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If you love buffalo chicken and high-protein pasta, then you’ll love this high protein Buffalo Chicken Pasta! This spicy and creamy meal comes together in one pot and tastes delicious!
Create a high protein pasta dinner that is spicy, tangy, and easy to make. It tastes like your favorite dip, but has some added protein from cottage cheese in the sauce. Everyone will love having this pasta for dinner, especially if there are leftovers for lunch the next day too!
If you like easy pasta dinner recipes, you will love my Healthy Taco Pasta and High Protein Chili Mac!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- One-Pot Pasta Meal: After a busy day, there’s nothing worse than having to wash a ton of dishes after dinner! This buffalo chicken pasta recipe only uses one skillet, so clean up is a breeze!
- Perfect for Buffalo Chicken Fans: I love anything buffalo chicken, so this pasta was automatically a winner for me! It has all of the flavors of the classic dip, but is served with pasta for a filling meal. Try these buffalo chicken meatballs too!
- More Protein Than Your Average Pasta: If you’re looking to add more protein to your meals, this pasta dish is perfect! It uses cottage cheese in the sauce, which adds up to 12 grams of protein.
Table of Contents
Ingredients
- Chicken Breast: This recipe calls for a pound of skinless, boneless chicken breast cut into ½” cubes. You could also use leftover shredded chicken in the Instant Pot or rotisserie chicken to save time.
- Penne Pasta: I used penne pasta for this recipe, but you could use bowtie, rotini, or elbow pasta too.
- Chicken Broth: Use a low-sodium chicken broth to cook the pasta and incorporate some more flavor into the dish.
- Cottage Cheese: Blend the cottage cheese until it’s smooth and stir it into the sauce for some extra protein.
- Hot Sauce: You can’t make a buffalo dish without hot sauce! Use your favorite hot sauce to give this pasta its spicy kick.
- Worcestershire Sauce: A splash of Worcestershire sauce adds additional umami flavor to the spicy sauce.
- Monterey Jack Cheese: Use a reduced-fat monterrey jack cheese, or another light, mild cheese for this recipe.
See the recipe card below for exact ingredient amounts, nutritional information, and detailed instructions.
Variations & Dietary Modifications
- Make It Gluten-Free: You can easily make this dish gluten-free by using gluten-free pasta. You could also prepare zucchini noodles separately or use cooked spaghetti squash and serve the sauce over the veggie noodles.
- Use a Different Meat: If you don’t have leftover chicken and don’t feel like cutting up chicken breasts, you can also use ground chicken in this recipe. Ground turkey is also lean and tastes amazing with buffalo sauce.
- Add Veggies: Get more vegetables in your dinner and add spinach, zucchini, or mushrooms to your sauce.
How to Make Buffalo Chicken Pasta
This cottage cheese buffalo chicken pasta is an easy and protein-packed dinner for a busy weeknight. It all comes together in one pan, and the most time-consuming part is chopping the chicken!
- Step 1: Season the Chicken. Toss the chopped chicken with the garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and salt to coat it. While you season the chicken, heat olive oil in a large, deep skillet over medium heat.
- Step 2: Cook the Chicken. Add the chicken to the preheated skillet and brown it on all sides. It doesn’t need to be cooked all the way through, just seared on the outside.
Step 3: Add the Pasta, Tomatoes, and Broth. Add the penne, diced tomatoes, including the liquid, and broth to the skillet. Stir to combine everything and scrape the browned bits of chicken from the bottom of the pan.
Step 4: Cook the Pasta. Cover the skillet with a lid and increase the heat to high until the sauce begins to simmer. Cook until most of the liquid is absorbed. Be sure to stir it once or twice while cooking, but mostly keep it covered. After the pasta is cooked to al dente, reduce the heat to medium-low, then stir in the blended cottage cheese, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. Cook for an additional 5 minutes.
Step 5: Add Shredded Cheese. Add the shredded cheese.
Step 6: Add Shredded Cheese. Stir until the cheese melts completely. Then top the finished pasta with sliced green onions before serving with this low-calorie coleslaw. It’s a great way to get in some extra veggies and cool the heat of the pasta sauce without feeling too full.
