These One Pot Creamy Garlic Noodles are as easy as they are delicious! No creams or large amounts of butter, making this meal a winner all-around!
One Pot Creamy Garlic Noodles
These one pot (well.. technically one “pan”) creamy garlic noodles are a HUGE hit with my family. We have made them at least once a month for the last several months using all sorts of variations. My kids are crazy about them and request them all the time (and I am happy to oblige because they are SO easy)! This recipe doesn’t use heavy cream or large amounts of butter, but it tastes JUST as good as recipes that do. Cooking the noodles in the chicken broth and milk is like magic. No draining and only ONE POT to clean! A total win-win.
What noodles are best?
For this recipe we like to use linguini noodles. They are thick enough to absorb the sauce without getting too heavy. You could also use spaghetti noodles, fettuccini noodles, or even egg noodles. Bowtie pasta or rotini would be fun to try as well. Try to avoid anything thinner than spaghetti. They will cook way too fast and then get clumpy. No matter what noodle you use, keep checking it until it’s cooked through. You can’t really go by package directions because it is being simmered at a lower heat.
Adding Chicken
To make this a full meal, just add a little chicken. I love adding grilled chicken but you can add baked, shredded, or pan-fried. To keep it a true “one pot” meal, pan frying the chicken is the way to go. First, season the chicken with Italian seasoning and cook it up in the same skillet you want to cook the noodles in (before cooking the noodles). Then, sauté the chicken until it is cooked most of the way through and remove from the pan, place on a plate, and cover. Wipe the pan out (be careful because the pan will be hot) and make the noodles as per the recipe below. Lastly, add the chicken after a few minutes into the noodles simmering and follow the rest of the recipe as directed.
Adding Vegetables
If you want to add vegetables, add them 10 minutes or so before serving. You can add veggies like broccoli, peas, asparagus… you get the picture. You can make these noodles as a full meal or as an easy side dish — totally up to you!
More Add In Possibilities:
- Cooked garlic shrimp (I like using the garlic shrimp from this recipe)
- Rotisserie chicken
- Smoked sausage
- Peas
- Sautéed mushrooms
- Roasted vegetables
Tips For Making Garlic Noodles
- Keep it to a simmer – If you cook these on too high of a heat, the noodles will cook too fast and won’t absorb the liquid as well
- Add liquid – if you noodles look like they are getting too thick, just keep adding a splash or milk of broth to keep the consistency
- Add other flavors – Boost the flavor by adding cajun seasoning, oregano, Italian seasoning, or lemon pepper
Love One-Pot meals?
Try these delicious One-Pot recipes!
- Chicken Teriyaki Bowls: Chicken, vegetables, and rice cooked in a delicious teriyaki sauce.
- One Pot Jambalaya Pasta: All of the flavors and seasonings of Jambalaya combined with pasta.
- One Pot Thai Peanut Pasta: This features shrimp or chicken, noodles, vegetables, seasonings, and peanuts all cooked together in a light, creamy peanut sauce.
- Creamy One Pot Tortellini with Sausage: A flavorful meal that can be made in under 30 minutes. The sauce is amazing!
How to make One Pot Creamy Garlic Noodles
One Pot Creamy Garlic Noodles
Ingredients
- 4 Tbsp. butter divided
- 4-5 cloves garlic minced
- 28 oz chicken broth (3 ¾ cups)
- 2 1/2 c. milk add more if needed
- 1 lb. linguini
- kosher salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 tsp. basil
- 2/3 c. Parmesan cheese
- 4 c. broccoli optional
- 2 chicken breasts grilled and cut into strips (optional. See notes above on how to make chicken part of the “one-pot” meal if you don’t want to grill)
Instructions
- In a large, 5-6 quart skillet, heat 2 Tbsp. butter over medium heat. If you don’t have a large skillet, a stock-pot works well, too. Add garlic and cook for about a minute.
- Add chicken broth, milk, remaining 2 Tbsp. butter, pasta noodles, salt and pepper, and basil. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
- Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer stirring occasionally for 16-20 minutes or until noodles have cooked through. If you are wanting to add broccoli, add it after about 10 minutes into the simmering process.
