I’m so excited to share this new one-pot recipe with you! This One-Pot Cajun Chicken and Sausage Alfredo is one of our new favorite meals. It is so simple to make and absolutely packed with flavor. Tender chunks of chicken with smoky pieces of sausage in a rich and delicious homemade alfredo sauce. This meal serves a crowd but takes less than 30 minutes to make. You can divide this recipe in half to serve a smaller group too, just keep all the cooking times the same. I like the big batch though. The leftovers were amazing.
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Find the Instant Pot version of this recipe here Instant Pot Pasta Cajun Chicken Alfredo.
If you love one-pot meals as much as I do, you can check out all of my one-pot recipes here.
Let’s get started! In a large pot, make sure you have a lid that fits:0), heat olive oil over medium high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper and add to pot. Once chicken has started to brown, stir in smoked sausage and let brown as well. Then stir in fresh garlic, I like to save the garlic and add it in this step, so it doesn’t burn in the pan while the chicken and sausage are cooking.
Add chicken broth, heavy cream, uncooked pasta and cajun seasoning to pot and bring to a simmer. For the best consistency and results, make sure to use heavy cream versus whipping cream or light cream.
Once the pot is simmering, cover and turn heat to low. Let cook covered for 15-20 minutes, just until pasta is tender.
Remove pot from heat and stir in freshly grated parmesan cheese. I grate my parmesan using a microplane so it melts smoothly into the sauce. If you use store-bought shredded cheese, you may have to adjust and use less in the recipe. Pre shredded cheese has additives that keep the shreds from sticking together in the bag or container and those tend to over thicken the sauce or keep the cheese from melting smoothly.
Stir in freshly chopped flat leaf parsley and sprinkle with additional seasoning to taste.
You are going to love this rich and flavorful pasta! It’s one of our new favorites. For leftovers, reheat slowly over a low flame and add more chicken broth and cream as needed to keep sauce from separating.
One Pot Cajun Chicken Alfredo Pasta
- 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pound of chicken cut into bite sized pieces
- 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 14 oz smoked sausage sliced on the diagonal
- 4 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 quart of low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 1/2 cups of heavy cream
- 1 pound of dried penne pasta
- 1 1/2 tablespoons of Cajun seasoning plus more for topping
- 4 oz of freshly shredded parmesan cheese
- 1 cup of Italian flat leaf parsley minced
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Start with a large covered cooking pot.
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Season chicken with salt and pepper and brown in olive oil over medium high heat.
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Add sausage and continue to cook until lightly browned.
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Stir in garlic and cook for for about two minutes.
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Add chicken broth, heavy cream, dried pasta and cajun seasoning to pot.
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Stir together and bring to a simmer over medium high heat.
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Reduce heat to low and let cook covered for 15-20 minutes, or until pasta is tender.
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Remove pot from heat and stir in parmesan cheese.
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Stir in chopped parsley and sprinkle with additional cajun seasoning to taste.
This recipe is adapted from my reader favorite One Pan Chicken Alfredo!
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See my one-pot recipe here:
More easy dinner recipes here:
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Looks and sounds wonderful!
Thanks, Kathy!!!
Oh yummy!! This looks amazing!
Thanks Melissa! First I had found your One-Pan Chicken Burrito Bowls. And it was wonderful. So I came back for more! Last week this one. It was awesome! My family loved it. After I had already started cooking tho, I realized that I no longer had any cajun spice….but I did have my homemade version of Emeril’s Essence (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/emerils-essence-recipe.html), so I used that instead. It worked perfectly. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I’ll be back for more! 🙂
Made this recipe for my husband tonight and he loved it. Very flavorful and quick to make!
I’m so glad! Thanks for taking the time to let me know!
My fiance and I made this recipe tonight for dinner. It was delicious! This dish has so much flavor and was perfect on a cold winter night like tonight! Thanks, we will definitely be making this one again in the future.
I had to make dinner for 40 high school robotics students and coaches, and I found this recipe. I quadrupled the recipe and then made one version without meat for the vegetarians of the group. My husband cut the chicken the night before and I sliced the sausage, so on cook day it was simply follow the recipe. Turned out great. They all loved it. And it was super easy (wasn’t one pot for that many… but only 3 pots! :-).
That sounds wonderful! That’s an impressive feed:0)
Great Stuart and review!
Wow! This was truly amazing! I made this last night and it was full of flavor. I kicked it up a bit and added a few dashes of cayenne. Great recipe!
the chicken alfredo was the bomb I added shrimp & cajin Greek seasoning
This was excellent! Halved it to serve 3 and we had a little left over. Very flavorful with just the right amount of kick! Def use the freshly grated (microplanned) parm. It melts smooth into the final dish 🙂
I will be trying this tonight. I have a potluck tomorrow with my truck/merchandise team. So praying that it will work.
I tried this tonight and it was delicious. I didn’t need to add any salt to the chicken as the sausage and Parm are already highly salty. I’m so happy I came upon this post. I’m definitely trying out your other one pot meal recipes. Thanks a bunch!
OMGoodness! I made this tonight! My family loves it!👍
Hello,
What will happen if use heavy whipping cream instead heavy cream?
Thank You
Any type of heavy cream should work!
Every time I make the dish the sauce is super soupy and just liquid. What am I doing wrong? We love the dish and the flavors though
Hi Samantha!
I’ve notice that some creams, like whipping cream are not as thick as heavy cream. When I pour the heavy cream, you can see how thick it is. If you are using frozen chicken, it may be letting off extra water into the pan when it cooks. Are you making any changes to the recipe?
I added 4 oz of cream cheese and a teaspoon of cornstarch into a splash of cream and mixed it in. Turned out perfect after that.
