Things I’m always looking for in a recipe are that it’s tasty as well as quick and easy. And that means tasty to my husband and me since I’m cooking for two. I’m the kind of person who will try most anything and has a short list of foods I hate. My husband is, well, not—but he is usually a good sport about trying things for the blog. Sometimes too good because he won’t tell me he isn’t crazy about a recipe until I make it a few times. I know, frustrating! But this 30-minute Creamy Cilantro-Lime Chicken Pasta sounds like something we will both enjoy. Let’s find out!
Chicken Pasta with Creamy Cilantro-Lime Alfredo Sauce – delicious spaghetti in a creamy white cheese sauce with lots of flavor! Easy to make: only 30 minutes from start to finish!
The Ingredients
The ingredients for this Alfredo-like recipe definitely qualify for easy. I had to buy almost all of them, and nothing was difficult to find at my regular grocery store.
But one thing I have to reveal here is that my husband doesn’t care for Alfredo sauce. I know, after all that stuff about making things we both like. But it’s the Parmesan he doesn’t really like, and this recipe gives the option to use mozzarella cheese instead.
That’s exactly what I did since he loves mozzarella. I bought shredded mozzarella for two reasons. One, it’s impossible to shred fresh mozzarella. And two, buying it shredded cuts down on prep time. You know I’m all for that!
The Process
After reading this recipe over I decided to change up the order. I moved making the pasta up from Step 4 to the very beginning. In fact, I put the water on to heat while I prepped the rest of the ingredients. I wanted to make sure it was boiling when I needed it to be.
Next, I measured out the ingredients and heated the olive oil in a large skillet while I prepped the chicken. There was a quick moment when I was unsure how to slice the chicken. For some reason, my mind went to a chicken cutlet. That seemed off, and a quick check of the photos in the blog post proved me right.
I discovered the chicken needed to be sliced into strips (I’m glad I checked!). The next steps were seasoning and cooking it in the preheated skillet for 5 minutes. Tip: Cutting the chicken into thin strips ensured it gets fully cooked within the allotted time—there is no additional cooking later in the recipe.
The sauce is next, and it went together nicely. I did notice there was a lot of liquid left over from cooking the chicken, though. Perhaps I didn’t have the heat high enough for that step? But all that liquid kept the garlic from burning, so maybe it wasn’t a bad thing.
The rest of the sauce went according to the instructions. I cooked and drained the pasta while cooking the rest, so it was ready to add to the pan when I needed it. I even remembered to reserve some of the pasta water, but the sauce was creamy enough without it.
Timing
Here’s how my time was spent making this Creamy Cilantro-Lime Chicken Pasta:
- 7 minutes to prep
- 18 minutes to cook
- 25 minutes total
The recipe listed a total of 30 minutes, and I managed to save 5 minutes somewhere. I’m guessing it was making the pasta part of the prep work.
