw out – not making this again and geez should have read the comments!
Made this recipe for the grandkids and family and they loved it. They are requesting it again. Served it with Penne pasta. Great recipe and so easy to make.
Great recipe with a few changes for less “tang” add 1 1/2 dressing and 1/2 water , 1 1/2 blocks of cream cheese and 2 tablespoons of butter it comes out perfect !!
This recipe is so controversial…Thank you for providing some tips on how you made it less tangy!
What a great recipe! Love the added spinach idea 💕
This is definitely a family favorite! Thank you so much for sharing this with us ☺️😊
Simple to make and everyone loved it
Do I have to shred up the chicken ?
I plan on making this soon. I just wanted to ask that one question.
Thank you
Maryann
Hi Maryann, shredding the chicken def helps with serving but no, you do not have to.
I agree with other reviews. To tart. Not good at all.
We love this recipe! I do add broccoli, otherwise I make it as written. You definitely have to like Olive Garden dressing, but we LOVE it. Delicious.
Can you used already shredded cooked chicken in this recipe?
I dont see why not, but you wouldnt need to bake it at that point.
I thought this recipe looked good and since I had bought a bottle of the Olive Garden Salad Dressing, I made it. Unfortunately the salad dressing was vinegar based and too strong. A total waste of ingredients as no one could eat it.
Made this but modified it. I only used half a bottle of dressing and added one can of Italian diced tomatoes with juice, 1 cup of mozzarella, & 3/4 cup of ricotta. It turned out so yummy!
Both my kids thought this was way too rich. We added more plain pasta and next time might half the dressing. Otherwise liked it!
Guests could not get enough! Very easy to make.
Will not make again. Way too tangy with all the dressing and only added 1 cup.
Can you use frozen chicken breasts?
You could, but frozen chicken breasts tend to leak a lot of water out of them as they unthaw.
This was easy to make and came out delicious! My family loved it!