This easy penne pasta recipe with pan-seared chicken breast, jammy caramelized onions, rosemary, and blue cheese is full of sweet savory flavors I just can’t get enough of.
Pasta is one of those dishes I could eat just about every day and never grow tired of, especially when it’s a pasta dish that’s somehow light and filling at the same time. I love dishes like chicken piccata pasta, pesto pasta with balsamic chicken, and Mediterranean tuna pasta that fill you up without weighing you down. I love this penne pasta with chicken, caramelized onion, and blue cheese because it’s perfect for any time of year, and it’s full of amazing sweet and savory flavors without employing a long list of ingredients. Sweet, jammy caramelized onions and garlicky pan-seared chicken breast are at the base. Fresh rosemary gently perfumes the penne pasta with a warm aroma and fresh crumbles of blue cheese add a subtle tangy punch that ties everything together. I love it exactly as is, but some toasted walnuts or mushrooms would also be lovely additions and you could easily skip the meat to make this vegetarian.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- This penne pasta is loaded with sweet, savory, and herbaceous flavors, using minimal ingredients
- It’s super warm, hearty, and satisfying
- This penna pasta is super adaptable and can easily be made vegetarian
What’s in This Penne Pasta
- Extra-Virgin Olive Oil—for sautéing everything
- Butter—I like doing a combo of olive oil and butter for flavor but also because when working together, they have the best smoke point
- Yellow onions—we’ll caramelize them until sweet and jammy, and this will serve as the base for this pasta’s savory, sauce
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper—always, for flavor
- Chicken breasts—I use boneless skinless
- Rosemary—use fresh for the best flavor!
- Garlic—fresh garlic gives the pasta sauce so much awesome flavor
- Penne pasta—you could really use any pasta you like, but I like penne, rigatoni, or bowties best for this particular recipe
- Blue cheese—it doesn’t have to be fancy, but use a nice blue cheese, and don’t buy the pre-crumbled stuff (it’s not as fresh or as creamy)
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
How to Make This Penne Pasta
- Caramelized the onions. Add the butter and olive oil to a large skillet. Once hot, Add the onions and cook for about 25 minutes or until nicely caramelized, stirring frequently to make sure they don’t burn. Set them aside while you cook the chicken.
- Brown the chicken. Butterfly the chicken breasts, slicing in half horizontally to make 4 cutlets (having thinner cutlets will allow them to cook faster and more evenly). Add more butter and oil to the skillet, season the chicken with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and cook until golden, about 5 minutes. Flip the chicken and cook for another 3 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
- Add the aromatics. Add the chopped rosemary and garlic and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Remove the chicken from the pan and slice.
- Cook the penne until al dente. Meanwhile, in a large pot filled with 3 quarts of water and 1 tablespoon of kosher salt, cook the penne until just done, about 12 minutes.
- Make the pasta sauce and toss everything together. Reserve ¼ cup of the pasta water then drain the pasta. Add the pasta to the skillet with the sliced chicken and its juices, cooked onions, ¼ cup pasta water, and blue cheese. If the pasta seems dry, add more of the reserved pasta water. Add more salt and pepper to taste.
Recipe Tips
- This salt-to-water ratio for cooking the pasta helps the pasta impart more gluten into the cooking water, yielding a thicker sauce.
- Be sure to cook the pasta just shy of being done before you add it to the sauce since it will cook further (you want it to cook more in the sauce so it absorbs more of the sauce’s awesome flavor).
- Add more pasta water as needed to achieve the right consistency of the sauce (I like to add it gradually because you can always add more, but can’t take it out).
Ingredient Substitutions
- Try a different noodle (preferably a shorter one, such as rigatoni, fusilli, or bowties)
- Swap the rosemary for fresh tarragon or thyme
- Skip the chicken to make this vegetarian
- Add cremini mushrooms
- Instead of blue cheese, try goat cheese or grated Parmesan
- Chopped toasted walnuts would be a yummy addition as well
Storage Tips
This penne pasta will keep stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 3 days. I don’t recommend freezing this pasta.
What to Serve With This Penne Pasta
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating below, leave a comment to tell us what you think, and tag me on Instagram @foodiecrush.