- Stir in Parmesan when noodles are finished cooking and add a little milk if necessary if necessary to reach your desired consistency.
Video
Nutrition Information
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We added about 5 cups total of asparagus and broccoli. Really tasty. Thanks for such an easy one-pot recipe.
This recipe is AMAZING!!! I put the chicken and broccoli in, and all I changed was adding a bit more basil, and some Italian seasoning and i seasoned the chicken with complete seasoning when I cooked it. Will definitely be making this again, and adding shrimp instead. Absolutely delicious meal. My entire family loved it! Thank you for sharing!!
Fantastic recipe! Easy to make and absolutely delicious. It’s rare to find an online recipe that I’m willing to hand write in my recipe book, but this one made the cut. My kids loved it too.
I gotta thank you for this, with recent unrest here in South Africa I really didn’t want to stand in queues by the shops that are still open, to *maybe* get some stuff, so all I had was spices, old stock, noodles, milk and two cloves of garlic at home. I don’t normally cook so I was doubly stumped on what to do for lunch.
I don’t have any veggies or protien to go with it, but hey, at least I now have something decent-tasting and edible!
Google led me here 🙂
I didn’t have everything for this recipe, but I made it work with what I had, didn’t spend a CENT, and it tasted amazing! Just like a Michelinis microwavable dinner but SO much better! Love this and I’ll definitely be doing it over and over again. Stock cubes can be used too- just remember to prepare your stock before hand!
So easy and so flavorful! We opted to roast our broccoli, and put our chicken on top. It was delicious. Thanks for the recipe!
Made this tonight with a side of baked salmon. Excellent!
This was an easy and quick weeknight meal! Used spaghetti and ground chicken (because they were what I had on hand) along with broccoli. Based on certain reviews about excess liquid at the end, I reduced the chicken stock by about 1/2 c and I used a mixture of milk and heavy cream. Turned out very creamy and delicious! Next time I will bump up my seasonings but would definitely make again. Thank you for the recipe!
So , easy ! Loved it !
This was absolutely delicious! I was a little skeptical about all the liquid and no step to drain it but I stuck to the recipe and it was perfect! It wasn’t thick and heavy like other similar recipes. Happy husband. Happy toddler. Happy mom! Gonna try the One Pot Thai Peanut Pasta next! Thanks for sharing your recipes!
What other pastas could work well with this recipe?
I think you could do it with any shape of pasta!
Just cooked this tonight. Love the flavours. Only thing I found was the sauce didn’t thicken much and my pasta cooked way too quick for it to be simmered for 20 minutes. Other than that, this was delicious and my got the tick of approval from my husband. Will definitely be making this again!
This is a “skinny” recipe ??
It depends on what kind of diet you are following. It doesn’t have heavy cream like most creamy pastas have – so that helps!
This sounds so easy and delicious! I will try it by grilling the chicken first time I make it but then in colder months maybe I will do it all in one pan (when you don’t feel like removing all the snow from the grill haha!) I am sure it is good either way tho 🙂
It is so good no matter how you make it! Definitely love it with the grilled chicken this time of year though, so good!
Does the lid stay on after you add the Broccoli ? Do not want it too watery so thought I would check.
Actually, I don’t use a lid at all for this recipe. I let it simmer uncovered so it doesn’t get watery and the sauce gets nice and thick. Hope this helps!
Just made this recipe. My husband said, “I wish everything you cooked off Pinterest tasted this good.” Enough said 😊
Wow! What a compliment! Thank you (and your husband)! 😀
How many calories is this meal??
We don’t have calorie counts on our site yet but you can plug the recipe into a nutrition calculator online and you should be able to find it easily. Hope this helps!
Hi. So, I really was hoping this would be yummy, but I something went wrong. I made it the same as the video, but the milk or the cheese curdled. 🙁 and the broccoli took forever to cook and the pasta got overcooked. Sad times over here.
Oh no! I don’t know what could have gone wrong. The milk will separate if it gets too hot. It only needs to be at a low simmer. I’m not sure why the broccoli took so long. Were you able to access the recipe and follow the instructions there or could you just access the video?