Expert Tips
- Shred Your Own Cheese: While grabbing a bag of pre-shredded cheese is easier, it’s worth it to shred your own cheese. It melts more evenly, isn’t as grainy when it melts, and tastes better!
- Reduce the Heat When Adding the Cheese: You have to reduce the heat and stop simmering the sauce before you mix in the cottage cheese, or it will curdle and give the sauce a grainy texture.
- Storing and Heating Leftovers: Keep leftover pasta in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Reheat leftovers in the microwave in 60-second increments, stirring between intervals to ensure even heating.
Serving Suggestions
This easy buffalo chicken pasta is the perfect busy weeknight meal! Just chop your chicken, then cook everything in one pan for less than 30 minutes. It’s creamy, spicy, and tastes just like your favorite dip. The cottage cheese adds a lot of protein to the sauce, so it’s sure to fill you up. It also tastes even better the next day for leftovers!
- You can never go wrong with pairing a salad with pasta. Try this one with greens tossed with some low-calorie Caesar dressing to complement the spicy flavor with a cool, creamy dressing.
- Don’t forget dessert! I really love this chocolate avocado pudding after a spicy meal.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, you can make the buffalo chicken in the crockpot, like in my crockpot buffalo chicken recipe, but I don’t recommend cooking pasta in the crockpot, as it may turn gummy or mushy. For the best results, cook the pasta separately and stir it in towards the end of cooking, and cook just long enough to heat it through. Add all the ingredients except the cheese and pasta to the crockpot and cook for 3-4 hours on high or until the chicken is cooked through. You can even cook the chicken breasts whole and shred it after cooking. About 30 minutes before it’s ready, stir in the cheese and pasta.
Sometimes this happens as different brands or shapes of pasta can cook differently. If the pasta absorbs all of the liquid in the sauce but is still crunchy, add another ¼ cup of broth to the sauce and let it finish cooking.
Your sauce is probably grainy because the sauce was too hot when you added the cottage cheese. Be sure to reduce the heat and wait for it to stop simmering before you stir in the blended cottage cheese.
More Healthy Buffalo Chicken Recipes
If you tried this Buffalo Chicken Pasta recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you go in the 📝 comments below.
Buffalo Chicken Pasta Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb Chicken Breast, boneless skinless, cut into ½-3/4 inch pieces
- ½ tsp Garlic Powder
- ½ tsp Onion Powder
- ½ tsp Cayenne Pepper
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- 8 oz. Whole Wheat Penne, or gluten-free penne
- 15 oz. Diced Tomatoes, canned with juices
- 1 ½ cups Chicken Broth, low sodium
- ½ cup Cottage Cheese, blended smooth (or plain Greek yogurt)
- ¼ cup Hot Sauce
- ½ tsp Worcestershire Sauce
- ½ cup Light Monterey Jack Cheese
- 2 Green Onions, sliced
Instructions
- Heat the olive in a large and deep skillet over medium heat. While the pan warms, combine the chicken in mixing bowl with the garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper and salt. Toss together to coat the chicken.
- Add the chicken to the skillet and brown on all sides. The chicken just needs to be lightly cooked at this point – do not cook all the way through.
- Add the penne, diced tomatoes with liquid and broth to the skillet with the chicken. Stir to combine, breaking up the browned bits from the chicken on the bottom of the skillet.
- Cover the pot with the lid and bring the heat to high to simmer. Cook until most of the liquid has been absorbed, stirring once or twice throughout, always covering.
- Once the pasta is al dente and a small amount of liquid remains, reduce the heat to medium-low. Stir in the blended cottage cheese along with the hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Cook 5 minutes to warm.
- Add the cheese and stir into the sauce until melted. Top with sliced green onions and serve.
Notes
- Be sure you shred your own Monterey Jack cheese so it melts evenly and has the best texture. Pre-shredded cheese just doesn’t melt the same way.
- Reduce the heat and wait for the sauce to stop simmering before you stir in the cottage cheese to avoid it from curdling and turning grainy.
- If you use chickpea pasta, I recommend cooking it in a separate pot from the meal as it does not cook the same as whole wheat.
- Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I love your crockpot buffalo chicken recipe and was excited when I saw this one. Made it right away and it didn’t disappoint. Definitely a keeper!