Lemon Chicken Pasta
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Lemon Chicken Pasta is a delicious, easy dinner recipe. Pan seared chicken & bucatini are tossed in a lemon sauce for a secretly healthy meal!
For this Lemon Chicken Pasta recipe, you’ll toss perfectly seared chicken breasts and bucatini together in a delicious creamy lemon sauce. The best part is, this secretly healthy pasta dinner is easy to make and comes together in a snap!
We are absolutely obsessed with quick and easy dinner ideas, and that’s exactly what lemon chicken bucatini is!
The juicy, lean breast meat and peppery arugula add wholesome nutritional goodness, too. So, if you want a meal that’s quick to prepare, good for your body, and delicious, this is the one to try.
3 great reasons to make lemon chicken pasta
- Incredible Flavors: This recipe combines the zesty freshness of lemon juice/zest with the richness of Parmesan cheese, creating a sauce that’s both tangy and creamy.
- Quick and Easy Preparation: With only a few simple steps, this recipe is perfect for busy weeknights, making it a great option if you need convenient and hassle free meals.
- Healthy and Balanced: Chicken breasts, fresh arugula, and wholesome pasta makes this dish a nutritious choice, perfect if you’re trying to maintain a balanced diet.
If you like this recipe, you may also love Creamy Lemon Pasta Sauce or our Healthy Lemon Artichoke Chicken.
Ingredients
For this Chicken Lemon Pasta you’ll need:
- avocado oil – This healthy cooking oil is packed with Omega 3 fats, and it has a high smoke point, so it’s a good choice to use when you’re pan searing.
- boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- seasoning – Just a pinch of salt and pepper is all you’ll need.
- garlic, onion
- lemon juice and zest
- parmesan cheese – Avoid the stuff in the green plastic canister – go for freshly grated parm here.
- pasta water
- arugula
- bucatini pasta – If you’ve never eaten it or heard of it, bucatini looks like thick strands of spaghetti, but there’s a big difference between them. Bucatini pasta is actually long tubes – the hollow center is perfect for soaking up creamy lemon sauce or Alfredo sauce.
- fresh parsley
Substitutions
Avocado Oil: You can substitute avocado oil, with olive oil, butter, or ghee. Avocado oil is best for searing the chicken because it has a very high smoke point.
Chicken Breasts: You can substitute with boneless chicken thighs or chicken tenders. This would also be great with chicken cutlets on top instead of pan seared chicken!
Fresh Parsley: Fresh parsley really makes a difference in this recipe. If you don’t have fresh, you can use 1 teaspoon of dried parsley, but it will not be as flavorful. Basil would work well in place of fresh parsley.
Parmesan Cheese: Freshly grated parmesan cheese works best in pasta sauces. Pre-shredded cheese usually has a lot of additives that prevent it from melting well.
Arugula: You can sub arugula with spinach, but we prefer arugula!
Bucatini: Any noodle will work here. Linguine, angel hair, or fettuccine would all be delicious! If you like rice, try our Lemon Chicken & Rice.
To Make it Lower Carb: We haven’t tried this recipe with zucchini noodles but I think it would be good. Skip the pasta water, and make sure to really wring out the zucchini noodles with paper towels so they aren’t soggy!
To Make it Lower Calorie: You can use an oil spritzer to spray avocado oil in the pan instead of pouring it in. However, you might not get as good of a sear on the chicken this way.
Pesto: Stir in a tablespoon of pesto to this sauce for more flavor, or try our Pesto Pasta with Veggies.
How to make Chicken Lemon Pasta
- Sear seasoned chicken in hot oil for 6-8 minutes over medium high heat. Flip and sear for an additional 5-6 minutes. Remove and set aside.
- Heat a tablespoon of avocado oil and sauté onion for about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Shut off the heat, add lemon juice, lemon zest, and Parmesan cheese, and stir to combine.
- While onion/garlic cook, cook pasta according to the package directions. Important: reserve ½ cup of starchy pasta water before draining.
- Add cooked pasta to the onion/garlic mixture and toss to combine again. Stir in pasta water and arugula.
- Slice chicken and add to the pasta or slice and plate on top of the pasta. Garnish with fresh parsley.
Tyler’s tips for the best tasting chicken and pasta
- Butterfly the breasts, then pound them down to an even thickness before pan searing. If you have never butterflied chicken, don’t worry – it’s easy to do! Basically, you’re just making the breasts thinner, so that they cook more quickly.