Thanks very much for this recipe! I’ve made it a few times now using your recipe, and it’s always delicious and seems pretty fool-proof. I had a similar dish at a restaurant and loved it, and was looking to recreate it – this fulfills my craving!
I stopped adding the salt after the first try, as I was using regular chicken stock and it was much too salty. I always use andouille sausage as it’s my favorite. Delish!
Since nobody ever leaves reviews of a recipe they found online AS IS, here it is. I made this recipe without substitution or addition to any ingredients and it is fantastic. There’s a restaurant not far from my house that has rattlesnake pasta on the menu and it’s one of the best dishes they serve. This very much reminds me of that dish.
My household is highly skeptical of a recipe requiring the pasta to be baked directly into the dish with other ingredients. For whatever reason, they just don’t believe it works. Well, this was a major crowd pleaser. My mother, who barely eats anything, went back for seconds and had leftovers for lunch the next day.
People. Don’t fuss with substitutions. Try the recipe as is — there is a reason it was made that way and the reason is that it’s absolutely spectacular!
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment, Alyssa! I’m so glad your family liked it!
Can you use water instead if you don’t have chicken broth ?
I would not recommend using water, you will lose so much flavor.
I made this for dinner tonight and everyone loved it! A top notch recipe! 🙂
Made this tonight! Everyone loved it. Thank u
I absolutely loved the flavor of this dish (so does the hubby!). The only issue is that my sauce came up thin. I’m not sure if it’s becayse I used heavy whipping cream? I saw you said to use heavy cream but I didn’t see any cartons labelled as just “heavy cream”. They only had heavy whipping cream. Ito till delicious though and we’re going to eat it. I tthink I’ll just reduce the liquids next time and grate the cheese instead of store bought. 🙂
Cut the amount of heavy whipping cream by 1/4 cup and add milk. Came out perfect. I have made the as is recipe as well, but this sub works in a pinch when you have to sub. I live in Japan and its not easy to get exact ingredients here.
Tried this tonight – it was an absolute winner with everyone – even the kids!
Made this tonight but didn’t have any penne pasta. Or anything similar so I broke linguini in half. It works ok but I wouldn’t recommend it. The flavor was good, though. I’ll definitely make it again with the correct pasta
Try it with bowtie pasta
I have made this several times since I found the recipe. It is really good! I cooked some shrimp in cajun seasoning and added it on top after I plated it. Family really enjoyed this!
What kind of Cajun seasoning would you recommend? Just trying to find the ones that seem to be the best flavor! Thank you!!!
Hi Heather!
I used McCormick Gourmet Cajun Seasoning in this recipe! Hope that helps!
Thank you so much! I will have to give that one a try 😉
Made this for dinner tonight. Was absolutely delicious!!
Made it for dinner. SO Easy, tastes great, and quick to make! No fuss recipe, I like!
This was so flavorful! It pleased the spicy lovers in my family. It’s rare to find a recipe that is delicious the first time you make it following all directions exactly. Thanks for such a good one!
I made this to bring to a Cajun-themed potluck. After seeing so many comments here about how easy it was to make, I figured I’d give it a try. Ya’ll don’t lie – super easy and a HUGE HIT with the crowd! Definitely adding this into my regular dinner rotation at home. Thank you! (FYI – the grocery store I went to didn’t have Heavy Cream, only Heavy Whipping Cream. Seeing people’s comments that the sauce would be thinner, I decided to double the cheese to help thicken it up. So that might be a good work-around if you only find whipping cream.)
This is a great recipe which my son asks for at least once a week! I swapped the chicken for shrimp and cut the amount of pasta, heavy cream, and chicken broth in half and added some onion while cooking the sausage!
Sounds delicious!
Made this for my hubby ans he absolutely loved it 💙💙 thank you !! I did too 😀
Oh my gosh this was so good!!!!
Thank you so much for a great recipe!
Anne
Your one pot Cajun chicken Alfredo was very easy to make and is now one of our favourite dishes. Please keep your recipes coming.
Thanks, Vikki!
This is one of my go-to recipes – we have it at least once every couple weeks. It’s so simple but tastes absolutely amazing. My husband could eat the whole pot himself!
I made this recipe for my husband tonight and we loved it! I used turkey sausage to make it just a tad bit healthier and it was great.
This recipe was DELICIOUS! My husband was really impressed and even my picky toddler ate the noodles and sauce. Very few recipes I find on Pinterest make it into my permanent recipe book but this one is a keeper- impressive enough to serve company yet soooo easy! Thank you! I can’t wait to try some more of your one-pot recipes 🙂
This turned out really good! I think you know my niece Meghan Hoetker. Congratulations on your successful blog.
I made this dish and loved it. Tweaked it a bit though. Used turkey sausage and threw in some fresh baby spinach. Thank you for the recipe.
Made this last night and the entire family loved it. Thank you very much for sharing the recipe.
I am going to make this but kind of wanted to add a vegetable to it… I was thinking red and orange bell peppers diced???
What do you think?
This is a fantastic recipe and my 14 year old son is a big fan of this dish! I substituted shrimp for the sausage and it was tasty! I even added some broccoli!
Sounds delicious!
My husband and I absolutely love this! This is one of our favorite meals, so it gets made a lot!
Do you happen to have any nutrition facts on this meal?
Thanks!
This was delicious. We had this for dinner one night and my husband and son LOVED it!!!
That’s great! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment!
I’ve made this recipes a bunch of times and love it.. now that it’s getting hot out I’m wondering if it can be tweaked for a crock pot…. any suggestions??
This is becoming a staple in my house 🙂 Thanks so much! I needed a different meat other than the basics and something quick. Love it!
Awesome! Thank you so much!
Wow…. it was great. I did add broccoli and shrimp but that was my only alteration. Thank you much – my whole house loved it