This Olive Garden copycat recipe for Chicken Alfredo is an easy pasta dinner and a delicious choice for dinner that the whole family will love. It’s creamy comfort food and is ready in just 15 minutes! The most time-consuming part is boiling the water! Alfredo sauce only takes about five minutes to make!
Jump to Recipe
Olive Garden Chicken Alfredo is one of my best friend’s restaurant favorites – so we’ve been eating it on a regular basis for about 30 years! This homemade sauce combines simple, fresh ingredients like butter, cream and parmesan cheese to make a rich topping to fettuccine pasta. Then it is topped with tender, sliced chicken.
What’s in Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce Recipe?
This is one of my favorite recipes! The OG Alfredo is one of my favorite creamy sauces you’ll ever try and is definitely the best alfredo sauce I’ve ever had!
- 2 Italian marinated boneless chicken breast
- my Kroger sells pre-marinated Italian chicken breasts for 2 for $5 – bargain!
- 1/2 lb fettuccini noodles
- 6 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- you can use fresh garlic or the jarred kind
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1.5 cup whipping cream
- 1.5 cup 2% milk
- 1 cup Parmesan (or Romano cheese) grated
Is Olive Garden Alfredo sauce vegan or vegetarian?
There’s no egg in Olive Garden Alfredo but let me tell you it’s a dairy-lovers dream with butter, milk, cream and cheese! There’s also a little flour and garlic – and that’s it! Because there is a little flour in it though, it’s not gluten free. In the end, it is vegetarian but not vegan.
How do you make Copycat Olive Garden Chicken Alfredo recipe?
- Cook pasta according to package directions
- While water is boiling, cook boneless skinless chicken breasts.
- I air fry chicken breasts at 360 degrees for 12 minutes.
- You can also cook chicken on a cast-iron grill pan with olive oil. (but trust me – the air fryer is THE BEST WAY to cook chicken!)
- When there is five min left on pasta, in a non-stick skillet over medium heat, add butter to pan.
- Once butter melts, add garlic to the pan.
- Cook for 1 minute, stirring occasionally
- Whisk flour into butter & garlic
- Quickly add in cream, milk and cheese and adjust temperature to low heat
- Whisk frequently until sauce simmers and remove from heat
- Drain pasta when done
- Remove chicken from air fryer and let rest for five minutes. Then slice.
- Add cooked pasta to alfredo and toss lightly.
- Place coated pasta in a large serving bowl
- Top bowl of pasta with sliced chicken.
- Serve and sprinkle top of the chicken with parmesan cheese and parsley
Technically – sure – but the sauce “breaks” and separates when you reheat. So you can – if you just have 1-2 portions but definitely don’t make a full batch of alfredo sauce and freeze. You can make this homemade alfredo sauce in less than 10 minutes – it’s not a time saver to freeze it.
You can use any of the following: 2%, whole milk, half and half or cream – I like to balance it out. The more cream – the thicker. The more 2% – the thinner your sauce will be. If you’re JUST using 2% – you’ll have a fairly thin sauce and need to add more butter, cheese, flour. I recommend at least half and half because I like a rich sauce
Fettuccine is obviously a natural choice – but you can pretty much use any pasta. This easy alfredo sauce is a little heavy for angel hair – so you’d want to make a fairly thin sauce if using angel hair.
I like to air fry the chicken – I use pre-marinated chicken breasts and pop them in the air fryer for 12 minutes at 360. They come out juicy and perfect. You can also grill the chicken or pan sear it. I feel like the air fryer makes the juiciest chicken.
What to serve with Olive Garden Alfredo
Most Popular Olive Garden Recipes
Some folks might mock the OG – but it’s one of my favorite restaurant chain places!
More pasta recipes
Copycat Olive Garden Chicken Alfredo
Ingredients
- 2 Italian marinated chicken breasts
- 1/2 lb fettuccini
- 6 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1.5 cup whipping cream
- 1.5 cup 2% milk
- 1 cup Parmesan (or Romano) grated
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions1/2 lb fettuccini
- While water is boiling, start chicken. I use air fryer at 360 for 12 minutes. You can also pan sear on medium heat or grill.2 Italian marinated chicken breasts
- When there is five min left on pasta, in a non-stick skillet over medium heat, add butter to pan. Once melted, add garlic to the pan.6 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp garlic
- Cook for 1 minute, stirring occasionally
- Whisk in flour2 tbsp flour
- Quickly add in cream, milk and cheese.1.5 cup whipping cream, 1.5 cup 2% milk, 1 cup Parmesan (or Romano)
- Whisk frequently until sauce simmers and remove from heat
- Drain pasta when done
- Remove chicken from air fryer and let rest for five minutes. Then slice.
- Add cooked pasta to alfredo and toss lightly. Top with sliced chicken.
- Serve and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and parsley
Pam says
My daughter loves the Fettucini Alfredo from Olive Garden so I will definitely be trying this recipe!
Gwynn Galvin says
This recipe is delicious. My family loved it!
Kim at Three Olives Branch says
So yummy! I love how fast and easy it is to make, and everyone loves it!
Kate says
Perfect Italian-style cooking – simple and good quality ingredients put together into a gorgeous dish. Delicious!
Andrea says
One of my families favorites. They will be extremely happy when I make this for them.
FoodHussy says
i guarantee it!
Beth says
My son is so obsessed with their Alfredo noodles! Can’t wait to make this recipe again soon! So yummy and very tasty! So glad I can make this at home now!