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Creamy Cheesy Chicken and Chorizo Pasta!
This White Sauce Chicken and Chorizo Pasta came to be because one day I didn’t know what to make for lunch, and I wanted something special for a Saturday lunch.
I quite literally just used what I had in my fridge to make this the first time. I had some cooked chicken breast from the previous night’s dinner, so that saved some time to get this pasta ready! I was craving a creamy white sauce, so I prepared my classic Béchamel Sauce. I needed to finish some cream cheese, so I elevated that white sauce by adding in some mozzarella cheese and cream cheese! I sautéed some chorizo with onions and whipped up some garlicky spinach. I tossed in some penne pasta and added all these components in and there we go! An incredible lunch!
The only thing missing from that first time was mushrooms! Mushrooms will add so much extra body, and who doesn’t love a creamy pasta with mushrooms? I feel they’re integral!
If you’ve followed the blog for awhile, you may have seen my classic Creamy Mushroom Pasta with Veggies. That white sauce pasta has a special place in my heart since that’s the first pasta dish I’ve ever mastered way back when as a kiddo! But this version is perfect for those craving some meat in their white sauce pasta! The spinach also adds a great flair to your pasta!
I don’t know about you but I always love a good creamy chicken pasta recipe! This creamy chicken penne pasta with mushrooms and chorizo is bound to become a new favourite if you’re seeking out the perfect comforting weeknight dinner! I love the spicy chunks of chorizo in here, and the chicken and mushrooms really add some incredible body. This is so easy to do and you can easily make a big batch of this pasta if you’re serving a crowd!
Ready to get cooking? Let’s get to it!
Tips for an Excellent White Sauce Chicken and Chorizo Pasta
- For the chicken, you can use leftovers from Thanksgiving (at the time of writing this American Thanksgiving just passed!), rotisserie chicken, or cook up some chicken in the air fryer or poach it. It doesn’t matter if your chicken has dried out because it will be shredded!
- Save time by sautéing the mushrooms and spinach in the same pot as you did with the chorizo and onions!
- Don’t overcook your spinach so that you don’t lose the lovely green color!
- Add salt into your pasta water!
- Make sure you use a large enough pan to make your béchamel sauce so that you can fit all the pasta and toppings when you combine all the ingredients in the sauce!
- When making the béchamel sauce, use COLD milk to ensure you have a smooth sauce.
- To adjust the consistency of the pasta sauce, use the reserved pasta water for additional flavor.
- Turn off the heat after adding the mozzarella cheese and the cream cheese so that the mixture stays gooey and you get nice cheesy pulls!
Ingredients for White Sauce Chicken and Chorizo Pasta
Let’s go over the ingredients we need for our Béchamel Sauce and for the pasta itself. Remember to scroll to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD so you can save this recipe for later! This recipe is awesome because you can easily scale all of the ingredients based on how much pasta you want to make!
FOR the BÉCHAMEL SAUCE
- Butter. Used to sauté the flour.
- All purpose flour. With butter and cold milk, they create the rue.
- Cold milk. Cold milk is crucial to get a perfectly smooth sauce! Cold milk will help ensure that there are no lumps in your sauce.
- Ground nutmeg. Optional, but adds a wonderful nuttiness to our sauce. A little bit of freshly ground nutmeg goes a long way! For me it’s an essential ingredient!
- Salt and pepper. To taste.
- Mozzarella: Used to thicken the sauce and make it nice and gooey! You can substitute or use a combination of cheddar cheese, gouda, or Monterey Jack!
- Cream cheese: This is an extra special goodie to make our béchamel sauce super creamy without adding cream!
FOR the PASTA
- Pasta: For this recipe I’m using penne pasta. You could also use other tubed pasta shapes fusilli, rigatoni, ziti or macaroni. You could use a long shape like spaghetti if you want, but I find the tube shapes absorb this creamy sauce really well, and you can even find some chorizo pieces inside your pasta! Those bites are so delicious!
- Olive oil: We’ll use some olive oil to sauté our chorizo and onions with. Then, we’ll add our spinach and mushrooms into that pan and use the leftover oil to sauté those.
- Onion: I’m using thinly sliced red onions. They’ll add a nice sweetness to balance out the saltiness of the chorizo, and the incredible flavors will seep into our pasta!
- Mushrooms: You can use your favourite mushroom! Here I’m using white button mushrooms because that’s what I was in the mood for! If you have cremini mushrooms or any other kind of mushroom then go ahead and use it! We’ll be slicing our mushrooms here so it doesn’t really matter which mushrooms you use, just note that the flavours will be slightly different. The mushrooms will be added in when the spinach has shrivelled up.
- Chorizo sausage: I use Spanish chorizo sausage here. According to this article, apparently there’s a difference between Mexican chorizo and Spanish chorizo. I didn’t know that! I don’t even think I get Mexican chorizo at my grocery store, but just for your info there is a difference! I just like to get the spiciest kind.
- Chicken breast: I’m using boneless skinless chicken breast, but you could also use boneless skinless chicken thighs if you want. For this recipe, I pre-cooked my chicken breast simply seasoned with salt in the air fryer. You can also poach your chicken if you’d like. If you have leftover chicken from dinner the night before or if you have some rotisserie chicken, then you can definitely add that to this recipe! Any kind of plain chicken will work just fine.
- Spinach: I’m adding spinach here not only for the health benefits but because some sautéed spinach will nicely complement the creamy, cheesy sauce and our proteins! Can’t go wrong with some spinach pasta!
How to Make Creamy Chicken and Chorizo Pasta
FOR the BÉCHAMEL SAUCE
- Heat a pan on medium heat and add butter. Once the butter melts, mix in the flour and whisk for 2-3 mins until the rawness of the flour is cooked out. The rue will begin to smell nutty, which is a good indicator
- Pour in your milk, little bit at a time while whisking to work out any lumps. Once all your milk is mixed in, wait until your sauce starts to come up to a simmer.
- As soon as the sauce comes to a simmer, it will begin to thicken. Once the béchamel is thick enough to evenly coat the back of a spoon, season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.
- Add the shredded chicken to the sauce and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Add cream cheese and mix well to blend with the sauce.
- Add cheese, lower the heat and stir to melt the cheese. Set aside while you prepare the veggies and chorizo.
FOR the PASTA
- Bring water up to a boil and season with salt once boiling. Add pasta and cook until al dente.
- Reserve about 1/2 cup of pasta water to adjust consistency of sauce as required.
- In the meanwhile, heat up a pan/saucepan on medium heat and add olive oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add onions and saute for 1-2 minutes. Add the chorizo and continue cooking until onions have softened and chorizo is golden brown. Set aside once ready.
- In the same pot/saucepan add mushrooms and a pinch of salt and cook until mushrooms have lost most of their water content, reduced by about half in volume.
- Add chopped spinach and cook until the spinach wilts completely. Set aside for later and heat up the béchamel sauce if you already prepared it.
- Add the mushrooms, spinach, chorizo and onions to the sauce along with the cooked pasta. Mix well and serve hot.
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