- Use a high smoke point oil, and be sure it is shimmering (hot) before adding anything to the pan. We recommend using avocado oil, or another high smoke point cooking oil, like extra virgin olive oil.
- Reserve some of the pasta cooking water before draining the bucatini. The starchy water will thicken up the sauce you’ll toss with the lemon chicken and pasta.
- When zesting the lemon, avoid including the bitter, white pith.
how to butterfly chicken breasts
- Hold a sharp chef’s knife in your dominant hand and lay your other hand over the top of the breast to hold it in place on your cutting board.
- Next, simply slide the knife horizontally through the center of the chicken breast, but stop cutting just before you get to the other side – don’t cut it completely in half.
- Carefully remove the knife and set it aside. Then use your hands to open the two sides of the breast, like you would open a book.
After you butterfly them, be sure that each breast has an even thickness. This ensures that the meat cooks evenly. If you need to make them thinner, pound them down using the flat side of a meat mallet.
what to serve with this recipe
This Chicken Pasta is delicious paired with these side dishes:
- Salad – To add more citrusy flavor, you could serve a kale salad with lemon dressing. Otherwise, a healthy kale quinoa salad would be delicious!
- Bread – Crusty Baguette or Artisan Bread
- Vegetables – We like to make asparagus in the oven while everything else is cooking on the stove, but roasted Brussels sprouts with Parmesan is another delicious choice.
- Wine – We recommend serving white wine with chicken and pasta dishes like this one. Pinot Grigio is our favorite.
storing and reheating leftovers
This chicken and pasta dish is best eaten on the day it’s made. The lemon sauce can separate if refrigerated and reheated, and while it will still taste good, it will have a slightly different texture.
Storing: Leftovers of lemon chicken pasta will last in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Be sure to keep them in an airtight container.
Freezing: We don’t recommend freezing dishes with cooked pasta in them, because it can get very mushy when thawed and reheated.
Reheating: You can reheat leftovers in the microwave or on the stove. If reheating on the stove, add a little bit of oil to the pan. You can also add some chicken broth if the pasta seems dry.
Other healthy dinner recipes:
Looking for other easy meals? Check out these 40+ Healthy Dinner Recipes. Click here to grab our free healthy 30 minute dinners cookbook.
Lemon Chicken Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil divided
- ½ pound dry spaghetti pasta
- ½ cup diced yellow onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- ⅓ cup lemon juice
- 3 cups arugula
- ½ cup grated Parmesan
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Place the chicken in between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound with a meat mallet until ⅓ inch thick. Season the chicken with the pepper and salt.
- In a large sauté pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium-high heat.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta.
- Add the chicken to the pan with the olive oil. Cook for 6 minutes over medium-high heat. Flip and sear for an additional 6 minutes or until the chicken is golden brown on both sides.
- While the chicken cooks, cook the spaghetti to al dente according to the directions on the package.
- Reserve ½ cup of the starchy pasta water before draining.
- Once the chicken is browned, remove from the pan and set aside on a plate. Add the remaining olive oil to the same pan used to sear the chicken. The brown bits in the pan will add more flavor to the sauce, so no need to clean the pan!
- Turn the heat down to low and add the onion and garlic to the pan. Sauté for 3 minutes until fragrant and translucent.
- Once the onions and garlic are cooked, turn off the heat on the stove.
- Add lemon zest, lemon juice, and reserved pasta water to the pan with the onions and garlic. Stir together. The oil from the pan and starchy pasta water will begin to form a sauce that will thicken.
- Add the spaghetti to the sauce and stir to coat in the sauce.
- Add the arugula and Parmesan to the pasta. Stir to combine.
- Slice chicken and add to the spaghetti. Garnish with the parsley and enjoy!
Notes
- Make sure to butterfly the chicken breasts, and pound them down to an even thickness before pan searing
- Your oil should be hot before adding chicken to the pan
- Reserve some of the pasta cooking water before draining the bucatini.
- Storage: This will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Easy and extremely delicious! This will definitely be in our rotation.
A hit with the entire family, and super easy to make. It’s also delicious reheated, a couple of days later!
The recipe was easy and delicious. Big hit with my picky family. Thank you!
I can’t wait to try this recipe, Thank you.