Jos Little Life

July 24, 2026

     There are many things to call this chicken, some I can’t repeat here, but the most popular one I know is marry me chicken. It is called this because apparently it is the love potion of supper dishes. I’m married so I don’t know what this would’ve done to my relationship while my husband and I were dating, but I can confirm he knew he had made the right decision when I made this for the first time! 

    Not only are there a couple names for marry me chicken,  but there are a couple of different ways to make it. The standard of marry me chicken is some kind of chicken with a creamy parmesan and tomato sauce. Also, when you look up the recipe it will usually show you how to make it by itself along with a few side recommendations. However, this one will fully incorporate the marry me chicken into a pasta, instead of a marry me chicken with a side of noodles. 

    To start my marry me chicken, I first cook my chicken breasts in a pan with about a tablespoon of olive oil. While I am cooking my chicken, I season it with salt, pepper, minced garlic, basil, and thyme. Once my chicken is cooked all the way through I take it off of my pan and set it off to the side. While my chicken is cooking, I also start boiling a pot of water seasoned with plenty of salt to make my noodles. Once my water is boiling I cook my penne according to the time on the box or until they are cooked all of the way through. Before I strain them, I save about 1/2 cup of the pasta water for my sauce later. After they are strained I return my noodles to the pot but take the pot off of the heat and mix some butter into the noodles so that they don’t stick together or to the bottom of the pot. 

    When my noodles and chicken are done I get going on the magic part of this dish. First I thinly slice half an onion and put them in the pan that is still hot from cooking the chicken. If needed I will add more olive oil to the pan. When my onions are just barely caramelized I add in some finely chopped mushrooms and cook them until they are just barely brown. Next, I pour in my pasta water, chicken broth, heavy cream, sun dried tomatoes with a little bit of their oil, and let that simmer until it just barely starts to thicken. You can use normal diced tomatoes if you don’t have sun dried on hand but sun dried just make this so much tastier and fancier! Besides this isn’t “good” chicken pasta, this is “MARRY ME” chicken pasta!

    Once my sauce has started to thicken but is still pretty watery I take it off of the heat and pour it over my noodles. I also cut my chicken breasts and put it into the pot with my noodles. Before I start to mix everything together, I add in my parmesan so it can melt into everything and toss it until everything is coated in my sauce. If it is too cold to melt the parmesan, I put the pot on a very low heat just to warm everything up a bit. If it starts to stick to the bottom or overcook add a little bit of butter or milk just to get some liquid back into your sauce but you shouldn’t need to if you didn’t overcook your sauce and you are keeping it on low enough heat. 

    Once you are done you can make some bacon to top it with for a little extra heaven but usually I just sprinkle a little extra parmesan on top before I serve it. This is honestly some of the best pasta I’ve ever had in my life! You can eat it by itself or with a tasty slice of homemade sourdough or with some garlic parmesan smashed potatoes. There’s almost no wrong way to do it! 

    What did you think of this recipe? Use the comment section below!