Best Cheesy Chicken Zucchini Fettuccine

My life is so much easier when both of my kids love a one dish and that one of that one dish is this 30 minutes cheesy chicken zucchini fettuccine. This is a creamy cheesy moist fettuccini mixed with tender chicken breast and beautiful tasty squash called zucchini. It is just a one pot meal perfect for weeknight dinners.

Let me tell you what are the ingredients I used for this cheesy chicken zucchini fettuccine

1. Colby cheese:

I know this sounds bit not right for “quick and easy” but I used “Colby block” and I grated the cheese block at home. I know it is bit time consuming but somehow I kind of felt satisfied doing it at the same time, pre-shredded cheese has bit of extra additives. So I avoids those pre-shredded cheese because the anti-caking agents (like potato starch or cellulose) prevent the cheese from melting into that perfectly smooth, silky sauce we want for this fettuccine.

2. Fettuccine:

Fettuccine is a type of long, flat pasta. To be honest, pasta isn’t my native food because I am originally from Sri Lanka, but we are such big foodies that we’ve started to love it. It’s just so easy and quick to prepare, and of course, it’s very delicious. I usually boil a big batch of pasta and keep it in a ziplock bag for later. As a busy mum, this is a lifesaver! I find I can keep these in the fridge for about 4 days without them going off. When the kids are hungry, I just grab the bag and dinner is halfway done.

3. Chicken Breast:

In my opinion, Australian chicken breasts are the best—they stay so tender and have so much flavour when you cook them right. For this recipe, about 250g is plenty.

Here is my trick: I cut the chicken into strips and then slice them diagonally. I find that when you cut them on an angle like that, it creates more surface area so the chicken absorbs much more flavour and gets perfectly coated in that creamy, cheesy sauce.

4. Thickened cream:

We call it thickened cream here in Australia but some other part of the world it is called heavy cream or cooking cream or whipping cream, they all the same, you can use any of those. You cant find thickened cream, you can whisk and egg add a 1/2 cup milk into it and mix well.

A quick tip for working with Thickened Cream: This is a very rich dairy product that gets thick and dense very quickly when you heat it. My advice is to work with medium heat and only for a short time. If you let it bubble for too long or get too hot, the sauce can become ‘gooey’ or heavy. Just a gentle heat is all you need for that perfect creamy finish

5. Cracked Black Pepper:

This is the heart of the dish. The aroma and the heat of the cracked black pepper is really nicely pair with this cheesy chicken fettuccine.

here is something about the combination of creamy cheese and black pepper that I have solely enjoyed since the very first day I started eating pasta. It’s a simple mix, but it’s so comforting. I always use a lot of freshly cracked black pepper because it cuts through the richness of the Colby cheese. When you mix them together, it creates this deep, warm flavor that makes the whole house smell amazing.

6. Zucchini:

Zucchini is a great vegetable to use because it has a high moisture content and a beautiful color, but the taste isn’t too strong. This makes it perfect for picky eaters—like my teens!

I actually grated the zucchini into the dish. It blends into the sauce perfectly, so they don’t even notice it’s there, but it adds such a nice texture and extra goodness to the meal.

Please find below is the recipe and the cooking instruction on how cooked the cheesy chicken zucchini fettuccine pasta